The Anaheim Ducks rolled into Rogers Place tonight looking to shut the Oilers down. Instead, with a little luck, a lot of good play from Cam Talbot, and and overtime winner from Leon Draisaitl, the Oilers eked out a win, but not without giving up a point to the Ducks.
This early December schedule is critical for the Oilers in order to recover from dropping so many points against Arizona and Toronto last week. Beating the Ducks 3-2 in OT is a good start to regaining some of the ground they’ve given up. You can check out complete tracked stats from WheatnOil here.
It’s December 4 (now, anyway), the Oilers have 30 points and are playing meaningful hockey.
Last time Oilers were 14-10-2 was December 4, 2006, after beating Vancouver 4-0.
— Reid Wilkins (@ReidWilkins) December 4, 2016
The Good
- Drake Caggiula scored his first NHL goal, and was all smiles on the bench afterwards. He’s not the best C on the team (obviously), but he has been working hard and it was nice to see his effort pay off tonight.
Drake Caggiula first NHL goal pic.twitter.com/70RyCGagZu
— Brady Trettenero (@BradyTrett) December 4, 2016
- Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored, and it sure looked like it was a relief to him to get the monkey off his back. He’s got 4 goals this season, but he played absolutely lights out tonight and was finally rewarded for it.
- Caggiula scored on the power play and RNH scored immediately after one, which was nice to see. Perhaps the much-maligned Jay Woodcroft has redeemed himself (at least a little).
- Leon’s overtime winner was stellar.
- There’s a new Oiler drinking game that doesn’t involve losing.
@EgersundFarmTom@Archaeologuy This is what I’ve got so far pic.twitter.com/RofFT7PiK5
— Jeanshorts (@JSBMjeanshorts) December 4, 2016
The Bad
- Milan Lucic is slow. In the first period, on a 2-on-1, Lucic was at least 2 strides behind Connor, and when Connor passed the puck, Lucic was nowhere to be found. I know that no one can skate like Connor, but having the two of them on the same line leads to more broken plays than not.
Lucic needs to get the cement out of his skates my god -mf
— The Oilers Rig (@TheOilersRig) December 4, 2016
- The Oilers were outshot yet again, but Cam Talbot kept the Oil in the game. In the third period, with the score tied 2-2, Talbot is the only reason that the Ducks didn’t win.
- Kris Russell and Adam Larsson got killed in the Corsis, but I don’t want to get into it, so I’ll just say this: as much as Russel has been an outlier based on his stats, the puck is in the Oilers zone an awful lot when he’s on the ice.
The Takeaway
The Oilers got 2 points tonight, which is a good start for the rest of this half of the month. They’re not out of the woods yet, but there’s definitely light at the end of the tunnel. This season, I don’t think it’s a train barrelling towards us.
OILERS RIG LIVE4MS
Our 4th annual fundraiser for the MS Society of Alberta is set for January 21, 2017 at The Pint Downtown, at 6:30pm
It’s a Battle of Alberta on HNIC, with the Oilers in Calgary. Puck drop is 8:00pm.
We’ll have a great lineup of silent auction items, as well as raffles throughout the night. We might even have tshirts for sale (but we’ll let you know as we get closer to the date).
All proceeds from the fundraiser go to the MS Society of Alberta.
See you there!
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