Date: October 20th, 2016
Game: 5
VS: St. Louis Blues AT Edmonton
Final Score: 3 – 1 Oilers
Scoring Summary:
1-0 Blues: Yakupov (Edmundson, Jaskin) 3:37 (2nd)
1-1: Pitlick (Sekera, Letestu) 6:22 (2nd)
2-1 Edmonton: Lucic (McDavid, Eberle) 0:36 (3rd)
3-1 Edmonton: McDavid (EN) (unassisted) 19:22 (3rd)
Game Review:
1st Period
It was a fairly ho-hum first period. The Blues generally controlled the play, especially in the first half of it. The Oilers had a hard time getting it going and moving the puck out in the middle 10 minutes. We saw our first tire-fire early with Sekera, Russell, Nugent Hopkins, Lucic, and Eberle being stuck in their own zone. Luckily it ended with New Dad Talbot freezing the puck. Nugent-Hopkins made up for it later when he, Maroon, and Pitlick had some extended zone time with a few shot attempts. The Blues got some excellent chances off give-aways but Talbot was there to shut the door. An Edmonton powerplay resulted in one good scoring chance and not much else. The period ended with a Blues powerplay on a semi-questionable call on Slepyshev. McDavid picked off the puck a couple times and got going with some speed, but didn’t create a whole lot of dangerous chances in the offensive zone this period.
From a defensive standpoint, as mentioned, the Oilers had trouble really getting the puck going for them in the middle 10 minutes. This was largely due to poor zone exits, both by the defenders and forwards. When the Oilers were able to get the puck out of the zone with control, they struggled to convert that into a controlled zone entry. Thankfully, the last five minutes or so showed some life for the Oilers as they began to build a bit of momentum before the late penalty call.
In all, the period was fairly low event for both teams.
Second Period
The period started off with the penalty kill for the Oilers, which was executed quite well. A few minutes later though, the Blues opened the scoring. Of course, it was Nail Yakupov, standing in front and batting in a pass out into the slot off a lost battle behind the net, which in turn was caused by a Sekera controlled entry against.
Later, McDavid and company would create some sustained pressure, something they would do a couple times this period. McDavid has a way of creating something out of nothing.
The Oilers tied it up off a great 4th line goal. Lander created pressure on the defender high in the offensive zone, letting Letestu pick up the puck on a turnover. Quickly Sekera took a quick shot and Pitlick scored with a lovely tip as he crashed the net and the goalie.
By the half-way point of the period, the Blues were getting more shots and generally controlling the play. Each defensive pair took turns with extended zone time against. The worst was a Russell / Sekera shift where they combined for 3 defensive zone turnovers. None-the-less the score stayed tied.
An Adam Larsson penalty led to the Blues second powerplay, which again was reasonably well killed. It wasn’t until the last 30 seconds that Blues had extended zone time and even then they had very few high quality chances.
The period ended with the game tied at one, which was a pretty good spot for the Oilers given they’d played more of the game in their own end (without necessarily giving up a huge number of high quality chances against by eye).
Third Period
What ended up being the winning goal was an absolute beauty by McDavid. It can best be described by saying: Eberle to Connor, who proceeds to do things only Connor can do, then pass to wide open Lucic!
The last PK of the game for the Oilers was not as good as the first two, being heavily Talbot reliant to keep the puck out.
Connor is SO dangerous on the rush, creating more chances than the rest of the team combined in the 3rd (and in the game it seemed).
The Oilers 2nd powerplay unit went to work and created some good chances. The 1st unit came back on and followed up with a glorious chance for Eberle, but gave it back with an equally good chance for Tarasenko at the other end. The last special teams event of the game ended with chances going back and forth but the score remained the same.
The Blues pressed for most of the rest of the game. Yakupov had a beauty chance cutting in with speed to the front of the net. The Oilers would get high quality chances back the other way (mostly by Lucic and McDavid) off quick-break rushes.
The game was finally put out of reach on an empty net goal by McDavid, who picked the puck off at the blue-line, took off at a ridiculous speed, on easily buried it on a partial breakaway.
Game As A Whole
I suspect you’ll read about this being a gritty win against a tough team, and it was. However, the Oilers did not control the flow of play for most of the game and score effects is not enough to explain it. They did manage to keep the Blues to the outside a fair bit and Talbot was there when the Blues got their chances. However, the Oilers really need to pick up their breakouts and create some sustained zone pressure if they hope to keep up this winning thing.
In the meantime, though, I’ll enjoy this win! Two points are two points and the Oilers are going to need every one to get into the playoffs this year!
Tracking Stats
The following stats were tracked during manually during the game. The raw totals and the glossary are at the end.
At some point I’ll write up a detailed description of each category and my specific rules for each. Once I do, I will provide a link to it in this summary. Feel free to leave any questions in the comments or on Twitter (@wheatnoil).
Zone Exits
Zone Defence
Puck Retrievals
Summary:
Klefbom: A solid defensive game for Klefbom. He had some lovely zone denials in the first period. His puck movement was passable, but no one on the Oilers moved the puck particularly well. There was one tire-fire with he and Larsson in the zone, but generally they kept the damage to a minimum.
Larsson: Pretty much a carbon copy of Klefbom but perhaps not quite as strong defensively in this particular game. He did move the puck up to the forwards well.
Russell: Interestingly, Russell deferred heavily to Sekera in this game, something I noticed him doing last game too. Seems Sekera is the designated puck mover on that pairing. He recovered the puck well off dump-ins, but both he and Sekera need to manage the puck better than that.
Sekera: Tough game for Andrej. He was giving the puck away far too often in the defensive zone. I counted 9 total give-aways. Even if he was the primary puck mover on his pairing, that is just not acceptable. He defended the blue line well, though. I suspect he’ll get back on track.
Nurse: Nurse and Gryba got 3rd pairing minutes and mostly played against Yakupov, avoiding Tarasenko somewhat. He played a reasonable game given his minutes.
Gryba: Another quiet game. I really don’t notice him much out there. He got burned badly by Yakupov once at the blue line, but he generally doesn’t seem to touch the puck much. When he did, he kept it simple, which is probably when his game is at its best.
Raw Totals:
(click to enlarge and read)
Definitions:
Zone Exit
Controlled Zone Exit: Getting the puck out of the zone maintaining possession
Carry: Skating the puck out of the zone, the defenceman keeps possession himself
Pass: Passing the puck out of the zone, the team maintains possession
Uncontrolled Zone Exit: Getting the puck out of the zone but losing possession to the other team
Dump: No clear target when getting the puck out
Missed Pass: Appears to have a clear target but pass is not complete
Zone Defence
Times Targeted: Number of times a defenceman was specifically targeted by the opposing player on a zone entry against
Denied Entry: Defenceman prevents the opposing team from entering the zone, forcing them to regroup or causing them to lose possession in the neutral zone
Controlled Entry Against: Opposing team is able to enter the zone with possession of the puck (maintained for at least one second)
Dump In Against: Opposing team is gets the puck into the zone but without possession of the puck
Untargeted: Controlled and Uncontrolled Entries against where either a defenceman was not the primary player targeted on entry OR an odd man rush not directly caused by one of the defencemen
Defensive Zone Passing
Total: Number of times defenceman clearly had the puck on his stick in the defensive zone
To D-Partner: Successful defensive zone pass to another defenceman on the ice
To Forward: Successful defensive zone pass to a forward on the ice
Turnover: Other team gains possession of the puck after the defenceman clearly had possession of it
Puck Retrieval
Total: Number of times the defenceman is the closest to the puck off of an uncontrolled entry to the zone
Successful: Defenceman retrieves the puck and successfully either gets it out of the zone or passes it a teammate, retaining possession
Failed: Defenceman either turns the puck over after retrieving it or the other team gets possession off the uncontrolled entry
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