There wasn’t very much to like about that hockey game from an Oilers fan’s point-of-view. It appeared that the boys were exhausted and the puck simply wasn’t bouncing their way. From bad reads to poor coverage to unlucky tips leading to goals, all-in-all, it was a bad night for the team.
Individually, Mike Smith stood out. He was actually keeping Edmonton in the game and was probably their best player, making that two games in a row where the Oilers’ goalie was their MVP. It was great to see Leon Draisaitl and RNH continue their scoring streaks and for James Neal to surpass his goal totals from last season. Thank you Brad Treliving!
The streak had to come to an end at some point and the team is still 5-1-0, right? The trick will be for the team to forget about Chicago and move on to Philly, a very tough team with some serious forward depth and a great young goaltender. Their defense is suspect though and could be taken advantage of if played correctly. However, a team led by Claude Giroux, Jakub Voracek, and Sean Couturier isn’t going to lay down for anybody and if the Oilers’ young defense doesn’t lock things down from the get-go, it’s going to be a long night.
One of the players that I wanted the Oilers to sign this summer just hit the waiver wire. Daniel Carr hasn’t been able to crack the Predators lineup on a consistent basis and so he’s being sent to the AHL. Bob Stauffer talked about him on Tuesday’s Oilers Now and said he’s not going to help you on the PK but he could add a bit more offense to the bottom six. He’s can skate very well too. I’ve likened him to Brendan Gallagher-lite in the past. Maybe the Oilers could swing a Colby Cave-Daniel Carr trade now that Cave is in the minors.
In lieu of the loss and a tough game coming up, how about a Chicago-related joke?
A guy sitting at a bar in Chicago O’hare noticed a beautiful woman sitting next to him. He thought to himself, “Wow, she’s so gorgeous she must be a flight attendant.
But which airline does she work for?” Hoping to gain her attention, he leaned towards her and uttered the Delta Slogan, “Love to fly and it shows?”
She gave him a blank, confused stare and he immediately thought to himself, “Nope, not Delta.”
A moment later, another slogan popped into his head. He leaned towards her again, “Something special in the air?” She gave him the same confused look.
He mentally kicked himself, and scratched American Airlines off the list. Next he tried the Southwest slogan, “Low fares, nothing to hide?”
This time the woman savagely turned on him, “What the f*ck do you want?”
The man smiled, then slumped back in his chair, and said…. “Ahhh, United Airlines!”
Game Notes
- Andrew Shaw was a wrecking ball for the Hawks. One of the best players on the ice for either team. He’s such a pain in the ass, but he can also play the game. When are the Oilers going to develop this sort of player?
- I’d said in the game preview that this was going to be a big game for the Oilers offense if they started getting shots on the net OR it was going to be a great game for Chicago’s netminders…
- What was up with getting away with the previously successful gameplan of shot passes and everyone touching the puck? Too many long passes and hail marys (especially in the third).
- Alex Nylander skated well. If he can play in the NHL, there should be no questions whether Jesse Puljujarvi can or can’t.
- Edmonton’s PK was 100% on the evening and their PP went 1/3. So those two things and the goaltending are humming along right now.
- Remember how I said to watch Dylan Strome in the pre-gamer? He had six shots and an assist in this game.
- Speaking of six, the Oilers only had that many shots in the 2nd period… This team has got to find a way to get more rubber on the net.
- Chicago won the possession battle 54% to 46% and my eye agrees with that.
Game Grades
The way I do these grades is on a 1-5 scale but no 3s because I find it too easy to give a player a 3 if I can’t decide whether his game was above average or below it. If he just floated throughout the match and not contributing, that’s worth a 2 in my books. A 2 doesn’t necessarily mean the player played poor though, it could, but more often than not, it just means he wasn’t a factor. If he’s getting chances but they’re not going in or to the eye he’s very noticeable in a positive way, that’s a 4. If a player receives a 1, that means he really shat the bed. Conversely, if he gets a 5, he had a helluva game.
My advice is to concentrate less on the grade and more on what’s written afterward.
Mike Smith – 4 – Outstanding game for the 37-year-old. He was the reason the game was as close as it was. Tough break on the go-ahead goal, you’d like to see him commit to a decision there. After he saved the Toews breakaway, he gave Khaira a tap on the ass as to say, “Don’t worry about the giveaway, I’ve got you and good job on the backcheck.” Love that veteran leadership.
Alex Chiasson – 2 – Had a really good scoring chance around the 12-minute mark of the 1st that found Corey Crawford’s chest… Deserved his promotion to the first line in the 3rd period.
Connor McDavid – 2 – Connor is as Connor does. He had two point-blank chances in the first that he couldn’t convert and ended the game with no points. Late in the second, Tippett sent him out with Neal and Nuge to try and get something going and it nearly paid dividends when he drove the net and knocked both the puck and the Blackhawks goalie into the net. It was deemed an illegal goal and called off. In the 3rd period, just prior to Nylander’s goal, he was stick checked first on a rush into Chicago’s zone and so the puck never got deep, and then following that he had the puck in the neutral zone and he tried a cute little move that was stopped and subsequently the play turned back the other way and into the Oilers net. He was -2, 50% on the draws and he had nearly 27 minutes of TOI. I get that a couple of players weren’t getting any shifts in the 3rd period for whatever reason, but let’s manage McDavid’s ice-time a bit better so he’ll have some juice for the rest of the season.
Leon Draisaitl – 2 – Needed to score on that 1st-period breakaway. Assisted on the Neal goal, but looked exhausted by the end of the game. He won a great board battle in the 3rd period against two Blackhawks that preceded McDavid finding Kassian in front of the net for a great scoring chance. 59% faceoff win percentage! 26:59 TOI is way too much. Tippett is going to burn this guy out if he keeps giving him this kind of ice-time.
Zack Kassian – 2 – He was his prickly self causing havoc in front of the Chicago net, but I didn’t find him overly physical elsewhere. He had a really good shift to start the third period and his second shift in that period saw Leon find him with a signature cross-ice pass as he was streaking down the right-wing which concluded with a hard wrister that found the blocker of Corey Crawford. Good work to outmuscle two Chicago defenders in front of the net for a shot in the blue paint.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – 4 – Lovely pass on the Neal goal to feather it over to #18. A couple of great saves when the Oilers net was empty. His effort was unquestionable. 38% on the faceoffs though…
James Neal – 4 – Absolutely creamed Olli Maata with a reverse hit in the 1st period and his goal was something. To be able to go roof daddy that tight to the net is something special. He skated very well and was physical when he needed to be. Ended the night with two shots, a hit, a goal, and 16:32 in TOI. He’s playing with a lot of confidence right now.
Tomas Jurco – 2 – Had an up-and-down 2nd period as he almost tipped a Nurse point shot into the net with around five minutes to go and took a hard hit coming through the middle of the ice on the shift prior. Had, I believe, two shifts in the third period. I could be wrong there. He wasn’t really a factor though and the clock is starting to tick on his time with RNH and Neal. The bottom six is lacking some scoring punch, you gotta wonder if Jurco and Nygard get swapped, would that spark some much-needed offense down the lineup?
Riley Sheahan – 4 – What a calming presence Sheahan has brought to the Oilers bottom six. I don’t know if I’ve said this before, but he really looks like what Kyle Brodziak was supposed to be. No disrespect to KB. Had one chance to fire one past Crawford earlier in the game but the Chicago netminder was on his game. 53% on the dot!
Josh Archibald – 4 – I know some didn’t like his game, but I thought he really shook the rust off and was a solid offensive contributor for his line. The way he drew the Chicago defender over to him with his speed and lateral movement so he could hit Sheahan up the middle for his scoring chance was very clever. Oh, how that missed shorthanded chance in the 2nd period would’ve changed things had it gone in, eh?
Jujhar Khaira – 4 – JJ is such a tank out there. Between him and Sheahan, they can really eat up the minutes by grinding and holding the puck on the boards due to their strength and size. That said, he doesn’t move that quick and evidence of that was when a pass of his was blocked in the 1st period and turned into a partial Jonathan Toews breakaway. Tried to get Shaw to go after the Persson hit, but wisely, Shaw declined. That would’ve been a bloodbath. Was a bit slow to react on Kane’s goal and that shot might’ve hit his stick and took a very untimely penalty right after Chicago went up by two goals.
Markus Granlund – 2 – He sacrificed his body to make a clever pass off the wall to hit a wide-open Alex Chiasson for a shot on net in the 1st period. Not overly apparent out there. Still wasn’t as poor as he was before getting moved to center mind you. 75% on the faceoffs.
Joakim Nygard – 2 – Didn’t play in the 3rd. I believe Bob Stauffer said he might’ve been dinged up after taking a hit behind the Blackhawks net.
Darnell Nurse – 4 – I really liked his game. He’s slowly convincing me that he might be worth that $6M per year or more that he’ll be asking for. The way he was carrying the puck into Chicago’s zone and the decisions with it were impressive. It wasn’t just that though, defensively he was a beast too. More than once he was forced to chase down a Chicago player who was on a breakaway or a partial to stop them. Owned the shot share 16-11 for the most part and that’s always a plus. On the other hand, DeBrincat caught him napping and nearly broke away from him for a glorious scoring chance in the first frame. After De Haan clipped McDavid in the 3rd, Nurse, without hesitation, jumped right in there to let the Hawks dman know his actions weren’t appreciated.
Ethan Bear – 2 – Got caught napping early in the 2nd period when former Oiler Drake Caggiula snuck behind him and was hit for a breakaway. Luckily Mike Smith stopped that one too. Took a questionable penalty with nine minutes to go in the second.
Oscar Klefbom – 2 – Not sure I want to see him driving the net as he did in this one. I like Oscar’s health right where it is right now. Horrid possession numbers on the evening. It just wasn’t Klef’s night. The Hawks were all over him and Persson from the get-go.
Joel Persson – 2 – Man, did Persson ever have a rough game. Got turnstiled by Saad late in the second and he took two massive hits that I think shook him up. The Chicago forecheck had him rattled all night.
Kris Russell – 2 – Barely visible on the night but in the 3rd period he did break up a pass out of the corner from DeBrincat to Toews that was probably labeled as a goal had it gone through. Good on him to get in Andrew Shaw’s face after that hit on Persson.
Matt Benning – 2 – He played, but you’d never know had you watched the game. He was pleasantly invisible. One play I did notice was in the last period, he was battling behind the net with Patrick Kane and lost. Kane then took it and found his linemate all alone in front but thanks to Smith, there was no goal scored on that play.
Stats courtesy of Natural Stat Trick and NHL.com
What did you think about the game? Let us know in the comments below!
