As Connor McDavid picked up his 3rd assist and the Oilers went up 3-1, I started to think that this Edmonton had turned the corner. They were up by two goals on the reigning Stanley Cup champions and things were looking rosy. McDavid vs. Crosby was living up to its billing and my prediction of this being one of the most entertaining games of the year was coming true!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4wsBSmKKqQ
Then it all started to go all Oiler-y and the Penguins started to leeeeeaaaannnn on the Oilers…
Goal No.2
Leon Draisaitl coughed the puck up in the neutral zone and the puck found its way to one half of the headliners, Crosby. Then he decided to penetrate the Oilers zone with ease BUT was held to the outside by the Swedish Terminator, Adam Larsson. Crosby chipped it into the slot to a driving Trevor Daley, he gets a shot, which is stopped but its rebound went straight to an unmarked Carl “Mr.Flow 2016” Hagelin and he deposited that directly behind an outstretched Cam Talbot… All with Leon within feet of the Swede…
Goal No.3
Tyler Pitlick fails to capitalize on an absolute gift of a pass from Milan Lucic (Which sort of makes up for that beauty of a tape-to-tape he gave to the Penguins in the 1st period that they used to score their first goal), Penguins streak back the other way 3-on-2 and with Kessel quarterbacking this one, he chucks a floater at the net which was behind Malkin, yet he finds a way to get his stick on the puck anyhow and it goes in the net… FLUKE CITY… Regardless though. Malkin made a pretty sweet move to get his stick back to tap that puck into the net and the Oilers should’ve scored on their chance.
**Extra points to Pitlick for backchecking as hard has he did and smashing his face into the crossbar in an attempt to stop Malkin.**
Goal No.4
You have got to be pretty heartless if you’re going to blame this loss on Benoit Pouliot because earlier Jordan Eberle had an opportunity to put the Oilers back ahead AND nab a hat-trick goal but failed. Batting the puck into the other team’s net is hard enough, batting it into your own net… Near to impossible. Especially when you’re trying to swat Bryan Rust’s stick out of the way and on the back swing your stick catches the biscuit and directs in twine-ward.
Batting the puck into the other team’s net is hard enough, batting it into your own net… Near to impossible. Especially when you’re trying to swat Conor Sheary’s stick out of the way and on the back swing your stick catches the biscuit and directs in twine-ward. Maybe Cam could’ve helped out a bit more. Maybe Oscar could’ve been in better position…
In the end, it was the other Conor that won the game for his team. The Oilers’ Connor McDavid could do no more to lift his team and he made a lot of people forget about the USA voting their new overlord into office (PS: good luck with that America!). The Oilers have to score on those blatantly obvious chances that they’ve been wiffing on or else we’re going to keep seeing losses like this one. The boys had it in the bag but couldn’t hold on… It’s maddening to see Edmonton go up on these NHL titans, only to lose it on questionable and avoidable goals later on.
I did predict the Oilers would lose this match in my previous blog and to be honest, I thought the Pens were going to roll over them. I also said to expect the unexpected with this team and they showed me because I didn’t even take my own advice. I never expected them to go up 3-1 on the champs. Then again, I didn’t expect them to let in 3 unanswered goals after that either…
Moral of the story: The Edmonton Oilers are for real. Belee Dat!
Next game is against the banged up Dallas Stars… Didn’t they just give up 8 goals to the Winnipeg Jets? Man, if Calgary finds a way to beat them… All hell could break lose versus Edmonton. I hope they leave McDavid as open as they did Patrik Laine last night. I’d love to see Connor rack up 5 points on the Stars…
What did you think about the game? Let me know in the comments below!
