Edmonton Oilers Lose 2-1 Heart-Breaker In Phoenix

…and that’s the kind of year it’s been, for the Edmonton Oilers.

Losing with less than one second left on the clock? Sigh. I admittedly watched this game very differently, Tuesday night, following the coaching change. How much of this season is on the coach, and how much of it is on the players? Tuesday night showed a little bit of both. Having said all that, 9 Things:

9. Brad Hunt changes the complexion of this team’s Defence in a good way, when he’s in the lineup. His smart, short pass to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for the game’s first goal was the work of a confident offensive player, something this team is severely shy of, right now. I’d keep running him out there for a while. He’s certainly better than Keith Aulie.

8. The back-check. Luke Gazdic, who has been much better this year, was primarily responsible on the first goal, and Nugent-Hopkins was negligent on the Overtime goal, on a nearly identical play. I’m not the only one to pick up on that, surely, but I wonder if this is residual of “the swarm”? Could be.

7. Teddy Purcell. I was hard on Purcell after the Rangers game, and for good reason. Good on him for turning it around Tuesday night and playing a very effective defensive game. He was decent on offence as well, or at least as good as you could have been when your team scores just one goal. Showed me something.

6. Justin Schultz was a different player Tuesday, on offence. He moved the puck up the ice with urgency, and engineered a creative sortie deep into Coyote territory in overtime that very nearly won it for the good guys. His issues away from the puck remain, but he was much better in front of a coach he’s played great for in the past.

5. The coaches. I don’t mean to be snarky about this: I saw Oilers coaches talking behind the bench, against Phoenix. There was lots and lots and lots of communication, between Todd Nelson and Craig MacTavish, and between Nelson and the players. What does that result in? Greater engagement in the game. Positive.

4. At the risk of being a broken record, when your best player is not the best player on the ice, you won’t often win. Taylor Hall is just not operating at 100%. I’m positive some of that is physical, and that some of it is mental. But until Hall is back to being something resembling his old self, this will continue to be hard.

3. I think Todd Nelson has one chance to stick as head coach of this team, and that is to let his players have some fun playing with the puck. That’s the team that I remember seeing 2+ years ago, a club with a creative, enthusiastic attack. If he can elevate the game of some of these guys similar to when they played for him in OKC, Nelson will be in the conversation, at least.

2. Ben Scrivens was spectacular. Spectacular. This is 3 consecutive games that Scrivens has played good enough to win. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I count that as the best stretch of goaltending the team has received all season. If I’m Todd Nelson, I ask Dad for the keys, and by that I mean…convince MacT to let him run with #30 for a while.

1. The over-all offensive attack was quite a bit different, Tuesday, for the Oilers. There was no putting teammates offside, no ponderous zone entries, no dump-and-lack-of-chase. When there was a lane on a zone entry, the Oilers (mostly) took it. When there was not, they (usually) chipped it. You could see the Coyotes Defence start to stretch out. Less predictable attacks are way harder to defend against.

A single point, this deep into the Oilers season, is somewhat irrelevant. But often, toward the end of a losing streak, a team plays good enough to win but does not, and ends up winning one they don’t really deserve to, to snap a skid.

If Boyd Gordon is back against San Jose, it would be a massive boost against a team that the Oilers have proven they “can” beat.

That’s not a prediction, just an observation.