Edmonton Oilers Fail To Land Jets In Shoot-Out

By Kurt Leavins |

Nov 4, 2014; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Edmonton Oilers center Matt Hendricks (23) skates against the Philadelphia Flyers during the first period at the Wells Fargo Center. The Flyers defeated the Oilers 4-1. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

The Edmonton Oilers got about what they deserved, on Saturday night, the Winnipeg Jet perhaps a little more than was coming to them. Over-all, it was a sloppy game by two struggling teams, whose power plays were down-right awful. Shoot-outs are a crappy way to end any game, but since this one was not exactly a Monet anyway…appropriate, one supposes.

9 Things:

9. I’m still waiting for a reason why the referees did not award a penalty shot on the Teddy Purcell breakaway. I’ve read the rule several times since I’ve been home, and I STILL don’t get it. It was a flat-out miss by the Zebras, who seemed way more inclined to penalize the Oilers. But maybe I’m just being a homer.

8. The whole rink, and I DO mean the WHOLE rink, thought that Eric Gryba had won this one in Overtime. Guys were still high-five-ing one another in my section, as the puck was coming back up the ice. He had a glorious chance on the giveaway, but rung it firmly off the cross-bar. What might have been…

7. It’s no secret that I am a Taylor Hall fan, but I do try to be fair in my assessments. And if I’m being so, then Hall had one of his worst games tonight. I can’t fault his effort, but he created little, had just 1 shot in 19:48 TOI, and took 2 bad penalties, including one in O/T that ruined a Power Play with the game on the line.

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6. By my eye, I felt that the Jets did a very good job of checking over-all, but of Connor McDavid in particular. The forwards maintained very narrow gaps on their coverage of him. And the Jets D-men pinched very little, thus limiting McDavid’s open ice time. He still led all forwards in TOI (20:23), mind you, as well as Shots On Net (4). Had the game on his stick in the shoot-out and couldn’t capitalize.

5. The Edmonton Oilers two best defencemen tonight were rookies: Brandon Davidson and Darnell Nurse. That fact alone is an indictment of the D-core that Peter Chiarelli has cobbled together. But Nurse seemed to thrive against a bigger, rougher team and had his best game in several months. And Davidson made so many good, little decisions, as he always seems to. Encouraging.

4. Jordan Eberle did not register a point tonight, although he did score a laser-beam of a goal in the shoot-out, which gave his team a puncher’s chance of winning this one. He had 3 shots, and just missed another feed from Connor McDavid at the edge of the crease. Eberle has noticeable jump in his step, and is more agressive as well…he even laid 2 solid hits (even thought he Stats geeks only credited him with 1). Eberle is back to his old self.

3. Matt Hendricks is a name which has been mentioned in trade deadline conversations, and performances like tonight’s is exactly why other clubs would be interested. You get the same effort and practically identical results from him, night after night. Only on this night, Hendricks was his team’s best penalty killer, scored it’s only regular goal (short-handed), and got into a scrap with Dustin Byfuglien, which takes guts and then some. Was named the game’s 3rd Star.

2. Laurent Brossoit was awarded 1st Star tonight, and the honor was well deserved. In a difficult position (unscheduled NHL start, when you only have done so once before in your career), he performed as good as you could have hoped, stopping 32 of 33. All you can ever ask of your starting goalie is to give you a chance to win, and he did. This is a chance for the former Edmonton Oil King to solidify the back-up position on the Edmonton Oilers, and he certainly did not harm his chances tonight.

1. The Power Play. The Edmonton Oilers went 0-6 on the man advantage, which is akin to simply handing the other team points. And during most of those opportunities, the team didn’t even get a dangerous chance. But while it’s appropriate to criticize the players for their lack of execution, the time has come to call into question some issues that the head coach is accountable for. And that is the manpower he employed tonight.

One, while I get that winning face-offs is important on a PP, Mark Letestu is an offensive liability, especially when HE is lugging the puck up the ice while Connor McDavid is even in the same area code. Two, giving Lauri Korpikoski 2 minutes of Power Play time is absolutely inexcusable. Give it to Nail Yakupov. Give it to Zack Kassian. Double-shift McDavid. Do anything but what you did.

But putting out one of your worst offensive players is suicide. I have a lot of respect for Todd McLellan, but this makes no bloody sense. At. All.

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The Ducks will not be an easy assignment on Tuesday, although with the Oilers getting good goaltending, and Anaheim on back-to-backs, one never knows.

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