Edmonton Oilers Gameday Reviews: Oilers Krak One Off in Seattle With McLovin’ Leading the Way

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: Short-staffed Oilers overcome absences, two-goal deficit to grind down Kraken

#97 Connor McDavid, 8. Robbed of his regular wingers he just went out his business and played a strong two-way game… Oilers’ best on the dot at 10/16=63%. Full value for his 1-1-2, +2.
#70 Colton Sceviour, 8. His night got off to a rough start when he got drilled right in the numbers into the boards by Jeremy Lauzon, a blatant and dangerous infraction that somehow was missed by both referees… The Oilers outshot Seattle 10-2 (high danger chances 4-0) on his watch, with 5 of those shots coming off Sceviour’s own stick.
#37 Warren Foegele, 8. Finally given a real chance in the top six this week, and has responded with a series of strong games. This may have been the best of them, with a pair of hard-working goals in nearly 20 minutes of ice time.
#65 Cooper Marody, 6. His first NHL game since the man who acquired him, Peter Chiarelli, was Oilers GM… He responded to his 6 minutes of opportunity when he made a high-skill play to recover a stray puck along the side wall and feed it to Bouchard who blasted it home, resulting in Marody’s first NHL point.
#23 Seth Griffith, 6. Emergency recall played his 80th NHL game but his first in four seasons… His signature moment came on the 3-2 when he crashed the boards hard to win a puck to McDavid; said puck proceeded forthwith into the blue paint, then the back of the net.
#20 Slater Koekkoek, 6. The one piece of good news on the manpower front was Koekkoek’s return from Injured Reserve after a full month on the sidelines… Hard to argue with shot attempts to 19-11, shots of 10-7, and especially goals of 3-0 on his watch.
#16 Tyler Benson, 6. Responded with a fine performance that included a couple of sharp passes and persistent strong work in the tough areas. Dished out a couple of hits and was on the receiving end of a couple as well, but took them to make the play.
#42 Brendan Perlini, 6. Elevated to Draisaitl’s wing and responded with a workmanlike effort. 2 shots, 4 hits, and some strong skating.
#56 Kailer Yamamoto, 6. Just his second assist of the season, and his first shot on net in 8 games for that matter. 5 shot attempts in all, and a more engaged game.

BLH’s Thoughts: I’ve found that in these two most recent victories that Edmonton’s bottom-six has been a major catalyst for the wins. My only question is, why did it take so long for them to show up?

Three highlights stick out in my mind from this game,

#56’s clapper from the high slot on one of Edmonton’s powerplays lead to a rebound which Warren Foegele sniped home.

Yamamoto draping himself all over Jordan Eberle and somehow not getting called for a penalty. Ebs was beside himself by the end of his shift and I was left wondering how Killer got away with about five different infractions.

Killer’s backcheck on Brandon Tanev’s shorthanded breakaway. He did just enough to take most of that shot away from Tanev.

Yamamoto was much better and not just a penalty drawer in this one. He asserted his will on this game and was rewarded for it, more or less.

That said, not every game can be at home for Kailer and everybody will be looking for him to build on that performance.

Not that this means anything but the Oilers are 2-1-0 under Glen Gulutzan and Jim Playfair and the bottom six has been given extra TOI and trust which has been repaid in effort and goals. I will be looking to see if this stays the same when Dave Tippett returns from COVID protocol…

Sportsnet

Undermanned Oilers rally together for invigorating win over Kraken

Minus half of their top-six forwards and trailing 2-0 not 10 minutes into the game, the Oilers ground out a comeback win with impressive work ethic and structure that simply overran the Seattle Kraken.
The Oilers never stopped coming at the Kraken, outshooting them 41-17 in a 5-3 win despite a bunch of recent losses to COVID protocol and playing one forward shy of a full lineup.
Foegele, who had snapped a 20-game goal-less skid the game prior, popped two.
And Colton Sceviour, a fourth-line banger who answered the call with a short-staffed lineup, played 14:31 and had five shots on net and a goal.
Darnell Nurse was a horse on the back end, logging another 25:38 of ice time. Nurse played the final 3:51 of the game without going off.
In all, the Oilers had 73 shots attempts to Seattle’s 30. The ice was tilted all night long…

BLH’s Thoughts: Slater Koekkoek had himself a decent game considering he hadn’t played for a month.

The Kraken’s defense looked a bit lost without Jamie Oleksiak but Vince Dunn found a way to keep himself entertained by attaching his hip to Connor McDavid’s. I’m surprised more teams don’t get in Connor’s face more often seeing as it has to be known league-wide that he’s instructed the ruffians on is team not to retaliate if somebody takes liberties with him.

Is it me or is Colton Sceviour earning himself another contract with the Oilers right now. Somebody called him this year’s Devin Shore and it’s hard to argue with that right now.

I’m not confident that the NHL isn’t going to shut ‘er down until after Christmas or longer, but if the Oilers get to continue playing, Seth Griffith intrigues me. He brought a bit of grit and sandpaper to Edmonton’s lineup and his hit on the Kraken dman lead to Sceviour’s goal. I do wonder if he gets some extra time while the regulars are in COVID protocol?

I still don’t think Cooper Marody is an NHLer but good for him for getting on the scoresheet last night. That little move along the boards to get the puck up to Bouchard with a Seattle player on his back, it was a really clever play.

Last point, when Stu Skinner made that post-to-post save on Jared McCann, did your groin muscle split in half too?

Spector’s Hockey

GOPHNX.COM: Craig Morgan believes Coyotes general manager Bill Armstrong is probably listening to offers rather than actively shopping Chychrun. He noted the New York Islanders inquired about the blueliner during the offseason.
- Morgan doesn’t rule out Armstrong shopping Chychrun and some of the club’s middle-core players (Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Lawson Crouse and Christian Fischer) as the reality of the club’s rebuild starts to set in for some of them.