Edmonton Oilers Battle Bolts To Brink, Lose 6-4

The Edmonton Oilers looked like a team playing the 2nd of back-to-back road games. That’s not a harsh criticism, really, as they stayed in this one right down to the last 20 seconds or so.

But the Oilers committed a number of mental errors that resulted in Tampa Bay goals, and their goaltender surrendered a number of easy ones. Marks for not tossing their arms up in the air and surrendering.

But a loss is a loss. 9 Things:

9. Anders Nilsson cost his team at least a point tonight, with 2 goals that had no business going in. One was a mile high puck, where he failed to find his crossbar and the puck was tapped in behind. The other was a terrible decision to try to beat Brian Boyle to a puck on the PP. He is ice-cold. Laurent Brossoit?

8. I normally have a lot of time for Steven Stamkos. But he got away with a dangerous play this evening, a filthy slew-foot on Zack Kassian which should have been a major penalty and should be looked at by the league. But I’m willing to bet it never sees the inside of the NHL office. Lets wait and see.

7. Brad Hunt had a chance to stick in Edmonton as a 7D and PP specialist. But he has made nothing of that opportunity. When he has had the puck in the offensive zone, he has not been nearly greedy enough, and has failed to get that shot of his through. To make matters worse, he blew a tire on Tampa’s 1st goal.

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6. Iiro Pakarinen continues his run of excellent play, with 3 more shots tonight, including his 4th goal of the season. Pakarinen is one of the few Edmonton Oilers who skates right through his checks, and is hard on the puck. He continues to earn ice time, and may soon be getting an apartment in Edmonton.

5. One might have expected Zack Kassian to tail off, a few games in, given the relative state of his conditioning. But tonight was his best results yet. He played just shy of 15 minutes of TOI, potting his first goal as a member of the Edmonton Oilers, and adding assist on the Draisaitl goal. Calm & collected in his own zone as well, Kassian appears to be a complete player. The game’s 3rd Star.

4. I felt bad for Leon Draisaitl, who tripped and fell in the final seconds, leading to the empty net goal. But the big German was awfully good tonight. He played a whopping 18:22, had 3 shots and a high-light reel goal off a spectacular feed from Taylor Hall. And while his face-off percentage dipped below 40%, 4 losses were in the neutral zone, and he was 75% in his own end. Solid game.

3. Todd McLellan has a history of coaching teams with really good Power Plays. And he doesn’t suffer from a shortage of offensive talent with the Edmonton Oilers. So why does this man advantage struggle so mightily? That’s a rhetorical question, really, I know the reasons why and no doubt as a smart hockey fan, you do too…there are numerous issues. But it’s costing them precious points.

3. Brandon Davidson played just a whale of a game on Tuesday night. He played just shy of 20 minutes, was +3, and was an absolute beast against the Tampa cycle on the evening. He spent most of the night with Justin Schultz as well, which can be a bit of an assignment for any D-partner. Mark Fayne was o.k, again, too, but Davidson was the Edmonton Oilers best on this night.

1. Mental errors (call the coverage errors if you like, but those are usually mental errors) plagues this team tonight. On the 1st Tampa goal, Justin Schultz wandered away from his net-front assignment…Bam…goal. On the 2nd Tampa goal, both Anton Lander and Taylor Hall mis-communicated on an assignment, plus Eric Gryba was MIA. Then on the 4th Bolts goal, Teddy Purcell watched the puck instead of his man, who scored seconds later. Add in the 2 brain freezes by Nilsson in net, and that’s the game, folks. When you score 4 goals in today’s NHL, you should win.

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I WAS at least impressed with the push back that the Edmonton Oilers demonstrated, not only when they were down 4-2 and came back to tie it. But after that stinker of a 5th goal by Tampa Bay, last year’s Oilers would have folded like a cheap deck chair. Instead, it was a battle right up until the empty net goal. So credit for that.

The real problem with that loss is they now have to try and bounce back against the Dallas Stars on Thursday. That’ll be a tough assignment.

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