Edmonton Oilers Gameday Reviews: Hyman, Koskinen, and McDavid Secure the 2pts and #1 Spot in the NHL Standings

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!

The latest NHL news, rumors, and speculation comes from all of the internet’s top sites like Spector’s Hockey, The Fourth Period, NHL Trade Talk, The Hockey Writers, Sportsnet, and TSN just to name a few!

If you’re short on time but want to keep up with the day’s Oilers news, you’ve come to the right place!

Give us a follow on the socials!

Cult of Hockey

The Edmonton Oilers rookie blue hangs in there, in 5-2 win over Pittsburgh: Cult of Hockey Player Grades

MIKKO KOSKINEN . 9. The primary reason the Oilers had a puncher’s chance entering the 3 ^rd period… Is now 12-2 on the year. The game’s 3 ^rd Star.
CONNOR McDAVID . 8. A 4-point night and was +5.
ZACH HYMAN . 8. The Oilers best forward over the full 60-minutes… Also chipped in a perfect 2:01 short-handed. +3 on the night… Named the game’s 1 ^st Star. Hell of a performance.
KRIS RUSSELL . 7. Following up a classy pre-game ceremony honoring his NHL record for shot blocks, the veteran served up 4 more while playing a heavy 26:53. Also logged just shy of 4:00 on a perfect 0-3 PK.
TYSON BARRIE . 7. Like his partner Russell, Barrie bucked up and turned in a gutsy performance. Played 26:28 on the 1 ^st pairing. 2 hits and 4 blocks.
RYAN McLEOD . 3. One of his weakest 2-way games of the season. 0 shots, 0 hits. Only 25% on draws. -1. A team-worst 5v5 CF of 5-17, 23%.
WARREN FOEGELE . 4. Had his moments, including a couple nice defensive plays in the 1 ^st Period. But ultimately didn’t accomplish much.
PHILIP BROBERG . 4. 2 blocked shots, -1. Like Lagesson, Broberg hung on for dear life and received considerable help from his goalie. Was pinned deep often. The heaviest fore-check he has likely seen.
DEREK RYAN . 4. A better night on his draws (50%).
MARCUS NIEMALAINEN . 5. Played 10:10 in his first career NHL game. Played physical, credited with 5 hits.
TYLER BENSON . 3. Benson took a needless interference penalty almost 200 feet from his own net, forcing his mates to kill off the minor to preserve the (at the time) 2-2 tie. 0 shots, 0 hits in 6:41.

BLH’s Thoughts: All the Oilers had to do was hold on until the third period when Pittsburgh was sure to run out of gas and Edmonton could do what they do in the final frame, outscore their opponents. Koskinen played a huge part in that plan and I wonder when the whispers of Holland rewarding him with another contract start to creep out…

Zach Hyman is having himself a week eh? Good on him, he’s probably the hardest worker on the team and with that, he puts himself at risk every time he hits the ice. He had two chances for the hatty, three if you include the empty-netter from Connor, but the Hockey Gods had capped his night at a brace. Better luck next time Zach!

That Benson penalty was weird. Is his edgework that bad that he couldn’t have gotten out of the way. I mean, he went right through the middle of the crease where Jarry was standing or was he offering up a bit of gamesmanship? If it was the former, that’s not going to cut it in the NHL and if it was the latter, that’s not going to cut it in the NHL. That was a really tough play for him.

I won’t be surprised if we hear that Puljujarvi takes the night off against Seattle after taking a hard check in the 3rd period. Apparently his wrist bent all sorts of ways and even though he stayed in the game, you could tell that wrist was in a bad manner. I’d imagine by the time this post has been published, you might’ve heard something on this though.

Oilersnation

GDB 21.0 Wrap Up

Giving him four points on the night, Connor McDavid closed things out with an empty-net goal (5-2) to punctuate what can only be described as a spectacular effort from the captain.
Had it not been for Koskinen, this game would have been a lopsided loss but he kept his teammates in the fight and afforded them the time they needed to get going. Ideally, he wouldn’t have had to do it for 40 minutes but that’s what he had to do to secure the win, and the big man deserves all kinds of love for the way this finished. Koskinen finished the night with 32 saves and a .941 save%.
The Oilers’ PK was excellent again tonight as they were able to handle all three of Pittsburgh’s opportunities with the man advantage.
I looked at the shot clock midway through the second period and was absolutely stunned to see that Edmonton had only generated seven shots on goal. It’s like my brain knew it was true because I was watching the disaster unfold, but it took actually seeing the number to fully realize how bad things were.
If you’re a fan of xGF% then I apologize for letting you know the Oilers had a miserable 34.66% on the night.
I think the worst part about Zach Hyman’s hat trick goal being disallowed is that there was a tonne of hats on the ice that were thrown for nothing.

BLH’s Thoughts: Man, are you waiting for this train to go off the rails like I am or what? How many games are we going to watch the Oilers get their asses handed to them for 40 minutes and then witness the very same team snatch victory from the hands of the opponents in the last 20?

The Pens were on the back half of a b2b and they lost in OT to CGY the night prior. So, did the Oilers simply play possum and wait for Pittsburgh to tire themselves out or were they that poor and a 2nd intermission rallying cry from one of the vets give them enough (*buzzword alert*) “juice” to carry them to the peak of the mountain?

At the end of the day, that’s two points in the bag and a spot at the top of the NHL’s standings though. Who’s going to complain about that?

Spector’s Hockey

PHILLY.COM: Sam Carchidi believes it could be time for Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher to make some tough decisions if his club falls out of playoff contention… One of those decisions could involve shopping captain Claude Giroux.
SPORTSNET: Luke Fox also speculated on some of those difficult decisions facing Fletcher… Fox felt any number of options could be on the table for the Flyers, including shopping winger Travis Konecny. While that would be a bold move, he also felt it would be a long shot.
THE ATHLETIC: Fluto Shinzawa believes it could take some time before Boston Bruins GM Don Sweeney pulls the trigger on a Jake DeBrusk trade. The Bruins still need him in the lineup with Brad Marchand serving a three-game suspension plus their farm team in Providence is going through a COVID outbreak.
THE PROVINCE: Ben Kuzma took note of recent speculation linking the Vancouver Canucks to DeBrusk. He pointed to the Canucks’ limited cap space as a sticking point, suggesting it might have to be a dollar-in, dollar-out deal to take on DeBrusk’s $3.675 million cap hit.
NBC SPORTS: Sean Leahy believes the Bruins are keeping their crease warm for Tuukka Rask when he’s finally ready to return to action from offseason hip surgery.