After getting out to an early lead the Edmonton Oilers give up 4 straight goals to lose game 2 in a fashion to which sadly Oilers fans have become accustomed. Fortunately, this has not been the case in the playoffs till today. The Oilers have been known to blow a lead now and then, but it just stings a lot more when it is in the Cup final.
The way this game started I thought that the Oilers were going to roll on to a solid victory. They were finally able to beat Sergei Bobrovsky when Mattias Ekholm beat him five hole on a two-on-one. The bad news for the Oilers is that was all the goals they were able to muster. After that, the Oilers slipped back into their old ways and the Florida Panthers really started to push.
In this game, we saw what could have been a nearly perfect game from the Panthers. In game one the Oilers were the better team but Bobrovsky stood on his head and made the 5 big saves he needed to in order to secure the game one victory. He only needed to be average tonight as the Oilers only put 7 shots his way through the first two periods. However, he was a bit more busy, making 12 saves in the 3rd period.
Stuarts Skinner played well once again, especially when his team was up early. Once again the team in front of him couldn't push away the attack and eventually, the dam broke. The problem in game one for the Oilers was once again the problem in game two. They need to stop having massive breakdowns in their own end. All the goals except the powerplay and empty net goals could have been prevented.
I am aware that the Oilers can not play a perfect game, but I am not asking them to be perfect I am asking them to just stop giving up high danger chances that aren't earned by the other team. The Oilers will not be playing many more games if this type of play continues.
Big Concern For Oilers
Although many of you may be happy that this player is out, he is one of the major players on this team on and off the ice. After an awkward hit taken in the first period, Darnell Nurse only played a total of 4:20 of ice time tonight. That is a much lower amount than what he would play on a regular night.
In the long run to the Cup there are to be some expected injuries, but with Troy Stecher already being out adding Nurse to the list of injured dman is not good. This is even more true since Knobluach just made the choice to bench Cody Ceci. We will have to wait for an update on this injury, but this could be bad news for Oilers moving forward.
The Oilers now don't play again till Thursday. They will head back to Edmonton and have at least one skate. Then hopefully, they will take the energy provided by their fans at Rogers Place and take the steps to turn this series around. Being down two nothing is bad, but being down 3-0 is bad. If the Oilers win game 3 they are right back in it, if they don't it is not looking good.