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The Day After 61.0: Small mistakes cost Edmonton Oilers in 3-2 loss to Boston Bruins

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Photo credit:Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
Zach Laing
1 year ago
Two points would’ve been great, but we’ll settle for Connor McDavid scoring his 50th further showing why the Edmonton Oilers need more run support.
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We knew it would be a tough game. The Boston Bruins are, after all, the best team in the league this season and it’s not particularly close. After closing out the Oilers 3-2 last night, the Bruins now sit with a… *checks notes* … 11-point lead for the President’s Trophy.
So yeah, tough matchup for any team in the league. But credit where it’s due — the Oilers, for the most part, played a damn fine game. For the Oilers, however, it was once again the Connor McDavid show. He opened the scoring for the Oilers just 2:17 into the game taking a stretch pass that Leon Draisaitl fired near the Oilers’ goalline all the way up the ice. A few quick strides and the puck was off his stick and into the net. Goal 49.
The problem? All of 13 seconds later, Tomas Nosek was left alone in front of the net and he was able to tie it up at 1. Yeah, not great. It started with a lazy push of the puck around the boards from Darnell Nurse to Vincent Desharnais that landed like a grenade, and with both defencemen tied up, Klim Kostin didn’t crash down hard enough defensively.
At 15:06, it was another defensive lapse that cost the Oilers. Nick Foligno gained the zone with Charlie Coyle as Brett Kulak and McDavid defended. Foligno passed off to Coyle and both McDavid and Kulak bit, allowing Foligno a clean break onto the Oilers net. McDavid committed on the pass, and so did Kulak, but the latter needed to cover Foligno.
Come the second, McDavid scored his 50th of the year assisted by Klim Kostin, who corraled a puck in the offensive zone and found the Oilers captain. With 30 seconds left in that period, Pavel Zacha would score the game-winner on a fluky play in front.

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The big story of the night was obviously McDavid scoring his 50th of the season in just his 61st game. What’s even more impressive is it marked four straight games where the superstar scored two goals in a game (he’s got 13 points over that stretch, too). Brilliance.
To catch you up at home, McDavid is now up to 50 goals and 115 points in 61 games this year. He has 26 more points than the second-placed Leon Draisaitl (89), 30 more points than the third-placed Nikita Kucherov (85) and 35 points more than the fourth-placed David Pastrnak. Simply put, McDavid’s really, really good.
For the Oilers, a tough stretch of games continue Wednesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs before a home-and-home set against the Winnipeg Jets Friday and Saturday.

Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.

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