Edmonton Oilers: Self Inflicted Wounds Cause Loss

The Edmonton Oilers lost their first game of the season last night. They were defeated by the Philadelphia Flyers, 5-3. The Oilers seemed to control the gameplay but the Flyers were able to take advantage of the Oilers’ mistakes. Of the 5 goals, 4 can be directly blamed on one play and the 5th goal was an empty net.

Goal 1-Mikko Koskinen

On the first goal, Mikko Koskinen overcommits to Travis Konecny’s shot and ends up stuck on the wrong side of the net. Claude Giroux picked the puck up on the side of the net and had a wide-open net on a wrap-around. Cody Ceci did get a piece of it but it was too little too late. Koskinen has to stay more steady and not over-commit.

Goal 2- Mikko Koskinen

This is where having Mike Smith‘s puck playing ability would have saved a goal. Mikko Koskinen goes to play the puck behind the net and gives the puck directly to Nicolas Aube-Kubel. He then wraps it around the net where there is a scrum and Nate Thompson eventually pokes the puck past a sprawling Koskinen.

Goal 3-Darnell Nurse

This isn’t as bad as the Mikko Koskinen mistakes, as it is mostly a bad bounce. On a late in the period bouncing puck Darnell Nurse took a swing at the puck and it goes right to Cam Atkinson. On this play if Nurse would have stopped and played Atkinson’s body and just didn’t let him take the shot there would have been no goal. Koskinen also could have made the save, but it was nice shot from Atkinson.

Goal 4- Mikko Koskinen

On Cam Atkinson‘s second goal of the game, Mikko Koskinen lets in a must save shot. This is a save a NHL goalie has to make. It is a slapshot from the top of the circle. There was no screen, there was no deflection, and it just beat Koskinen clean. Koskinen needs to either drop down faster or just leave his stick on the ice here.

The Edmonton Oilers played an excellent game outside of these 4 self-inflicted goals. The good news is that these are just individual player mistakes and can be worked on. It is still early in the season and there is time for these types of plays to become non-existent throughout the team.

The Oilers look to continue their solid start Saturday in Vancouver, where they can get back to their winning ways.