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Maple Leafs 6, Oilers 4 post-game Oil Spills: Seeing blue
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Photo credit: © Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
Cam Lewis
Dec 1, 2017, 13:35 ESTUpdated: Dec 2, 2017, 14:03 EST
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It’s always a good time when the Leafs and Oilers play. The two teams engaged in a wild barnburner last night with non-stop action back and forth. Edmonton, without Adam Larsson and Cam Talbot, struggled early but showed some resilience, battling back from multiple deficits, but Toronto ultimately came out on top 6-4.

Highlights

The Leafs jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead, but this seemed like a turning point for the Oilers. Patrick Marleau had a prime chance to give Toronto a 3-0 lead just 10 minutes into the game but Laurent Brossoit absolutely robbed him.
A couple minutes after, Mark Letestu got the Oilers on the board. JJ Khaira battled down low and stripped the puck from the Leafs defender and set up Letestu in the slot for the quick shot.
The Leafs scored to make it 3-1, but the fourth line battled back in the second period. Khaira got the puck behind the net and found Zack Kassian out front for the tap in.
The Oilers got the game tied with a few minutes to go in the second period when Connor McDavid deflected a nice pass/shot from Kris Russell at the side of the net. Unfortunately, it was short lived as William Nylander gave the Leafs a 4-3 lead after Eric Gryba took a terrible penalty under a minute later.
But the Oilers battled back again. Kris Russell took a feed from Darnell Nurse and unleashed a bomb I have never seen from him during his tenure as an Oiler. This was a gorgeous goal, the pass, the shot, the screen in front.
And then… this happened. With a minute to go and the game seemingly destined for a three-on-three overtime, Russell blasted one into his own net. Patrick Marleau got a shot on goal, Brossoit kicked it out, and Russell, battling with Nazem Kadri, tried to fire the puck into the corner, but ended up putting it right between Brossoit’s legs.
It was an absolutely heartbreaking way to end this game. The team did a great job battling back and Russell played likely his best game ever as an Oiler.

By the numbers

The Leafs really took it to the Oilers in the first period, putting up 31 shot attempts to Edmonton’s 23 and dominating the high danger chance clock nine to four. But in the second half of the game, Edmonton started to wake up. In the second and third periods, the Oilers had 46 shot attempts while the Leafs had only 32. That said, the Leafs still managed to get high quality chances, putting up nine high danger chances in the second and third in comparison to Edmonton’s eight. All told, Edmonton had 69 even strength shot attempts, 41 even strength shots on goal, and 12 even strength high danger chances while Toronto had 63 shot attempts, 34 shots, and 18 high danger chances.

Thoughts…

  • It’s frustrating that the Oilers came out and laid an egg early on yet again. They did that against the Coyotes and Cam Talbot was able to keep them in the game. But you can’t do that against a team that’s #ActuallyGood like Toronto. That said, the Oilers battled back from multiple deficits, which was certainly a positive. In other games this year, the team looks completely dejected when down by a couple goals, but they battled back from down 2-0 and 3-1 and seemed to get better as the game went on.
  • Laurent Brossoit allowed some soft goals, but had a very good effort to keep the Oilers in the game. The blueline without Adam Larsson didn’t make life very easy on him at times, but Brossoit made multiple huge saves to keep the Oilers from going down by three goals. I wouldn’t say it was a great performance overall, but it was a gritty one from Edmonton’s netminder in a difficult circumstance.
  • Kris Russell played likely his best game as an Oiler last night. He logged 24 minutes of ice time as the Oilers were essentially rolling with four defencemen and scored a beautiful goal to knot the game up at 4-4 in the third period. It’s really unfortunate that he ended up being the goat after scoring that own goal to give the Leafs the win because his performance otherwise in the game was excellent.
  • Eric Gryba’s penalty at the end of the second period was a back breaker. Honestly, that boarding penalty immediately after the Oilers tied the game was worse than Russell’s own goal. This is a different game if the Oilers go into the third period tied 3-3. Speaking of penalties, Connor McDavid draws way fewer penalties than he should. And that isn’t on him. He gets slashed and hooked relentlessly and seldom do the refs bother to call it. That’s very odd to me because you’d think the league would want to protect its young stars.
  • The fourth line had a gem of a game last night, chipping in with a couple goals and playing hard in the offensive zone. Jesse Puljujarvi looked good alongside Connor McDavid as he led the team with seven shots on goal. Leon Draisaitl was completely invisible all game.

Post Game

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