The Edmonton Oilers got crushed by the Calgary Flames last night down in Calgary. The Flames now lead the series 1-0 after the 9-6 win.
If you watched this game you probably don’t want to relive this game because it was a terrible effort by the Edmonton Oilers. The Edmonton Oilers in my opinion were lucky to even have a chance to win this game. If Jacob Markstrom played with any confidence this score is not even close.
Another Terrible Start
In my 3 keys to victory yesterday I wrote how the Edmonton Oilers needed to have a good start and not fall behind early. The Edmonton Oilers must not have read it as they were down by 3 goals and had already changed their goalie before the first commercial break.
Another key I noted was that Mike Smith would have to play good. Since he only played for 6:05 he really didn’t have the chance to play good. Would I have liked him to make at least one of those saves on the first 3, of course. If he doesn’t get pulled does this game have a different outcome, no. The start for this team was on everyone. Terrible coverage in the defensive end, lack of effort in the neutral zone and no offense at all.
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Jacob Markstrom
I think the Edmonton Oilers missed a chance to win a game when Markstrom plays a bad game. Markstrom is one of the top goalies in the NHL and if you are able to get 6 goals past him in a game you need to win that game.
Moving forward in this series the Edmonton Oilers will be lucky if they can score even 3 goals against Markstrom. They needed their defense and goalies to make a stop, scoring 6 goals in the NHL playoffs needs a win.
Wasted McDavid Effort
Just as they wasted a weak night for Markstrom they wasted an excellent effort by Connor McDavid. McDavid carried his game 7 momentum into this game. Getting a goal and 3 assist for 4 points.
He was involved in 2/3s of the Oilers goals. That is the most points of any player in the game. He willed his team back in this game to get them tied at 6. Unfortunately they were tied for under 2 minutes.
Powerplay Struggles
The Edmonton Oilers were lucky to be in this game. If the Edmonton Oilers would have converted on any of their 4 powerplays that actually could have won this game. If the Oilers would have been able to score one goal they could have swung momentum in their favor.
The powerplay did the opposite of build momentum last night. It wasn’t able to create anything and I think in the 4 powerplays they only got set up 3 times. Give the Calgary Flames credit they played a very high pressure penalty kill. They made zone entries very difficult.
The Takeaways
- I like to compare this game to games 5 of last series against the Kings. The Oilers did not deserve to win the game, but they were still in it despite playing awful, hopefully they can turn it around like they did in the last series.
- They didn’t lay over and die, they came back from a 4 goal deficit, that’s no easy task against the Calgary Flames
- The goalies in this series all need to be better
Next Game Is A New Game
The Edmonton Oilers need to have a short term memory as the next game is tomorrow. The Oilers have lots of areas where they can improve in, and I don’t think they can play much worse than last night defensively.
Both coaches are going to have talks with their teams and the next game will be a lot tighter of a checking game. As much as fans love goals, the coaches don’t.
I expect the Oilers to come out with a better start next game (not like it will be hard) and put up a fight. The playoffs for the Oilers still playing by the, if you score first you win rule, so hopefully they can score first on Friday.