Embarrassed is the only way to describe the Oilers loss last night to the Leafs. The first period started off heavy in the Oilers favor, with the Oilers dominating the Leafs on the shot clock early. On a night where the conversation was supposed to be about McDavid and Matthews, it was Draisaitl who impressed early on, beating both of Toronto's defenders and cashing in on his own rebound to put Edmonton up 1-0 early.
Sadly as the period came to a close, you could sense the Leafs were starting to come alive and after a PP goal at the end of the first, the score was 1-1...after that it was all Toronto.
The rest of the game was completely controlled by the Leafs, the Oilers got absolutely zero help from Koskinen but the pace of play and speed through the neutral zone absolutely neutered the Oilers. For most of the game it felt as though the Leafs were playing against an AHL team, it looked like absolutely zero contest for them.
The Oil has no time to feel sorry fort themselves or lick their wounds as they play in Ottawa tonight. This is the first contest between the Oilers and Senators of the season. Tonight is a must win game for Edmonton... not because of the sliver of playoff hope that the team has...but because losing to a roster this bad would be more embarrassing than any loss to Toronto could be.
LINEUP
OILERS
RNH-McDavid-Gagner Rieder-Draisaitl-Chiasson Lucic-Cave-Currie Malone-Brodziak-Kassian
Klefbom-Larsson Nurse-Russell Sekera-Benning
Koskinen SENATORS
Tkachuk-White-Duclair Smith-Pageau-Ryan Batherson-Tierney-Boedker Paajarvi-Lindberg-Gibbons
Chabot-Demelo Borowiecki-Ceci Harpur-Jaros
Anderson
4 KEYS TO VICTORY 1) Crush Them. The Senators are the last place team in the NHL by a decent margin, and that was before they traded away three high calibre players in Duchene, Stone, and Dzingel. The day after the deadline the Senators were crushed to the tune of 7-2 by the Capitals. Ottawa has some young talent and a slew of draft picks to start rebuilding but in the meantime they are going to be bad. I would not be surprised if the Senators had less than 5 wins for the rest of the season... don't let tonight be one of those wins.
2) Two Things To Cheer For. Draisaitl has 15 goals in his last 15 games and fans will be watching to see if he is their first 50 goal man in over 20 years. Leon has been shooting an immense amount this season and is only 22 shots away from his previous career high...a result he should absolutely surpass.
McDavid meanwhile is far behind in the scoring race but tonight could be a great opportunity for him to pad his stats. Seriously with this Senators team a 6 or 7 point night is not out of the question for Connor.
3) Two Threats. Chabot and Tkachuk are the two players the Oil have to zero in on tonight. Tkachuk is having a strong rookie season and now that the dust has settled, leads the Senators in goals with 14. Meanwhile Thomas Chabot is an brilliant weapon on the backend and leads the team in goals.
4) A Career High. Last night, RNH quietly tied his previous career high in points and it could be a safe bet to predict him to surpass that number tonight. Keep Nugent-Hopkins, Draisaitl, and McDavid... do not trade any of these players.