Edmonton Oilers Gameday Reviews: McDavid’s Streak Snapped! Koskinen Finntastic! Nuge is NHL’s Assist Leader!

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

Unbelievable Oilers continue to find different ways to win games

After missing plenty of chances to break the game open in the first period, Edmonton hunkered down and gutted out a 2-1 win at Vancouver Saturday, preserving a shutout until the 19:55 mark of the third period.
Quietly, over two seasons, the Oilers have set a team record with 10 straight road wins. Not so quietly, Edmonton has marched to a 6-1 start with a stifling, efficient 2-1 victory over the Canucks.
They were excellent five-on-five and if not for Thatcher Demko and a couple of goal posts Edmonton could easily have doubled its offensive output.
The assist was Nugent-Hopkins’ 10th of the season, tops in the NHL. He still hasn’t scored a goal this season, yet sits in a tie for 12th in league scoring, mostly due to a power play where he has set up six goals already this season.
McDavid’s streak of multi-point games to start a season ended at six. He only managed a single assist Saturday and missed out on most of the empty-net time when Darnell Nurse was sent to the penalty box for cross-checking.
Koskinen, steady and at times spectacular in making 29 saves, was every bit a star in this one. After a so-so outing his last time out, Koskinen has now gone 4-1 in the Oilers’ last five games…

BLH’s Thoughts: Fack! That was one helluva game, eh? Both goalies were lights out and Connor McDavid was lucky not to have a 4pt night? How about Puljujarvi too? My boy was THAT close to potting a couple himself. Last point here, the pairing of Nurse and Bouchard are fast becoming on of the league’s best and with the support of Keith and Ceci, the Oilers don’t much have to rely on a couple of above average blue liners to carry the entire defense. They’ve got two units who can play off of each other.

I will say though, that second period left something to be desired. Either Edmonton let their foot off the pedal or the Canucks really ramped up their efforts, because the Oilers looked like they were chasing that entire period. Also, one has to wonder, how long is Dave Tippett going to give Kailer Yamamoto to get out of this funk of his? Tick Tock…

The Cult of Hockey

Player grades: Oilers dominate early, hang on late to edge Canucks 2-1

#20 Slater Koekkoek, 4. Played 12 minutes on the third pairing and recorded the rare clean sheet on the Event Summary with 0 shot attempts, hits, blocks or anything else.
#13 Jesse Puljujarvi, 7. Held off the scoresheet for the first time all season Played a strong defensive game, tracking the puck hard and winning a number of battles along the walls.
#16 Tyler Benson, 5. Took a couple of hits to make the play, and dished out a couple of his own.
#19 Mikko Koskinen, 8. Bounced back hard from Wednesday’s bad outing, delivering a rock-solid performance in what turned into a goaltending duel.Unlucky to lose his shutout in the dying seconds after a bad bounce and some soft defensive coverage, but much more importantly he got the win, his 4th in 5 appearances since Mike Smith got hurt.
#25 Darnell Nurse, 7. Oilers’ first pairing was comfortably their best, with Edmonton dominating possession to the tune of ~70% in all shot shares.
#37 Warren Foegele, 7. Opened the scoring with a rare second-unit powerplay goal, planting his feet at the edge of the blue paint and powering a rebound shot past a diving Demko and Oliver Ekman-Larsson.
#75 Evan Bouchard, 7. His ascension to the first pairing has been the pleasant surprise of the young season. The puck was moving north when he and Nurse were on the ice, with Edmonton outshooting Vancouver 14-6 during Bouchard’s nearly 24 minutes at even strength.
#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 7. Became the first NHLer this season to reach double digits in assists. 3 shots, 2 hits, 1 block in 20:17 of ice time.
#97 Connor McDavid, 9. Held to less than 2 points for the first time all season, even as it was likely his best game to date. His body of work included the customary dazzling skating and puck control, 9 shots on net, a phenomenal pass that Puljujarvi rang off the post, a great defensive stop against Bo Horvat that may well have saved a goal, and the biggest hit of the night.

BLH’s Thoughts: There was some talk in the offseason that RNH was going to bounce back with the security of a long-term deal in his back pocket and man, has he ever!

What’s Dave Tippett going to do if his 2nd unit powerplay starts outscoring the first one? That’s quite the conundrum to have but I will say this, Foegele was kidn of getting lost in the fray a bit recently I found and I’m pumped that he could pot one tonight.

I think another problem that Edmonton’s coaching staff is starting to ponder is if they need to throw somebody up to replace Yamamoto, who’s it going to be with the 3rd line playing so well as a unit? I don’t think a real candidate has made himself a clear candidate and that’ll work to Killer’s favor. I mean, you would’ve thought Brendan Perlini would have a goal or two by now considering how hot he was in the preseason, but he’s getting scratched for Tyler Benson. What about Colton Sceviour though? He had himself a pretty good year in Florida a couple campaigns back and he plays a similar style to Yamo…

We can’t end this without talking about “The Hit”, right?

https://twitter.com/dhockey13/status/1454636802774470656

The Daily Goal Horn

Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings will miss eight weeks and fellow defenseman Sean Walker will miss the rest of the season due to knee injuries, the team announced on Wednesday… This has the Kings in the market for a defenseman per Pierre LeBrun.
Last night, the Kings had several scouts in the building. Per TFP’s Dennis Bernstein: Vancouver, Philadelphia, Nashville, NYI, Boston, Minnesota and Calgary were in attendance.
TV Analyst Kevin Weekes noted a coaching change was coming in Florida. “Keep an eye on my ESPN colleague John Tortorella as one of the top potential candidates,” he tweeted.
According to David Pagnotta of TFP, Korpisalo will be a wanted man and the Jackets are ready to listen to offers.
“If this team is in their rebuild process, he’s going to be a guy that clubs are going to be looking at,” Pagnotta said. “Teams that are looking to bolster themselves between the pipes will be calling Columbus to see what it’s going to take to get this guy.”