Santa’s Sunday Scaries: Penalty Kill, Battle of Alberta, and the Winnipeg Jets… Again.
By Kylie Salai
1 year agoWelcome back to Sunday Scaries, and though I wanted to start making them longer, it’s Christmas, so that will have to start next Sunday.
This week was, well, not great for our Oilers.
They gave up the extra point in a 4-3 loss to Nashville, where contrary to my very own beliefs, the Mayor of Nashville (Leon Draisaitl) himself, did not see the scoresheet. It was a close game, but a close game where we should have come out on top. The biggest highlight from that game was Puljujarvi finally scoring his second of the season, which hopefully shook that monkey off his back and he can get scoring for us more consistently. Campbell was mediocre again, but thankfully, so was Juuse Saros.
On Wednesday, for our office Christmas party, the Oilers managed a somewhat convincing win against the Dallas Stars and gave us something to celebrate. With scoring coming from up and down the lineup, it’s hard not to look at that and smile. My least favourite Oiler in Devin Shore was not playing, and I think this may simply be why we snapped our losing streak on Wednesday. The only other alternative is that our Oilersnation Staff had the drinks flowing, and good times going at the Christmas party. Baggedmilk was busting out the caesars, Kennedy and I were having a blast with our Schiddy vodka sodas, and I didn’t see Tyler with a drink but he was certainly having a pretty good time so I’m sure he got there somehow. Anyways, the game was great, the Christmas party was better, a win was exactly what we needed to top it all off, and for the only time this week and like it was specifically for us, the Oilers delivered.
Then we have the Canucks game. I wasn’t able to watch it, so I can’t speak too much about it, but from what I gather from Baggedmilk’s GDB Wrap up, it was not overly pretty to watch. Make it just another game the Oilers should’ve had in the bag, but managed to lose anyways. The whole team needed to be better heading into this Christmas break because now I look at the schedule and I see Calgary on Tuesday, Seattle on Friday, and the Jets on Saturday. Three winnable games, sure, but not at the rate the Oilers have been going this past week.
So look no further, here is this week’s…
SUNDAY SCARIES:
- Skinner is looking not his best, Campbell is also looking not his best. Skinner deserves a rest, and it’s been long enough that I personally need to start seeing proof of an upside in Campbell. We’re 35 games in and I still can’t pick out a game and say “yup, Campbell kept us in that one” or “Cambell stole that game for us”. I think, “Hopefully we can outscore however many goals are let in tonight”. Which is the last thing you want to be thinking about your brand new $5 million dollar goaltender.
- Yet again, the Winnipeg Jets. Last week I put no thought into being scared of them, I just thought damn, they’re playing really well this year, and we’re going to have to see them at some point this season. Well, that time is almost here, and they’re 21-12-1, 9th in the league, and have Connor Hellebuyck in net. I’m looking at the head-to-head team stats and while they’re closer than I thought, it also leads me to my next fear.
- Our quite literally horrible penalty Kill. 26th in the league, at 72.3%. All I’ll say about this is that it NEEDS to be better if we want to make it to the postseason, let alone find success there.
- Last, but not least, The Battle of Alberta. These always scare me because I run my mouth like nobody’s business and while both teams are severely underperforming this year, and neither teams deserve bragging rights, I’m always terrified those rights will end up on the wrong side of Alberta. BUT we are manifesting a massive post-Christmas win, and a bounce-back game from the heavens to liven up this season because if a big game to bump us past Calgary in the Standings doesn’t do that… I’m not sure anything will.
Merry Christmas, Oilersnation!
I hope- for the first time in my life- to be wrong about all of my Sunday Scaries this week, and to have a positive Sunday Scaries for you in the new year!!
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