Edmonton Oilers G3 Reviews: “I figured we were in line for an easy win…”

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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Cult of Hockey

The Edmonton Oilers out-last Anaheim 6-5 in a sloppy home affair

MIKE SMITH . 4. Stopped just 9 of 13, although only one of them would be considered to be on the weak side. There was some fast and loose defending in front of him. Wondering if the call has already gone out to Stuart Skinner, just in case.
LEON DRAISAITL . 9. Terrific performance. Won 2 late faceoffs in his own zone with the game on the line. 69% in the circle. 3 shots. Named the game’s 1st Star. Was a force out there.
DARNELL NURSE . 7. Nurse led them club with 27:02 TOI. Picked up a 2nd assist on Kassian’s 2nd. 2 shots, 4 hits.
TYSON BARRIE . 3. A forgettable evening for Barrie without the puck.
KAILER YAMAMOTO . 2. An evening he will want to forget. A slow back-check on the 1-0. Then he was also late to the shooter on the 4-3. Was demoted to the 4th line after that. -3 in just 10:00.
ZACK KASSIAN . 8. This is the version of Zack Kassian that the Anaheim Ducks got a belly-full of in the playoffs a few years back. Highly effective tonight. Led the club with 5 hits. Added 3 shots. All of that in just 12:56 of TOI. Made an impact.
EVAN BOUCHARD . 8. Probably his best NHL game to date. Bouchard scored his 1st of the season by taking a Jesse Puljujarvi pass to the net but then had the presence of mind to stay with the puck and poke it back in front where it found the Ducks goaltender cheating off the post. Ended up +2 in just shy of 20 minutes of playing time. Big step up for him.

BLH’s Thoughts: Man, that was some hockey game… Were the Oilers hung over or something because their game overall was shite or at least the first half was until the Ducks ran into a wall and McDavid/Draisaitl took over. Even then the passes were sloppy, the puck battles were weak, zone exits and entries were questionable…

Rob Brown said on the post-game show on 630 CHED that Kailer Yamamoto hasn’t scored in over 30 games going back to last year? Fack Me! Are you serious? He must have some incriminating photos or something because there’s no real reason that he should be getting any time in the top-six after last night’s game let alone to start the year. The team needs to do what’s best and swap him with Kassian or Perlini for the next couple of games to see if he can get some goals.

Same goes for Tyson Barrie, Evan Bouchard is playing well right now and Barrie isn’t, swap ’em for the upcoming two-game roadie. It’ll be a good challenge for Bouch and the coaches will see what he’s made of. At the same time, Barrie gets a bit of a reprieve to slow down and find his game.

Reckon McDavid had a word with Trevor Zegras about that dirty little run at his knee from behind to end the game?#LetsGoOilers @oilersyyc @nhlupdate @ReidWilkins @oilerslive @dstaples @oilersaccess @AzorcanGlobal pic.twitter.com/Jr80PbuecK

— BLH (Edmonton Oilers Enthusiast} (@BeerLeagueHeroe) October 20, 2021

Sportsnet

Oilers’ win over Ducks reminder of how quickly expectations can change

Leon Draisaitl had a four-point night — including career goal No. 200 at the young age of 25 — to move into a tie atop the NHL scoring race with eight points in three games.
Connor McDavid had three points and joins his linemate there, next to L.A.’s Anze Kopitar…
For years we watched teams like Vancouver, Anaheim, San Jose or Los Angeles lay down something south of their best game against the Oilers, yet still end up with two points at the end of the night.
On Tuesday, the shift in power could not have been more stark, as Edmonton played poorly, yet board their charter plane for their first road trip of the season with a tidy 3-0 record.
They’re in Arizona on Thursday night with a very real chance of starting the season at 4-0, though a second effort like this one might raise the coach’s ire a little bit.
Edmonton lost No. 1 goalie Mike Smith when Devin Shore’s skate appeared to hit the back of Smith’s leg during a scramble.

BLH’s Thoughts: How many pundits said that 150pts is out of the question for McDavid this year?

Yesterday I said I thought that Anaheim was a beatable team and the Oilers made me sweat for it. Well, they’re going into Arizona to play a team that is surely doing it’s best to tank in order for the best odds at winning the lottery and a chance to draft Shane Wright, the Coyotes are most definitely a beatable team but I’m hoping Edmonton can bring a much better effort to that game.

How convenient is it that Stu Skinner is only a few minutes away in Bakersfield should he need to be called up in the event Mike Smith needs an extra week off. Why didn’t Tippett start Koskinen to begin with? There’s nothing wrong with going two on, two off or two on, one off depending on that netminder’s form. I feel like Tippett is managing the roster like this season is a sprint, not a marathon…

I also wonder with all this Lawson Crouse talk if there might be an early season swap between the Oilers and the Coyotes. Remember, Arizona has had interest in Tyler Benson all off-season and I’m pretty certain they’ve just been waiting for him to hit waivers to claim him.

Crouse is on an expiring deal that’ll see him become an RFA at season’s end. So he’s a guy that the Oilers would have under “team control” for those of you that listen carefully to Bob Stauffer’s insider buzzwords when listening to his daily radio show.

Nuge just threads this one. 😯 #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/9738JOCPNA

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 20, 2021

Oilersnation

Oilers close out a wild 6-5 win over the Ducks

I figured we were in line for an easy win based on the fact that the Oilers were coming off a big win against the Flames, had a couple of days rest since that game, and that the Ducks were coming into town on the second half of a back-to-back set.
…the Oilers kept finding ways to respond regardless of what the Ducks threw their way, and they needed to draw on that resilience a few times to pull this one out.
Dave Tippett and co would have much preferred not to have to wrestle the lead away three separate times before being able to cash in the two points…
At the end of the day, no one cares about how you won these early season games provided that the points are tucked away in the bank. And with the first homestand in the books, the Oilers find themselves with a perfect record even if the performances were anything but.
Evan Bouchard gave the Oilers their third lead of the night with one of the oddest goals I’ve seen in quite some time… Dad had himself a whale of a game where he finished with 19:35 in TOI, one goal, one assist, seven blocks, and six shots on goal.
Koskinen was called upon to make some big saves down the stretch and he rose to the challenge and shut the door, giving the Oilers the opportunity they needed to lock up a win. Kostco finished with 20 saves and a .952 save%.
…the Oilers won 58% of the faceoffs…
There were too many giveaways in their own zone. I don’t know if guys were flying the zone a little bit early or what was going on there…
Smith wasn’t exactly having the greatest night as he allowed four goals on 14 shots, not all of which were his fault but certainly his problem.

BLH’s Thoughts: Evan Bouchard almost killed Anthony Stolarz eh? That clapper of his nailed the Ducks netminder up high in the second period if I recall correctly. Question, why don’t goalies need to go to the quiet room when the puck smokes them in the head and the play has to be stopped?

Speaking of good goalies, how about Mikko Koskinen coming in and saving a night’s worth of saves in the last half of the game? I was under the impression that Edmonton took over in the latter half of the second period, but apparently the team’s just swapped game plans.

Is anybody going to say something about Trevor Zegras’ dirty spear on Puljujarvi or his BS hit on McDavid from behind that targeted the Oilers’ captain’s knee in the dying seconds of the game? Also, why didn’t anybody grab that little prick and feed him an uppercut? You don’t do that to the world’s greatest player and Connor shouldn’t have to have that talk with the young American upstart, Darnell or Kassian should be passing that message on.