Edmonton Oilers Give Red Wings All They Can Handle
By Kurt Leavins
The 5-2 score in the Edmonton Oiler’s loss to Detroit Monday night was not at all indicative of the game, over-all, in which the Oilers really hung in there, right up until the final minute. The Red Wings had to pot 2 late empty netters, in order to put away the 29th team in the NHL, while being out-shot 38-26.
For this Oilers roster, in its current state, that is an acceptable push-back…after a shoddy effort in Carolina. 9 Things:
9. Oscar Klefbom was not the world-beater that he was against Chicago. But it was an acceptable bounce-back for the rookie rearguard. He finished the night at just under 20 minutes of TOI, and was Even. Yes, the Wings got behind him and Justin Schultz a couple times, but on one, Klefbom recovered quite nicely.
8. Martin Marincin, at times, hung on for dear life in Detroit. But all in all, the kid played much better tonight, in just a tick over 20 minutes of TOI. Look, when a 23 year old spends much of the night against Datsyuk and Zetterberg, and ends up
Even…you will take that. Every. Time.
7. I saw a lot of garbage thrown at Ben Scrivens, on Twitter tonight. I question the Eyes and Q’s of some. There wasn’t a goal that he would have “wanted back”. The PP goal at the start of the 2nd is Exhibit A: Both D backed in and surrendered the slot. NHL shooters score from there. Get over it.
6. Whereas Martin Marincin hung on, Jordan Oesterle did not. You see this often. Young players come up from the AHL and do well for a few games. But after a while, the pace and detail of the NHL game catches up with them. If Nikita Nikitin is ready to go, in Pittsburgh, Oesterle should go back to OKC.
5. The Edmonton Oilers needed a good start, against a veteran team like Detroit, and they did just that. The game was 10 minutes old before the Red Wings got their first shot on goal, and the Oilers peppered Jimmy Howard 14-7 in the opening frame. That’s why The Oilers were still in it with a minute left.
4. You don’t get 38 shots on the Red Wings without having had a pretty good night. What was missing was finish. Again, people, remember what this roster is missing right now: Taylor Hall. There’s a good chance your best player scores on one of those shots, and this is a 3-3 game headed to Overtime.
3. Craig MacTavish has been roundly criticized for his comments in his most recent media event. But one of them, at least, I have no problem with: Boyd Gordon, Matt Hendricks and Rob Klinkhammer are “a thing”, an extremely solid line heading into next year. Klinkhammer was excellent tonight. They were the Oilers best line.
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2. No hat trick tonight for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, but he was also facing superior competition: Pavel Datsyuk. That back-check in the 1st against #13 was a thing of beauty. Kelly Hrudy mocked righteous indignation when called on his “Nugent-Hopkins is a 3rd Line Center” comment. Now you know the truth: He was just upset that viewers caught his mistake.
1. Nail Yakupov had 6 shots, and a Power-Play goal on a bullet from the point, in 17:35 of TOI tonight. He was dangerous on a majority of shifts…again. And I loved how he stuck up for Roy, after he was cross-checked in the back. This kid has come so far. If I’m being honest, I had a certain amount of time for Dallas Eakins as coach of the Edmonton Oilers. But this is one player that he really screwed up on.
I hate the phrase “tanking” and everything that it stands for. I much, MUCH prefer what is actually going on right now: The Edmonton Oilers, badly depleted, putting even efforts in against very good NHL competition.
None of this is hurting the team’s Draft Lottery chances, but the team continues to make progress in some pretty important areas. And this rookie Coach is inspiring
his club to be better.
Bring on the Penguins.