Edmonton Oilers Blown Away By Hurricanes

As soon as that puck went in on Anders Nilsson from behind the goal line, Wednesday night, I knew the Edmonton Oilers were in trouble.

Turns out I was right. 4-1 Hurricanes. Petty disappointing, huh?

9 Things:

9. On one hand, yes, the Edmonton Oilers lost to a bad hockey club tonight. But if you approach a game from that point of view for one second, you are sunk. And given the results that we witnessed Wednesday, it is hard to convince anyone that this was not the case. Inexecusable.

8. That might have been the worst game that I have seen Ryan Nugent-Hopkins play since he joined the Oilers. He was a principle culprit on 2 of Hurricanes “real” goals (not counting the empty netter), out-muscled by his man on on, failing to clear puck up the boards on another.

7. Funny. So many people said that bad 1st Hurricanes goal “ruined a good 1st Period” for the Edmonton Oilers. But I didn’t see it that way at all. I didn’t think they were sharp at any point, and when I check possession and scoring chances after the 1st, those numbers confirmed what my eyes saw.

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6. Cam Talbot has to (HAS to) start Friday’s game in Detroit. Anders Nilsson let in two softies tonight. But the back-breaker was that first one. It was no better and no worse than the one Talbot allowed against Calgary. And you could see the team slump immediately after that. It absolutely crushed their confidence, in him and in themselves. Todd McLellan has to address that.

5. If indeed Justin Schultz is ready to go in Detroit Friday night, then surely based on tonight, Griffin Reinhart is well on his way to Bakersfield. Reinhart had an opportunity to change his GM’s mind tonight, and utterly failed. His gaps were passive, he fought the puck, his lack of foot-speed was exposed, and he was turnstiles several times by one of the worst offensive teams in the league. Enough.

4. There is a chance Anton Lander will join Reinhart on the flight. When a play that has struggled mightily all season spends a night eating popcorn in the press box, you expect…expect…that he will come back with an excellent effort when re-inserted into the lineup. The result? Invisible. No goals. No points. No shots. No hits, in 11:34 of TOI.

3. On a night when it seemed as if absolutely nothing could go right, well…it didn’t. Right off a face-off, the linesman and Nail Yakupov got tangled up. As the linesman fell, he inexplicably grabbed Yakupov and pulled him awkwardly down along with him. Of course, how else would that turn out except for the Russian to come up limping. Yak didn’t return. It was just that kind of night. If it helps, it doesn’t sound as if the injury is a long-term one.

2. Taylor was the best of the Edmonton Oilers on the night, generating 4 shots in almost 21 minutes of TOI. In fact, he was almost the only Oiler to even show up. And while I mean that as a compliment, watching his effort in the 3rd Period was disturbingly reminiscent of what we have seen from him in past seasons, when he felt he had to do it all himself. And I don’t know about you…but I didn’t need to see that again. Honorable mention to Leon Draisaitl, who was chipped in on 10 scoring chances on the night.

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1. I wonder what a performance like this, against a team like Carolina, does to the mind-set of Peter Chiarelli? For much of this season, I could imagine Chiarelli calculating what move he could engineer to take a young, improving team to the next level. Tonight, I found myself wondering whether Chiarelli is instead deciding if there is an element or two of this team that needs to GO, in order to turn this around. I point fingers at no one, as no one player lost this game tonight. But this team is at a point now where a different type of medicine may be required, to sure what ails it.

Detroit next, Friday. And the Edmonton Oilers are now officially behind the 8-ball. They can’t repeat this performance, that’s for sure.

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