Edmonton Oilers Gameday Reviews: B’s Hand Oilers Another “L” Despite Being Badly Outplayed

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

Player grades: Leon Draisaitl drives hard but Edmonton Oilers fail to comeback in loss to Boston

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 3. Not his best game. One of his worst, in fact… The team had four shots four, 15 against at even strength with him on the ice.
Zack Kassian, 3 . The quiet member of this line, which isn’t what you want from a forward.
Zach Hyman, 4. Not his night, even as the hustle was there.
Tyson Barrie, 4. Turned over the puck, then got beat on the breakaway on Marchand’s goal in the first, making him the culprit on Edmonton’s first power play goal against all season.
Jesse Puljujarvi, 7. Solid game, with his feet moving. He got a Grade A shot in the first period off a tip, a second off a hard slot wrister in the second period, then a third on a dangerous slot tip off of Nurse’s shot a moment later. He came down the wing and ripped a Bobby Hull of a slapper on net in the third.
Leon Draisaitl, 8. Great game. Solid in his own zone, fantastic on the attack. He got a terrible penalty call against him early in the second on a Marchand dive…
Kailer Yamamoto, 6. He drew a key penalty in the third with his hard work on the boards.
Warren Foegele, 7. More of this, please. He tied with Draisaitl for a team high six shots on net. Two Grade A shots came off his hard-hard driving ways. He charged hard in the third, ripped a high slot wrister, then almost put in his own rebound. A moment later he almost scored again on another hard rush into the slot.
Cody Ceci, 6. He made sharp and smart defensive plays all game.
Stuart Skinner, 6. Fought off Brad Marchand’s power play one-timer early on, but could not stop his short-handed breakaway rush. Incredible save on Pastrnak’s one-timer in the third, just when the Oil need one… On the winning goal, he was screened.

BLH’s Thoughts: What was that thing Jason Gregor said the other day? Usually when teams play well and still lose, that’s a sign they’re coming out of their slump. Well, what happens when they play well two times in a row and still lose? Does that mean you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t? Maybe everybody just needs to cut down their sticks a bit or adjust the lie or flex…

The effort was there, but the execution was not. Simple as that. And do you wanna know how I know the effort was there? Derek Ryan had himself a really decent 6:35 of TOI. There was some pep in his step for sure and it’s almost a shame his line didn’t get another shift or two.

With that said, if they continue to play like this, the slump will end.

However, do they want to take this style into a game with a high-octane team like Toronto or Carolina?

Sportsnet

Slumping Oilers need more from guys not named McDavid, Draisaitl

It is the Homestand from Hell. But it is telling us everything we need to know — or perhaps feared — about these Edmonton Oilers.
To our eye, and those of a prominent scout who attended Thursday’s game, Connor McDavid looks whipped.
Draisaitl averages 22:59 per game, McDavid 22:32 — and carrying this team is already taking its toll, just 25 games in.
There simply isn’t enough support among this forward group underneath the two superstars. So when they tire, and the Oilers trail the way they have of late, the coach goes to the whip on Draisaitl and McDavid — because they represent his best chance to win, by a large margin.
Zack Kassian continues to check in with a crippling defensive miscue every second night, this time missing his check that began the sequence that ended in Matt Grzelcyk’s game-winner with less than three minutes left.
You want to talk about this team’s playoff hopes? Until that gets solved, there are no lengthy playoff runs in this club’s future.
There is no cavalry in Edmonton. This team is waiting around for their two superstars to dig them out of this slump. Other than a nice game by Warren Foegele, there is no virtually no offensive threat that does not begin with or involve Nos. 29 and 97.
GM Ken Holland, has to find more players who can help McDavid and Draisaitl find a way to win.

BLH’s Thoughts: Edmonton’s stars are feeling exhausted, eh? Can anybody tell me whose idea it is to play them for half of the game? That’s a coaching decision, right? Okay, just checking in on that.

I’m curious if anybody has considered the notion that maybe the other forwards see McDavid and Draisaitl as crutches. Meaning, if the rest of the roster goes dry, they’ve always got The Hart Foundation who could swing the game.

I think a hockey player has to feel trusted in order to do his best work on the ice. When the coach plays two guys half the game, I don’t imagine that makes anybody else (especially those whose minutes are getting cut), feel trusted.

Consider how well the third line has looked from the start of the game these last two matches. Tippett trusted them to get his team off on the right foot and they responded in kind.

The fact of the matter is, Tippett running 97 and 29 into the ground has been a failing tactic the last 15 games because the club is 7-8-0. So not only has the team given away 16pts in the standings, their stars are getting worn down and if they continue to go down that road, their next stop is on the IR.

To nobody’s surprise, the Oilers fanbase is reeling after this loss, but nobody is taking it harder than this guy. Somebody, give that guy a hug and a fist bump (that’s what the Dude Broguys do, right?) and possibly pass along what the definition of defamation is in case he needs to lawyer up.

Now, back to the game from last night.

I’ve loved the effort from the team in these two losses to Minnesota and Boston, the puck just isn’t going in for them 5v5, but they were playing a tired Bruins team that was on the hind end of a b2b and to add to that, the first game of that back-to-back was in Vancouver and it went to overtime. Ullmark was having trouble sealing the puck all night and Tippett’s boys, for whatever reason, couldn’t capitalize on that.

Serenity now…

Look, I can handle the club losing when the effort is there and I don’t imagine I’m alone in that sentiment and did you know that the Tampa Bay Lightning lost four games in a row in 2019-20 before went on to win the Stanley Cup?

Was Taylor Hall playing in this game? You would’ve never known because usually there’s a massive faction of fans on Oilers Twitter who get to throw their Viagra away for the night when he comes to town, but last night it was all crickets from his fans.

Do you know who was in the game? McLovin’! Warren Foegele made Boston’s night a living hell in the muck. His forecheck was on point and to be honest, that 3rd line were really decent again. They do a fantastic job of ragging the puck down low so they can send it high for a point shot. The defenders should work on their one-timers or something because when they receive that pass from the corner, they’re always taking too long and it allows the other team’s defending forward the time to fill the lane.

Pulju almost scored on that clapper off the flank, eh? Fack! That would’ve been nice if it’d gone in. Nobody takes shots like that anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6EBZOmCJBo

The Hockey Writers Rumors

According to Elliotte Friedman on The Jeff Marek Show, there are a number of names already getting serious consideration to take over as head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers. He notes, “I think some other names you’re potentially going to hear are going to be [Rick] Tocchet, [John] Tortorella, Jim Montgomery, maybe Travis Green and Dave Quinn, I think those are some of the names that are kind of circulating around.”
As per Emily Kaplan of ESPN, “Two teams that believe they have legitimate chances to win it all this year: the Carolina Hurricanes and Edmonton Oilers. I’ve been told that both teams are looking to add to their blue line.” She goes on to write that two sources have speculated that the Oilers and Marc-Andre Fleury make a lot of sense, but that Fleury would have to be on board with the move and be excited by the idea of trying to chase a Stanley Cup in Canada with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.
In addition to Dylan Strome still being available, David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period noted during an interview with the NHL Network that Calvin de Haan’s name has come up in trade rumors because the defenseman is in the final year of his current deal with the club.