32 seconds into the game derick brassard tips an evan bouchard shot home! 1-0 oilers.
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Clips and Quotes: Defence unavailable as Edmonton Oilers lose 9-5 to Calgary Flames
Photo credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports
By Zach Laing
Mar 27, 2022, 01:19 EDTUpdated: Mar 27, 2022, 01:46 EDT
Well, let’s not do that again. Final Score: 9-5.
On a night where the Edmonton Oilers were able to put up five, they gave up nine — all at even-strength. It was an electric night to say the least, but the Oilers made it ever-so-hard on themselves. I have the Wrap Up here.
The Clips
milan lucic lays the body on leon draisaitl but ends up getting the worst of it 👀
this pass from leon draisaitl feels illegal
the oilers let elias lindholm get behind the defence and find out that it's a bad time. calgary ties it up at 1.
uh oh! darnell nurse kicks one into his own net and then kailer yamamoto leave backlund all alone in front. flames take a 3-1 lead.
leon draisaitl sneaks in behind the defence in thanks to a ryan nugent-hopkins pass and the german makes it count! flames still lead 3-2.
another look at the hit.
leon again! he controls the front of the net on the powerplay and chips one in. 3-3 tie early in the second.
the oilers somehow regress to the swarm defence and like 10 years ago, it doesn't work well. 4-3 flames.
ping! ryan nugent-hopkins goes bardown and this game is tied up at 4-4.
okay this game is absolutely drunk. matthew tkachuk makes it 5-4 and mikko koskinen is getting pulled for mike smith.
oh boy. another defensive zone implosion with darnell nurse on the ice and it's a 6-4 game.
that's a ✨leon draisaitl hatty✨
jacob markstrom makes a massive save and the flames go down the other way and score. 7-5 flames.
i mean... i don't even know what to say at this point. 8-5 flames.
a little post-whistle scrum centering around mike smith and matthew tkachuk as things heat up in the 'dome.
flames make it a 9-5 game.
The Quotes
Zach Hyman
On the game: “We played bad, we played poorly. I think it was nine even-strength goals against, right? What did we have, three powerplay goals? So 9-2 at even-strength. Media is probably going to blame our goalies, but you can’t blame our goalies. We hung them out to dry. All-around poor performance.”
On where to go from here: “You regroup, right? I’s a one-off. you learn from it, you remember it. We’ll play these guys again. You learn from it. Like you said, we’ve been playing well before that. Just get back at it. you have no time to think about it. We’ll be ready for Monday.”
On if having a full lineup makes this loss more disappointing than the last one in Calgary: “It’s just disappointing because we didn’t show up. It’s not like we went out there and it was a great game and we came out on the short end of it. We didn’t show up, we didn’t play well. To a man, it’s hard to probably find someone who had a good game today. It’s poor all around and we’ll regroup.”
Hyman was asked about his comments on the performances of Smith and Koskinen, who had a combined .736 save percentage: “I don’t care who was in net tonight, there’s nine even-strength goals. Doesn’t matter. It’s not on our goalies, it’s on us.”
Jay Woodcroft
On the collapse of the Oilers’ 5×5 play: “Clearly not good enough. We went away from script, we went away from what our game plan was and we paid the price for it. Nine even-strength goals — not good enough.”
On people looking at the goaltending: “No, no, no, no, no. For me, we’re a team. We’re all in this together and there were a ton of breakdowns that lead to those goals against. Bottom line is to a man, all of us weren’t good enough tonight.”
On if having a full lineup makes this loss more disappointing than the last one in Calgary: “Well, I thought we’ve spent the last five weeks or so trying to improve certain areas of our game. I thought we got away from it tonight and we paid the price. That stings. Nine even-strength goals against, not good enough. We came into the Calgary Saddledome, a team that hardly gives up anything, we scored five goals. That should be enough to win a game. Tonight, it wasn’t about what we got, it’s about what we gave them.”
On what the Oilers learned: “We learned we have to stay with the style of play that lends us to be successful. I don’t think we played anywhere near towards that tonight. For me, we have things to work on as we move forward here. We understand tonight’s game was worth two points and we’re going to process it, we’re going to learn from it and we’ll be better come Monday night.”
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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