Ok be honest, how many people thought that the Oilers blew their respective loads in that first period? I mean right off the bat they were in the Coyotes zone and buzzing around like a bunch of pissed off hornets! I was jacked when they scored because that was a thing of beauty between Hall and Draisaitl.
Team-leading 7th goal & 18th point! 🔥 #EDMvsARI pic.twitter.com/vBdr9rIlOR
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 13, 2015
But then everything started to come into perspective for a team on the latter half of a back-to-back. Darnell Nurse couldn’t get that puck to Sekera and Leon Draisaitl, for some reason, was already bolting the zone looking for the breakaway… OEL scooped up the pass meant for the right winger and deposited a seeing eye shot top cheese to tie the game up… Boo!
https://twitter.com/YotesHereToStay/status/665037948232925184
I had a feeling the team would start to slow down going into the 2nd period and slow down is what they did. The Coyotes took full advantage of a tired Oilers team and potted two more. The first was on the PP, Andrej Sekera couldn’t retrieve the puck on a Coyotes dump-in and uber rookie Max Domi thiefed it from under Sekera’s nose, proceeded towards the net; waited for Eric Gryba to commit, and then sauced a lovely little pass to a waiting and untouched Shane Doan. Bingo bango baby! Coyotes up by 1.
The next goal came not four minutes later as the Oilers 4th line couldn’t manage to keep the puck in the Arizona zone, the Coyotes Kyle Chipchura picked it up in the neutral zone and broke in to the Oilers zone versus Oscar Klefbom and Luke Gazdic… That just spells trouble right? So Chipchura stops up just at the top of the circle on the left wall and decides to let his teammates catch up, then he drops a pass off to John “Wayne Gretzky is my middle name” Scott; who in turn fires a shot at the Oilers net. Anders Nilsson’s lack of rebound control leads to Stefan Elliott tucking that baby away… Wait.. Yes, that’s right. DEFENCEMAN Stefan Elliott in the Oilers slot… Never let another man in your slot. That’s your slot. Dirty slot… Check it out the slotty action below.
You’re telling me Luke Gazdic couldn’t tie up Elliott’s stick enough on this one to prevent the puck from going in?… Yeeesh! Why did Benoit Pouliot choose this day to be hung over? Not that he would’ve prevented that goal but… You know what I mean.
I’m not sure what Pouliot’s deal was. He was too sick to play. Surely it wasn’t because he had a few too many “Arizona Iced Teas”. But I’m just taking the piss. So take it easy ultras.
Walter Foddis’ Post Game Shooting Metrics
That was about it for Edmonton. Their performance in the third period didn’t inspire a lot of confidence and I for one was happy for it all to end. Arizona did end up putting one more in the net though as Iiro Pakarinen unsuccessfully tried to knock the puck past the Mike Stone at centre ice which lead to the Coyotes dman bringing the puck back into Oilers zone. Stone tried to put the puck on the net but it pinballed around the slot for a few seconds before returning to Stone’s stick and then he fired it at the net where Domi was having his afternoon tea. Easy tap-in due to Nilsson’s inability to control the rebound. UGH!!!
I’m happy that game is done and over with. The Oilers are having a helluva time trying to defeat the Coyotes recently and it’s such a boring bloody game. The NHL wants to improve scoring, how about eliminating boring hockey teams? Nothing worse than watching defense first teams.
Oh hey, did you catch John Shannon saying that the Coyotes are looking to move… To a new arena soon… I’m not sure if anybody told him and it’s something I’m noticing all to much lately. The lack of regular season attendance in those southern markets. Just take a gander at the crowd’s at a Carolina, Anaheim, Florida, Dallas, or Arizona game. Not sure who’s counting the tickets at those games but I think they’re coming in a little high. Yet, if any of those teams make the playoffs it’s hockey central… Bloody shame I think it is. If the NHL and their owners are willing to foot the bill for teams like the Panthers and the Coyotes, they should just relocate them to Canadian cities. You can be damned sure that a team in Quebec City or Saskatoon wouldn’t have attendance problems apart from not having enough seats to accommodate everyone.
Ok. Take a breath…
I think the best Oiler on the night was Taylor Hall. He was flying out there and really trying to get his team to follow suit. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the team wasn’t having any of it. One name I didn’t hear a lot nor did I see a lot was Mark Fayne’s… Is that a good thing? Well they do say a defenceman has done his job well if you’re not talking about him…
Ah well, better luck versus the Kings on Saturday. I’m looking forward to a much better game from the rested Oilers and there must be some payback for that last game versus LA and the goal that Johnny Quick pulled out of the net.
The other thing I’m looking forward to… The 20 game mark. Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes!
Until then folks! Take care!
BLH
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