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: Too little too late as Oilers leave two points behind in Buffalo
- #2 Duncan Keith, 3. Too late recognizing the danger on Ceci’s turnover on the first Buffalo goal. Made a terrible turnover of his own on the 2-2, then was slow to recover as the scoring thrust came back down his side of the ice. Got turnstiled on a couple of other occasions.
- #5 Cody Ceci, 3. Good as he was on Thursday, he was that poor on Friday… 0 shots, in fact the Oilers as a team mustered just 2 in his 12+ minutes at evens.
- #25 Darnell Nurse, 4. Played his customary 24+ minutes with 7 shot attempts, 3 of them on goal.
- #13 Jesse Puljujarvi, 6. Earned the primary assist on Draisaitl’s first goal with a fine one-touch pass.
- #22 Tyson Barrie, 6. The best of a so-so lot of blueliners, Barrie pushed the play north (a team best 14-6 shot share at 5v5) and had his moments on the powerplay as well.
- #29 Leon Draisaitl, 7. The best of the Oilers once again, scoring both Edmonton goals on consecutive second-period powerplays to give the club a short-lived 2-1 lead…16/23=70% on the dot… Oilers dominated possession to the tune of 22-9 shot attempts and 13-6 shots on goal during his 15½ minutes of 5v5 play. Overall he led the team with a massive 25:20, drawing 2 penalties in the process.
- #71 Ryan McLeod, 6. Played the 3C role on this night with 10:33 at even strength, over 4 minutes more than Ryan… Moved the puck effectively at times, beat it square at other times.
- #74 Stuart Skinner, 4. His second start on the road trip, and the second time his team responded with an iffy effort… 23 shots, 20 saves, .870 save percentage.
- #75 Evan Bouchard, 4. A few decent breakout passes and a couple of sharp keep-ins, but far from his offensive best. 0 shots on net.
- #97 Connor McDavid, 6. Was out of synch with his mates at times, sending more than one pass between teammates and right on out of the offensive zone.
BLH’s Thoughts: The sloppy play that Edmonton’s PP and top-six was covering up for earlier in the year as the club started the year in Edmonton is beginning to bite them in the ass against clubs who are willing to work harder. There’s no way in Frank’s Fiery Hell that this Buffalo Sabres roster should be beating the Oilers, regardless of if it was the hind end of a back-to-back.
Oilersnation
The Day After: It’s gut check time for the Edmonton Oilers
- Easy to blame the change of flow in the game on the team slowing down and looking sloppy, but the truth of the matter is the Sabres were just playing better hockey.
- Cody Ceci and Duncan Keith each coughed up pucks on the Sabres’ first and second goals, and on the third, Darnell Nurse tried to carry the puck deep into the offensive zone before turning it over.
- On each goal the Sabres scored, they had a player slip behind the Oilers’ last line of defence and get breakaway chances.
- Some concerning trends are starting to emerge for the Oilers and it’s nothing those who follow the team are foreign to.
- Edmonton’s struggling at five-on-five. In the last seven days, the Oilers have played four games and given up 13 5×5 goals — the most in the league in that time.
- Edmonton’s 30 5×5 goals against are tied for the fourth-worst number in the league with the Vegas Golden Knights. The teams who have given up more? Seattle, Arizona and Chicago.
BLH’s Thoughts: I don’t think the Sabres were playing a better brand of hockey than the Oilers, but fundamentally, they were willing to go to the dirty areas and get to work a bit more than Edmonton. It didn’t help that one of the Oilers’ more reliable pairings had a shit night…
Now we’re back to that whole question regarding whether or not this team is only capable of playing to their opponents level. Losses to Detroit and Buffalo on this road trip weren’t really in my mind when I looked at the schedule…
Now, St. Louis on paper look very formidable (+11 goal differential) but they’re on a 2-game skid at the moment and like Boston, they’re a 4-line team but their defense is suspect and the goaltending has struggled this past week.
Can Edmonton get back to basics and play some sound hockey tonight or will they continue to try and outscore their mistakes? We’re set to find out…
Spector’s Hockey
TSN: Chris Johnston reports goaltender Tuukka Rask has been working out at the Boston Bruins training facility.
THE ATHLETIC: Pierre LeBrun speculated about how much it’ll cost the Toronto Maple Leafs to sign Jack Campbell to a contract extension… LeBrun suggested the annual average value could be somewhere between $4 million and $5 million on a four-to-five year deal if he has another solid season.
LeBrun also reported contract talks between the Nashville Predators and Filip Forsberg are expected to start soon… LeBrun speculates the Forsberg camp could seek an eight-year extension and wondered if either side will use the eight-year, $56 million extension signed by Gabriel Landeskog this summer with the Colorado Avalanche as a comparable.
