Oilers Lose — sigh

So I’ve had it! Absolutely had it. On a day where I woke up in a good mood, excited for another Oilers game and hopefully the teams third straight road win. I then got to read a great blog by Oilers Rig contributor Jackie Dawson that made me even more optimistic and even reminded me a little why I love being an Oilers fan. But that was all stripped from memory by the end of the first period.

We got a range of emotions as fans tonight as the Oilers started with an early lead, Pitlick scored his first NHL goal before being injured later on in the game. Then Phoenix scored the next 3 goals of the game. Edmonton stormed back scoring two goals in the second and one early in the third leading 4-3.

And then the penalties; now to be clear the Oilers did take two earlier penalties that I thought the refs should have let go, a suspect call against Ryan Jones in the first and a terrible hooking call on Petry in the second and both of those penalties were killed off. In the third however the team took 3 penalties all deserved, and allowed the game tying and game winning goals.

The most frustrating part about all of this was the fact that the Oilers looked lost on the PK. Phoenix made a few passes across the point and the Oil were all over the place leaving the point men wide open for a shot and no one in front of the net fighting off the Coyotes big man Hanzal (so hot right now). BOOM two goals and the Oilers head to LA with their tails between their legs.

Now don’t get me wrong I’m not a very good hockey player in fact I’m quite bad (If my team is on the PK I promptly staple my ass to the bench) but I have eyes and can see that there is something very wrong with what is happening on the kill for the Oilers. They are too easy to draw out of position, too quick to rush the puck carrier. A little patience is what’s needed here. They need to get their sticks in the lanes, make themselves look big without chasing the puck all around.

The PK isn’t the only thing that lost the Oilers the game today, lack of discipline, Labarberra not looking around the screen on the GWG, a few hit posts (the Nuge and Perron). But it’s something that needs to be fixed, because when called upon the PK needs to kill penalties. Whichever coach is running the PK, it’s time to make some adjustments.

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