Edmonton Oilers Get Much Needed Victory
Waking up this morning, most Edmonton Oilers fans are feeling something they haven’t felt in a very long, pride in their team. It had been 35 days since the Edmonton Oilers won a game, so the feeling is long overdue. Knowing fans, and being one myself, it is hard to trust this team moving forward on a game to game basis, because of what we have seen so far this season. That doesn’t mean we can’t live up this win against our Alberta rivals, the Calgary Flames.
Improvement Where it Mattered
Things that were letting the Edmonton Oilers down in previous games were the reason they won this game. Mikko Koskinen played an excellent game and made a lot of clutch saves. He handled the pressure of a “must win” game very well. Not to mention it was a Hockey Night In Canada game, so there was even more eyes on Koskinen than normal. The Oilers didn’t make it easy for him either as they gave up 47 shots against.
Another area that had been slumping up to this game was the powerplay. After starting the season with the best numbers on the powerplay, when the Oilers started to struggle, so did the powerplay. Going 2/3 on the powerplay last night is a sign that perhaps this team is about to get back on track.
Still Not a Perfect Game
The Edmonton Oilers may have won this game, but there is still things that I would like to see improve. As mentioned earlier, the shots given up is way too high of a number. Forcing your goalie to make that many saves is not a recipe for winning in the NHL. They are going to need to be better in that aspect if they want to be a feared team to play against.
The powerplay may be starting to click, but the penalty kill is still not being able to find success. The Calgary Flames only got 2 powerplays and they scored on one of them. On the powerplay they didn’t score on Mikko Koskinen had to make a couple of excellent saves. That is the reason you have a goalie is to make saves, but this team can’t expect to have a good penalty kill if they continue to play this way. They need to find a way to improve.
Even though Connor McDavid got on the scoresheet with two assists, he had opportunists to score, he just isn’t finishing them. McDavid hasn’t scored a goal since December 31st, where he scored twice against the New Jersey Devils. That is 5 games without a goal for him. Being the best player in the NHL, that is a long time without scoring. I’m not worried about it too much. It just this team is much better when both superstars a rolling.
All Winning Streaks Start with One
After losing 7 games in a row the Edmonton Oilers need to start putting some wins together. This win against the Flames just might be what the doctor ordered to start a winning streak. If the Oilers can win their next couple games it will really help them move up the standings. Edmonton has lots of games in hand on teams in front of them in the standings so then need to win those games if they want to contend for the top spot in the Pacific.