Edmonton Oilers Lose Man On Grassy Knoll In Dallas

The Edmonton Oilers matched up pretty well Thursday night, against one of the best teams in the NHL. But in the end, despite being yet another man down and pushing Dallas hard in the 3rd Period, the Oilers came up just short, 3-2.

9 Things:

9. The in-house 3-Stars in Dallas were all from the home team, in a 3-2 game. Why do they even bother handing these out any more? What a joke.

8. This was a close game, a gritty effort for a team decimated by injury at the end of a tough trip. Possession stats were dead even from beginning to end (shots on goal was not an accurate indicator tonight), Grade “A” chances (including 3 posts) looked even, and the Edmonton Oilers out-hit the Stars 23-18.

7. I won’t spend a lot of time yakking on the Edmonton Oilers defence tonight, after all they played 5 deep for much of the night. But we again saw cracks forming in the D-core, including a bad attempted clearing pass by Justin Schultz on the 1st goal, and another errant clearing attempt by Mark Fayne on the 2nd Stars goal. Etc.

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6. Andrej Sekera played a whale of a game Thursday. His Corsi, while not always a great indicator for defencemen in particular, was a spectacular 62%, in a tremendous effort after Brandon Davidson went down with yet another injury. Sekera shouldered a team-high 24:41 TOI, moved the puck well, and had 3 shots.

5. It’s fair to debate how Todd McLellan used his bench, tonight. When trailing 3-1 in a close game, how exactly DO you defend playing Taylor Hall only 17:58? That was only good for 10th best on the team. Now, the team DID play a fair chunk of the game with just 5D, but the question remains a fair one.

4. Nail Yakupov sure faced a lot of criticism from some, after the Tampa Bay game. The funny thing about that…he had been one of the team’s best skaters prior to that, and since returning from injury. I thought the amount of vitriol directed at him was unwarranted. Tonight? 14:25 TOI, 2 shots, a goal…oh yeah…led all forwards in 5×5 Corsi at an even 60%.

3. The Edmonton Oilers best line tonight, by a decent margin, was the Iiro Pakarinen, Mark Letestu, Zack Kassian unit. They did a lot of heavy lifting in their own end, and on more than one occasion, they created good energy, puck possession, zone time and scoring chances at the other end. Both Pakarinen and Kassian are making strong cases for roster spots next season.

2. I mentioned it earlier, but Brandon Davidson appeared to suffer a leg injury on a rather innocent play in his own zone. He was slow going off, stayed on the bench for a short stretch, then had to be helped to the room…after just 8:37 of work. Early word is that he will, at minimum, miss Saturday night’s home game against Nashville, the Edmonton Oilers last before the All-Star break. The Oilers lead the league in man games lost to injury, this season. They’re cursed, I tell ya. Cursed.

1. Matt Hendricks didn’t come away with much (visibly, at least) to show for his effort tonight, but it was one that surely even the harshest critic of this player would have to admire. Hendricks blocked a shot, point blank, with his…um…twigs & berries? Every male fan watching would have winced, along with the entire Edmonton Oilers bench. Yet, Hendricks (who would have been forgiven for calling it a night at that point) was back before the end of the 2nd Period and later threw himself in front of yet another shot. What a gamer. Lord, I hope they hang onto him at the deadline.

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I was not disappointed in that effort. A team with one of the worst records in the league took a team with one of the best record in the league, and pushed them right to the brink. And for once, the Oilers Power Play looked sharp. But “effort” and “sharp” do not equal “points”. The Edmonton Oilers remain 6 points out of that final playoff spot in the Pacific.

On the other hand…one more game, and Connor McDavid is back!

Glass half-full, friends. Glass half-full.

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