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The Day After: Oilers run into red hot Thatcher Demko
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Photo credit: Bob Frid-USA TODAY Sports
Zach Laing
Mar 14, 2021, 09:00 EDTUpdated: Mar 14, 2021, 01:44 EST
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The Oilers came, they saw, and they left without a single point.
After winning three straight against the Ottawa Senators, who’ve struggled in the goaltending department this year, Edmonton ran into a red hot goalie in Vancouver Canucks netminder Thatcher Demko.
Through 60 minutes the Oilers played about as tight of a game as they could’ve. They were hard on pucks, won some battles, and got more than their fair share of pucks on the net. Alas, Thatcher Demko.
He stood tall in the net stopping 34 of the 35 shots he faced and 2.3 goals above expected, according to moneypuck.com.
“First period we were solid,” said head coach Dave Tippett. “I’d like to see us be more direct (to) win a hard game on the road.
“You’ve got to get the puck on the net. You’d like to see them bear down on chances, see if you can get a lead. We did some things alright, had some chances, but we didn’t win. We got to come here with the mindset ‘we have to do whatever it takes to win’ and we didn’t do it here tonight.”
It’s a game the Oilers really deserved to have won. They put 70 shot attempts towards the net, controlling 54.26% of those throughout the game, all the while controlling 54.11% of the games expected goals.
Vancouver did get spotted an early goal that Tippett said he would’ve liked to have seen blown dead. While the referees told the Oilers coach they could see the puck all before Bo Horvat shoved it into the net, it’s a play he would’ve liked to have seen them blow dead.
“I’ve been around the game a long time,” said Tippett, “(and) eight or nine out of 10 times that gets blown down. I guess tonight it wasn’t.
“They said it wasn’t covered up, it banged around there and it ended up in our net. It just should’ve been blown down, it was covered up a number of times.”
Edmonton pushed back hard all game, but couldn’t beat a hot goaltender. Sometimes that’s just the way the game goes.
The Oilers will now prepare for a tough stretch playing four games over the next six days. Edmonton heads to Calgary for games Monday and Wednesday against a new look Flames under Darryl Sutter, before coming home to Edmonton to take on the surging Winnipeg Jets twice. Nothing will come easy for these Oilers.

Backhanders…

  • Tippett’s right on the first goal and it’s frustrating. There wasn’t any clear goalie interference, but I have no idea how the referee was able to keep track of that puck the whole time it was under there. There were some ticky-tack calls that bothered me all night.
  • The Bakersfield Condors continue rolling. They had a 4-3 OT win that featured Cooper Marody scoring a hat trick and Ryan McLeod scoring the game winning goal. Those Condors currently have three played in the top 10 in AHL scoring: Marody (11gp, 12g, 7a, 19 pts, 1st), Tyler Benson (11gp, 4g, 12a, 16 pts) and McLeod (13gp, 6g,8a, 14pts). Among qualified AHL goalies, Stuart Skinner is first in wins (8), first in shutouts( 2), sixth in save percentage (.937), fourth in GAA (1.70) and fourth in minutes played (599:48).
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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