One down, 81 to go. Before we dive into today’s piece, let’s remember that the NHL season is not a sprint, it is a marathon. Losing last night will not have an impact on the remainder of the season and it isn’t close to panic time yet, in fact there is a lot of good we can take out of night one.
The Bad:
Before we get into the good, let’s touch on the bad. There were three players that stood out to me last night as poor performers, and they were Teddy Purcell, Oscar Klefbom and Justin Schultz. Purcell was slow, very slow, and made a number of mistakes on key plays.
He turned the puck over far too much and he failed to create anything resembling offense. He just did not look like he belonged on a top-six line with Benoit Pouliot and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. It was an ugly game for the veteran forward, no doubt about that.
Justin Schultz looked good at times, but looked completely lost at other times. On the second goal against, Schultz ended up getting a little bit lost and tried for a badly timed block that resulted in him being on his back side and out of the play. Other times he was getting beaten in battles and blowing defensive coverage. Inconsistent to my eye.
Klefbom had a night to forget, let’s just put it that way. He had a terribly timed change on the first goal that led to Tarasenko’s breakaway, and had a few giveaways/gaffes that led to high percentage St. Louis chances. He’s lucky Cam Talbot bailed him out as much as he did.
I obviously believe in Oscar Klefbom, but he had a tough night and will need to be much better tomorrow in Nashville.
The Good:
Connor McDavid was clearly nervous, but he got better as the night went on and was arguably Edmonton’s best forward. He had two golden chances and was close to getting about three or four more. Considering he is an 18-year old who just played his first NHL game….I was very impressed with him, he looked good to me.
Griffin Reinhart and Eric Gryba looked good to me too. Reinhart played a steady game that had minimal mistakes. His two penalties could have cost Edmonton, but he’ll learn to play smarter as he goes along. Gryba played a tough game and actually was solid defensively, I was impressed by him too.
I also loved the game of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who was calm all night long and created offense. Taylor Hall was okay by my eye, but he appeared to be trying to do a little too much. Keep it simple Hallsy, the goals will come. Nail Yakupov quietly put together another solid night.
The Great:
How refreshing was it to see Cam Talbot bail out the Oilers when need be and play a stellar game all around? Seriously, it was a complete 180 from what we have become used to. Talbot made some massive saves in the first five minutes that bailed Edmonton out, and he was a big reason they led after twenty minutes.
Talbot had NO chance on the Tarasenko breakaway or the Fabbri goal which was the result of a massive breakdown. Every shot he should have saved, he stopped. I was very happy with Talbot, if he can keep this up, Edmonton will have a much better season this year.
Final Thoughts:
Losing sucks, that’s something everyone can agree on. That said, there are positives to take out of this game. The effort was clearly there from the Oilers, that was a problem last year. The goaltending was extremely solid and the penalty killing unit looked pretty good to my eye.
The Oilers could have won that game, they had some offensive looks that they couldn’t finish on. This wasn’t the usual loss to the Blues were the Oilers got crushed, they had chances to win on opening night.
Yes, a 3-1 loss is not good and moral victories mean nothing in the standings. That said, the Oilers looked like a better, more organized hockey team on Thursday night. Clean up a few things and finish some chances, then the results will change.
I’m not trying to be an over the top optimist, that’s not me, but I feel good about the Edmonton Oilers right now. They looked better and hung in there with one of the league’s best regular season teams.
There is still work to be done, no doubt, but we saw some progress on Thursday night. It’s a process folks, but step one gave us signs. Now, let’s go get the first win.
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