Edmonton Oilers Gameday Reviews: Dallas Does Edmonton

This is your TL/DR (too long, didn’t read) summary post where excerpts are taken from the best of the best when it comes to Edmonton Oilers blogs. BLH gives you his two cents on the latest posts being published in the Oilogosphere! Including those from Lowetide.ca, The Athletic, Oilersnation, The Cult of Hockey, Copper N Blue, Oil on Whyte, and more!

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Sportsnet

In a mighty forgettable loss to Stars, Oilers suffer two key setbacks

Stuart Skinner made some circus stops to stop this one from being a laugher.
McDavid couldn’t keep the puck on his stick from one zone to the next
…the Stars out-checked and outworked Edmonton all over the ice…
Leon Draisaitl had more minor penalties (two) than points (one).
Edmonton’s defence was too soft in front of its own net, as the Stars tipped two pucks past a chanceless Skinner…
To our eye Edmonton deserved the penalties they were assessed, but the Oilers surely could have had a better shake from the zebras on a couple of Stars infractions that went uncalled — particularly a high stick on Ryan McLeod that was missed.
Add another Top 4 defenceman to the injury pile, with Keith leaving Tuesday’s game after two periods with what they are calling an upper-body injury.
Keith made a simple D-to-D pass along the blue line to Tyson Barrie, and immediately bent over in pain. He went to the Oilers bench where trainer T.D. Forss was seen checking Keith’s lower back.
William Lagesson is on the trip and will almost certainly draw into the lineup Wednesday in Arizona. He, Kris Russell and Philip Broberg will comprise the left side of the blue-line against the Coyotes, barring a Keith return.
Broberg has looked very comfortable through the first two games of his NHL career. And these injuries will ensure that he gets an even longer look than was likely planned, as the smooth skating Swede looks every bit like his billing said he would; big, an excellent skater, and very composed with the puck.

BLH’s Thoughts: Good God… The officiating… How could I forget about how piss-poor that was last night… McLeod gets offered an oversized toothpick at one end of the ice that wasn’t called and then down at the other, Leon’s twig gets a tad close to a Star and the refs can’t get their hands up fast enough. I mean, McDavid had to flop all over the ice in order to draw his call and Draisaitl takes five cross-checks in one shift uncalled, only to get called himself on the very infraction he was just a victim to…

This is why there needs to be an eye in the sky. If the refs were really concerned with calling the game right, they wouldn’t have any problem with the oversight seeing how we’re bring told it’s way easier to see the penalties from the camera’s vantage point. If that’s the case, throw a ref upstairs and let’s get this game to where it needs to be.

I wonder, is there a way to check if how many penalties the home teams are getting vs. the away? I’m just curious if there’s a chance that in an attempt to draw more fans to the arenas, that there’s an unspoken mandate to call more penalties on the away teams so that the home club can get more chances at scoring and ultimately winning.

So, who’s wondering which left-shot defenseman is going to get the brunt of the TOI vs. Arizona tonight? Reckon it’s a big deal considering this Coyotes team is worse than the expansion Ottawa Senators?

If Phil Broberg is the guy who gets tasked with top-pairing minutes, I’m not going to be disappointed. He was very poised last night in Dallas and I liked how he picked his spots and man, he was like Machine Gun Eddie out there firing pucks on net at every opportunity. I hope he gets a goal tonight 🙂

Cult of Hockey

Player grades: John Klingberg and Dallas Stars power play dissects Edmonton Oilers

Connor McDavid, 4. His 17-game point streak this season came to an end in a game where he played only so so.
Zach Hyman, 3. Not his best game on the PK or at even strength. Two lost battles on face offs led to Grade A shots against, one of them a goal against.
Derek Ryan, 3 . He was slow on the backcheck on a dangerous Radulov tip shot in the first. He and Yamamoto got way too high on the penalty kill late in the first, opening wide a seam for Dallas to exploit on their second goal.
Duncan Keith, 3. Six major mistakes on Grade A shot at even strength… To add injury to insult, he left the game early, half-way through the second period.
Evan Bouchard, 3. Five major mistakes on Grade A shot at even strength… He got a hard and tricky shot on net late in the second, but had little going on this game.
Philip Broberg, 6. He and Ceci had a good game at even strength. They kept it simple and safe. Broberg moved about smoothly and confidently, passing the puck well. He led the team with five shots on net.
Warren Foegele, 6. Hustled hard. Nothing too good, nothing too bad.
Ryan McLeod, 6. Drai set him up for an open net but he did not miss it. He had his wheels going this game, unlike some of his teammates.
Leon Draisaitl, 6. He made a gorgeous feed to McLeod for Edmonton’s first and only goal.
Stuart Skinner, 6. He stopped a Grade A tip shot by Radulov early on… He played well enough for the Oilers to have a shot in a game where they were badly out-played.

BLH’s Thoughts: Ceci, Broberg, Foegele, and McLeod had good games to my eye. Skinner didn’t really have much of a chance but if you take away the PP goal and the tips, the Stars only beat him legit once.

Why did Tippett move Perlini up to the first line and not Warren Foegele? The preseason Prince has done nothing since using up all his goal-scoring in the exhibition matches prior to the regular season starting and Foegele was a god-damned wrecking ball last night… I know Tippett is apt to sit a line if they’re not going, but what about showing some faith in a guy who’s working his ass off?

Who knows? Maybe the Oilers coach wanted to keep that line together because it was an effective line whereas the rest of the roster couldn’t get inside Dallas’ defense. Very akin to Edmonton’s loss to Winnipeg last week, eh?

So is that it? If you can defend the middle of the ice, you can beat the Oilers? Just let Connor and Leon skate circles on the outside and when they come in for a chance on net, collapse?

Maybe the Oilers should take a page out of that book and give it a try. Their defensemen were not at all hard enough on the Stars forwards and seeing as they had the likes of Benn, Seguin, Radulov, and Pavelski lurking about the net-front and Heiskanen and Klingberg firing pucks on net… How could the Oilers blueliners even think about not tying up any available hockey stick nearby. This is something specific to Evan Bouchard that we’re noticing… He’s going to have to tighten things up against this big clubs.

Spector’s Hockey

SAN JOSE HOCKEY NOW: Sheng Peng cited Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman the San Jose Sharks could be willing to retain part of Evander Kane’s salary to facilitate a trade.
VEGAS HOCKEY NOW: Owen Krepps recently mused over Mattias Janmark’s future with the Vegas Golden Knights… Krepps speculated Janmark could become a trade candidate later in the season even if his play improves. The Golden Knights are projected to be over the salary cap by $7 million when Jack Eichel returns from neck surgery later this season. They could be willing to part with Janmark to clear some cap room before Eichel joins the lineup.
GOPHNX.COM: In a recent mailbag segment, Craig Morgan was asked if the Arizona Coyotes were looking into acquiring Los Angeles Kings center Gabriel Vilardi or New York Rangers winger Vitali Kravtsov. He said he hasn’t heard of any interest in either player on the Coyotes’ part, adding a source in Los Angeles said Vilardi’s trade value is too low right now.