THE BRIGHT SIDE

• Shortly after the Hurricanes opened the scoring, @Leon Draisaitl came to the rescue with a tying goal (1-1) after Jujhar Khaira found him at the side of the net with some space to shoot at. Draisaitl had a little bit of room on the glove side and it was all he needed to bury his 34th goal of the season and even the game up at one apiece. As usual, Draisaitl was fantastic again today as he added another three points to his mindboggling totals as he continues to run away with the NHL’s scoring lead. M-V-P! M-V-P! M-V-P!
• After falling behind on the scoreboard for the second time, it was @Kailer Yamamoto’s turn to tie things up with a powerplay goal that came from a quick snapshot in the slot that took a couple of friendly bounces before finally crossing the goal line.
• Only 28 seconds after Yamamoto tied things up, @Josh Archibald took a sweet pass from Tyler Benson at full speed that left him alone on James Reimer where he was able to roof the puck over the goalie’s right shoulder to give the Oilers their first lead of the day (3-2). Archibald wasn’t finished with one goal, though, as the tenacious one closed out the game in OT (4-3) with a slick little move that James Reimer just couldn’t handle. If I were a betting man, I’d put something down on Ken Holland re-signing Josh Archibald soon because he’s the kind of bottom-six player that any team would love to have.
• Back between the pipes for his 30th start of the 2019-20 season, @Mike Smith was looking to build on a fantastic performance on Thursday night against the Tampa Bay Lightning and I was hoping that he’d be able to do it again. While I wouldn’t say that it was a perfect game for Smith, he made the saves needed to outduel his opponent and close out a win which is exactly what you want from your goaltender. Smith was especially great in OT as he made some massive stops, including a breakaway by Sebastian Aho that was immediately followed by Archibald’s game winner. Smith finished the day with 28 saves and a .903 save%.
• A huge shout out goes to @Tyler Benson for collecting his first NHL point on Josh Archibald’s second period marker.
• @Oscar Klefbom played a monstrous 30:57 today to go along with an assist, two shots on goal, two blocks, and a hit. That’s a hell of a game for a guy that also played some big minutes yesterday.
• After striking out yesterday in Florida, the Oilers’ powerplay got back on the scoresheet today (1/3) with a timely goal in the second period that they needed to tie things up.
• Not to be outdone, the penalty killers also excelled as they were able to kill off all three chances they faced, including a pair of massive kills in the third period to maintain the one-goal lead.

THE FACE PALMERS

• Trevor Van Riemsdyk got the Hurricanes on the board (1-0) with his first goal of the season only 12 seconds into the opening frame after he deflected a point shot as it was making its way through traffic to beat Mike Smith low to the glove side.
• I’m going to go ahead and suggest that allowing @Sebastian Aho to have a breakaway with time to dangle is probably a bad idea, right? Anybody disagree? No, I didn’t think so. Aho added a second goal late in the third period to tie the game up (3-3) after he found a little bit of space in the slot as a result of some shoddy defending and hammered home the centering pass through Smith’s legs.
• Refs were weird again, and I say that on behalf of both teams. Consistently inconsistent?
• I’m going to mention the fact that the Oilers won only 41% of the faceoffs because I’m a faceoff guy, but I’m not going to make a big deal of it.
• It was game four of the McDavidless era and I still don’t like it.
• I also don’t like that we have to cheer for the Ducks to beat the Canucks tonight. *shudders*

SCORING SUMMARY

#GOODCONTENT

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