The Day After: Oilers vs Flyers

The Edmonton Oilers came into Philadelphia in hopes to beat the Flyers, and they walked out with a 3-0 shutout win. They played a very solid game, both on the offensive side and defensive side of the game. If they did have a defensive mistake Mikko Koskinen was there to shut the door.

I wrote in the “3 keys to an Edmonton Oilers Victory” that the Oilers needed to not fall behind early, that goaltending will be key, and that Oilers depth would also be a factor. They hit on all three points last night.

When The Oilers Score First They Win

So far this season when the Edmonton Oilers score first they win the game. They did exactly that last night. It was a goal from Leon Draisaitl that put them up with less than 3 minutes left in the first period.

The Oilers had 5 powerplays and this Leon Draisaitl goal was the only time the capitalized while a man up. This is something I would like to see improve, but if you get the win you don’t notice these things as much.

Not All Goals Need To Be A Highlight

The Edmonton Oilers second goal  will not be seen on any highlight countdown, but there are no pictures on the score sheet. It is the type of goal that I would like to see this team score more of.

A shot taken by Bouchard with traffic in front of the net, then a mad scramble before Kailer Yamamoto jams the puck in the net. In a tight checking game in the playoffs this is how most goals are scored. Yes there still is some pretty goals in the playoffs, but not nearly as often. If the oilers want to have success later in the season they will need to score more goals like this.

Mikko Koskinen Shutout Shout out

Mikko Koskinen in the zone right now. The stats speak for themselves and the team seems to be playing with confidence in front of him. Last night Mikko made 32 saves for his first shutout of the season and 6th of his career.

As much as his season has been full of ups and downs, he has really settled down lately and looks like he may be the best goalie on the roster right now. The fact the Mike Smith is playing poorly also makes it Koskinen appear a lot better.

Depth Players Set Up

With the lines going into the game I was a little but concerned about the bottom part of the line-up getting caved in as it was quite weak in comparison to the healthy line-up. That was not the case last night at all.

All the players in the bottom played well and didn’t look out of place at all. The weak competition of the Flyers probably helped with that, but you can only play against who is put in front of you.

Brad Malone playing his first NHL game since April 6, 2019 played the role he was brought in to do perfectly. He was solid in his own end and he threw his weight around. It was good to see him get his 200th career game in as well.

Wrap-up

The powerplay went 1/5, that is 20%. This is not a terrible percentage for most NHL teams, but for the Edmonton Oilers it is pretty low. Hopefully once Nugent-Hopkins gets back in the line-up things will get back to their +30% level.

They allowed 39 shots against last night. Even though most of these shot were low danger chances, that is still a lot of shots for a goalie to face. I would like to see that number cut down by 10 or so.

Overall it was a solid game played by the Edmonton Oilers, but it was against the worst team in the Metropolitan Division. There is still some areas the Oilers can work on. These areas will become bigger issues when they play better teams.