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Thoughts On The Oilers Dramatic Win Vs The Jets... With Pictures!

October 17, 2018, 2:21 PM ET [73 Comments]
Sean Maloughney
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT

This team is going to put me into an early grave.

1ST PERIOD

Once again the Oilers started the game flat and were forced to play catch up. Edmonton was dominated by the Jets for the first period. Scoring chances were 8-3 in favour of the Jets with most of them due to poor defensive play; courtesy of the Garrison-Benning pairing. Before the game I questioned going with Benning over Bouchard and my fears were warranted. Here is a breakdown of the Jets first goal scored by Adam Lowry.

The Oilers have three players parked in front (blocking) the net. Matt Benning is behind the net trying to take the puck from Tanev.

Tanev pushes off Benning and moves the puck down to Lowry. Leon Draisaitl moved away from the net and has gone to Lowry as has Matt Benning.

Here is where things get ugly. Draisaitl was guarding Lowry but took the outside, allowing Lowry a clear line to the net. Benning and Tanev have chased the play to the corner and Benning actually pushes Tanev into Draisaitl completely removing him from the play.

Lowry now has a clear shot to the net and Garrison makes a split second decision. Garrison looks as though his first intent was to keep his stick down to prevent a pass for a shot from the slot but as Lowry goes towards the net Garrison is too slow and Lowry scores.

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The second goal needs only one picture. Once again Benning and Garrison found themselves hemmed in their own end but Garrison manages to retreive the puck. He is not really under pressure here and has a few options:
A) Pass the puck up for Brodziak who is skating forward right beside him.
B) Chip a pass over to Jujhar Khaira in the bottom right on the screen
C) Chip the puck out and make a line change.
Garrison elects for D) None of the above and gives a blantant giveaway to Copp which leads to another Lowry goal.

Through the second and third period Benning and Garrison had their ice time slashed heavily and barely saw the ice in the final 10 minutes of the third.

A few minutes of play later the Oilers get a powerplay opportunity. Draisaitl starts in the Oilers zone and passes the puck up to McDavid. I was unable to provide images here because McDavid was too fast to be seen as he blows past the Jets defense and tucks one past Hellebuyck. Once again though it needs to be pointed out that this PP goal was less of a result of the system in place and more just McDavid breaking out alone.

Ghosts of 2017/2018 found their way into this game as less than 30 seconds after the Oilers got within one Chiarot blasts a puck past Talbot to make it a 3-1 game.

2ND PERIOD

If the first period was the Oilers struggling to get out of bed, the second period was when the Oilers finally got out of bed and made themselves breakfast. They still weren't playing at their best but they at least looked like they were accomplishing something.

Edmonton ended up out-shooting Winnipeg 12-11. Natural Stat Trick has the SCF (Scoring Chances For) in favour of Edmonton 9-4 but listed the HDCF (High Danger Chances For) 4-3 for the Jets.

Basically that means that while Edmonton produced more overall potential scoring chances, only three of those chances really had any danger of going in. Contrast that to the Jets who all 4 of their chances were dangerous ones. HDCF is nowhere near an exact science but mainly describes scoring chances in the slot and closer.

The Oilers went on the PK on a fairly weak penalty call on Milan Lucic which Scheifele was able to capitalize on. Despite that it was a fairly close period but watching the TV it looked as though even if the Oilers kept it close for the rest of the game they had once again dug themselves too big a hole to escape from.

3RD PERIOD

18 seconds into the period Rattie got the Oilers on the board. McDavid skated with the puck into the zone and fanned on a shot (left it for?) which Ty Rattie retrieved and fired a quick shot past Hellebuyck. This began a brilliant comeback in which the Oilers were the dominant team for the entire period.

The Oilers found the back of the net on their second PP too. Nugent Hopkins rang a shot off the post and after a scrum in front of the net the puck made it's way to McDavid who made no mistake scoring.

It was also on this goal that McDavid broke the record for most consecutive points on goals to start the season, breaking Adam Oates record of 7 from 1986. After the game McDavid was asked how we felt about it and he answered with a lethargic "whatever." McDavid knows what that stat represents. His teammates better be buying all of his dinners and realize they need to get their act together.

I want to point out that every goal the Oilers scored this game came from the team either starting with possession due to a faceoff or by skating the puck in to the zone... it is almost as if continuously giving up possession by dumping the puck in only to try and retrieve it after is not a recipe for success.

Tip of my hat to Todd McLellan. Going in to the third things were not working and he chose the right time to mix his lines. Puljujarvi was buzzing all night and Todd finally rewarded #98 with icetime with Leon Draisaitl. Leon and Jesse almost connected a few times but it was with McDavid and Nuge where Puljujarvi got his chance.


With 6:23 left to play McDavid made a great pass to Nuge who threaded the puck to Puljujarvi's stick for the tip in goal tying the game. Seen below is a very happy kid.


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The Oilers went into overtime and at this point I think most fans were ecstatic just for clawing their way back for a point. Darnell Nurse clearly had other things in mind.



Nurse starts with the puck in his zone zone. He checks to his right and sees that Scheifele has just headed off on a line change giving Nurse extra room to skate the puck up.

Laine who has rushed onto the ice after Scheifele changes moves to attack Nurse from the right but Nurse has built up more speed and is ahead of him.

As Ehlers closes in on Nurse from the front, Darnell dekes the puck to the right causing Ehlers to misread the play and skate by... Nurse now has a clear shot to the net.

Morrissey rushes over to try and cover but Nurse gets a clean wrist shot off, beating Hellebuyck stick side for the OT winner.

FINAL THOUGHTS

As I wrote in the Game Preview this was an important win for Edmonton. After a terrible start which the Oilers looked completely flat the team has rebounded with 2 wins and now finally go home to play their opener. By no means was it close to a perfect game but the team rebounded when they needed to and got the win.

The defense situation is quickly becoming alarming for Edmonton. Benning is struggling wherever he is being placed in the lineup. Russell has done a fine job with Nurse but long term he is best suited for a third pairing role. Garrisson is showing why he was in the AHL last season.

All of this adds up to the fact that Bouchard might play past 9 games purely because of the lack of depth. I would not be surprised if there is a scenario where both he and Bear are on the roster.

Draisaitl has 5 points in 4 games which sounds great but his overall play has still left me wanting more. He only registered one shot on goal against the Jets. His linemates are clearly part of the issue but Leon needs to be better himself.

The Oilers play again on Thursday hoping to carry their third period momentum in a rematch against the Bruins.
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