THE BRIGHT SIDE

• Connor McDavid probably got asked about Sidney Crosby 8000 times today and it was great to see him do his most important talking on the ice. Connor scored a beautiful goal on a quick wrister to tie the game late in the third period. When the Oilers needed a goal it was their captain who came through.
• As much as everyone likes to turn these games into a contest between McDavid and Crosby, I’m always pumped to be able to watch two of the best players in the league going head to head.
• For the third straight game, Cam Talbot looked so much more like himself and it’s really nice to see. Actually, I’m not going to undersell this — it’s a Gord damned miracle. When he’s on his game, Talbot covers up a lot of mistakes and the Oilers desperately need that security blanket right now while they try to get back to a .500 record. Dadbot finished the game with 42 saves and a .955 save%.
• Leon Draisaitl was a sight for sore eyes, I’ll tell you that much. Having him back in the lineup easily added minutes to the total time that the Oilers spent on the attack and it was definitely welcomed. I was surprised how long McLellan left him off of Connor’s wing considering how badly the Oilers need offence right now.
• Adam Larsson had a quietly solid game. He makes sneaky defensive plays that do a good job of separating the opposition from the puck.
• Darnell Nurse has some huge balls for thinking that a scrap with Ryan Reaves was a good idea (or use of his time), but that’s exactly what happened in the first period. Props to Darryl for dropping the mitts with a big dude and trying to get his team going. As always, you can check out this fight over on Nurse’s fight page at Hockey Fights. Fight aside, Darryl had another good night as he seems to be taking a nice step forward with his development. I like seeing him jump into the rush when he has a chance, and I think it’ll pay off sooner than later.
• This was easily one of the Oilers’ best efforts of the season and they probably deserved more than just a point. And I know how much that sucks to read. Yes, they lost. They still got a point and hopefully take another step forward towards being a respectable hockey team. Yeah, yeah, “shut up” I know.

THE FACE PALMERS

• WHY CAN’T THE OILERS SCORE? It honestly doesn’t make sense.
• There is no way that Hornqvist should have been allowed to finish this game considering the bush league, chicken wing elbow that he threw on Kris Russell. If the NHL wants to do its part to eliminate concussions then that shit has to go.
• Ian Cole opened the scoring just under four minutes into the third period on a seeing-eye single from the blue line that beat Talbot high to the stick side.
• Phil Kessel beat Lucic in a footrace (durrr) going back towards the zone in overtime, and it gave him a wide-open shot on Talbot that ended up being the winner.
• Related: Not a fan of Lucic in a 3-on-3 situation.
• Anyone else noticing how often the Oilers miss the net? I swear they missed 200 shots tonight at least. No exaggeration probably.
• Kailer Yamamoto is snake bitten and we need to do something to rectify the situation. I don’t know if it’s making a sacrifice, a donation, or just plain praying but we need to do our part to get this monkey off his back. The guy has had all kinds of chances but just seems to come up an inch or two short. It’s unreal.
• Actually, since we’re talking about it, the Oilers aren’t having any scoring luck in general. How many chances did they have tonight that came right in the crease but they couldn’t bury any of them? Probably 200. I blame Gregor for saying that Murray wasn’t playing that well.
• I love Mark Letestu on the power play but not so much on Connor’s wing. The dept on the right side is piss poor and that’s forcing McLellan to either play Draisaitl on the right side or get creative with what’s left. Not a great situation.
• No points for you, Schultz! Take that, two time Cup guy! *sigh* Pointless jokes aside, Schultz didn’t finish the game and you hope the guy has a speedy return.
• The Oilers really needed their power play to come through tonight and it just didn’t happen. They had two big chances to score but they couldn’t get any luck despite generating some decent chances.

SCORING SUMMARY

#GOODCONTENT

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