THE BRIGHT SIDE

• Mark Letestu scored his first power play goal of the year at a time when the Oilers desperately needed one. Edmonton was down by three goals and Letestu got greasy in front of the net and was able to bang home a loose puck in the crease.
• Ryan Strome scored his first goal with the Edmonton Oilers as he perfectly deflected a Jussi Jokinen pass that beat Cam Ward in off the post. In case you’re counting, Ryan Strome now has more goals than Jordan Eberle… sorry, I had to do it. Two point night for Strome and a night that he definitely needed.
• Milan Lucic scored his first goal of the season after following the play and smashing home a loose puck that was basically put on a tee for him right in the high slot. Cam Ward certainly would want that one back but it was a heavy shot that beat him through the arm and body.
• Kailer Yamamoto had another strong game tonight and was rewarded with his second NHL assist on Mark Letestu’s power play marker. Yamamoto made some nice reads and solid decisions in what I thought was his best game as an Oiler so far.
• Brad Malone had a solid game after being recalled from Bakersfield. He drew a couple penalties and did a good job of knowing his role and executing on what he was supposed to do. He banged, crashed, and got to the dirty areas on the ice. Nice season debut for Malone.
• Edmonton has struggled on the power play so far this season but they were able to get a couple of PP goals tonight. The Oilers finished the night at 2/7 with the man advantage which isn’t good enough but it’s a start.
• The Oilers dominated the shot clock and won the Corsi. Normally, you’d think that firing 51 shots on net would be a good thing but you have to get a save or two to make it count.
• 60% in the faceoff circle tonight. Nice improvement happening there.

THE FACE PALMERS

• Teemu Teravainen opened the scoring 20 seconds into the game. As far as starts go, this one couldn’t have gotten much worse. Absolutely gross. Teravainen followed that up with his second goal of the game only a few minutes later and the Hurricanes were up by two goals before the Oilers had even gotten a shot on net. Did I mention how gross the start was?
• Elias Lindholm scored the Hurricanes’ second power play goal of the night which was a third kick to the balls that Oilers fans suffered in the first period. It was an ugly 20 minutes.
• Shout out to Milan Lucic and Oscar Klefbom for combining on that horrible play at the blue line which resulted in a shorthanded goal for Jordan Staal.
• Another round of poor defensive positioning led to Slavin being able to walk down the left side of the ice untouched and in alone on Brossoit. Slavin’s goal was the second straight Hurricanes goal that was put in quickly after the Oilers scored, completely derailing their comeback attempt.
• Why are the Oilers flying their defensive zone so early? I counted at least a half dozen times that the forwards were completely gone before the puck had even been broken out and it caused either turnovers or broken plays. Those are small details that need to get fixed like yesterday.
• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins left the game after Justin Faulk threw out his knee, early in the third period. Nuge was slow to get up and went to the dressing room immediately. Fortunately for the Oilers, RNH returned to the bench only a few minutes later. That would have been salt in the wound.
• Not a great start for Laurent Brossoit but it’s hard to blame him completely for the trainwreck that happened tonight, especially early on. That said, he allowed some really tough goals at critical times and it gave the Hurricanes the counter punches they needed to coast to victory. I don’t know what the answer is in net right now but the Oilers need to find it. LB finished the night with 16 saves and a .762 save%.
• Not a great night for a lot of guys but it really wasn’t Pat Maroon’s night. Patty got two questionable penalties, missed a breakaway, and look generally out of sorts from what we’re used to. I assume he’s going to be mad at himself after this one.
• The penalty kill was bad again tonight, allowing two goals on five Carolina chances. I mean, how many power play goals do the Oilers plan on giving up before they pull their heads out of their own asses?
• I’ve written the same thing in every Wrap Up so far, but I guess I’ll have to keep repeating myself until the Oilers can figure out how to stay out of the penalty box. STOP. TAKING. SO. MANY. PENALTIES.
• The NHL site had the Oilers with 15 giveaways but I think that’s about half of what the real number was.
• How does Drew Remenda think that bringing up the 2006 loss is a good idea? Not only that, I’m pretty sure he mentioned it a few times. He’s the worst.

SCORING SUMMARY

#GOODCONTENT

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