A Win! A WIN!!!!
I had to google the word just to make sure I knew exactly what we were talking about. The Oilers played OK game and their goaltending wasn't overly terrible long enough for them to get the win against a tired Kings team. It was exactly what they needed.
For a few minutes in the 3rd period it looked like the team was about to go Full Oilers again, but to their credit they did not collapse completely. One of the biggest problems with the team has been that after a questionable or untimely goal was scored against them there would be 2 more to follow in short order. Last night Ben Scrivens shut the door after the 2nd Kings goal.
The best sequence of the night came during OT when the Oilers dominated possession and generated several quality chances. Edmonton was outshot 39-21, out-Fenwicked 49-38, and out-Corsi'd 68-57 but during overtime they dominated to the tune of 8-2 in Corsi and Fenwick. The Oilers were skating circles around the Kings during those 5 minutes and it's no wonder Sutter resorted to "Gamesmanship" during the shootout.
That Goalie Stick Tape rule is very specific about white tape and the size of the knob at the end *snicker*. I'm not sure that I've ever seen a player called out on that before but Sutter obviously noticed the Orange tape and wanted to rattle Scrivens. Instead of pushing him to lose focus he just laughed it off. Thank goodness.
It wasn't the perfect game and the Oilers were still out chanced, but their effort looked good and they cut out the boneheaded plays. Simply cutting out those game breaking mental lapses will go a long way to keeping them in games long enough to steal Wins.
Now turning our sights ahead to tonight's game, the Oil need to be ready to play this 2nd half of the back to back with the same major mistake free play. It was roughly 2 minutes of mind numbing mistakes that killed the club against the Flames. Before and after then it was a close game.
If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball. If you can beat the Kings you can beat the Flames.
Happy New Years, everybody.
LINEUP
We are expecting the same lines barring two things: 1) Derek Roy's cut acts up and he can't play. 2) Nikita Nikitin is not well enough to play in consecutive nights. When Roy's ankle was cut last night it felt like the Hockey Gods were going to waste no time in crushing the new Oilers into a fine paste. Luckily the tendon was missed and he was back for the 2nd period and beyond. As it turns out Aulie WILL play tonight and Scrivens will go again in the back to back.
Hall RNH Eberle Yak Roy Purcell Perron Drai Fraser Hendricks Gordon Pitlick
Ference Petry Klefbom Fayne Aulie Schultz
Scrivens
OILERS KEYS TO THE GAME
1) Tired Legs. Nikita Nikitin only played 11:15 against the Kings which meant that the rest of the Defense had to play more to make up for it. Nelson played the rest of the group in this order: Klefbom (25:27), Petry (25:20), Ference (22:14), Fayne (21:54), Schultz (19:34). So instead of complaining about Schultz hitting almost 20 minutes I will applaud Nelson for playing him the least of his healthy Defenders. That said, the blueline doesn't have a lot of time to recover and they will need to be ready tonight.
2) Johnny Hockey. The Oilers cannot afford to take this 5'1", 89lb, child-sized skate wearing player lightly. Gaudreau is too talented to overlook. It pains me greatly to admit that the Flames hit a home run when they selected this player. He's shifty, he's fast, he's creative, and he can shoot the puck. It sickens me.
3) Nuge Rising. As this season wears on the play of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins continues to get better. I am blown away by how much better his shot is this year compared to last. That goal yesterday was 1 part great pass by Hall and 1 part laser beam from Nuge. He still looks like a kid and I am excited about the next 10 years of this young man's career. Hopefully he picks up against Calgary where he left with Los Angeles.
Puck drops at 7:38 PM Mountain Time on Sportsnet. Game On!
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