Oilers Post-Game Randoms

Well well well, what do we have ourselves here? Is this a winning streak? I believe it is. The Oilers knocked off Montreal in an interesting game, 4-3, to win their second straight, closing out the road trip with a 2-3-1 record. It could have been worse, and arguably could have been better. That said, the Oilers are returning home with a little momentum and four more points under their belt.

There was actually a lot of good in this game, but also some bad. Let’s take a look at it all here…..

Let’s start with the guy everyone was pushing out the door a few short months ago, Ales Hemsky. Hemsky was AWESOME tonight for the Oilers, no doubt the best player on the ice. Hemmer scored a beauty goal to get the Oilers on the board and had plenty of other chances to put it in the net.

Hemsky was flying all over the ice tonight and not only was he dangerous offensively, but he was pretty good in his own zone too, blocking some key shots throughout the game. Hemsky was really good again tonight, and I think he’s going to be back in the spotlight during Hall’s absence. I absolutely love watching him play, and really hope MacT re-signs him.

Tyler Pitlick had a really good NHL debut tonight. He wasn’t on the score-sheet, but he did a lot of things right. He made some really smart plays and didn’t look out of place. He put a really nice hit on Brian Gionta and was decent in the physical game all night. He’s got some speed and was good on the forecheck. A decent showing to say the least.

Devan Dubnyk made 29 saves tonight and was overall really good for the Oilers. The first goal was kind of iffy, but the second and third goals were not his fault and he bailed out the Oilers at key times. DD is looking like the goalie from last year again, and that’s a great sign. He’s got some confidence right now, and that’s great for Edmonton. They are a better team coming home than they were at the start of the trip because of him.

The Oilers were in the shooting lanes tonight, which is a great sign. According to the stats, Edmonton blocked 30 shots in this game. Great to see them willing to give the body to make the defensive play and get into the shooting lanes. It does makes a difference, and it frustrated the Habs offense tonight.

The Oilers offense, for 50 minutes, was pretty good tonight. They fired 32 shots on net and did the little things to punch some pucks in. They had some real quality chances that they missed too, but overall they looked good all things considered. They’ll need to keep this up with the news on the Hall injury front.

The bad for the Oilers is a case of the same old same old. Edmonton’s PP was brutal tonight, going 0-for-1. They got nothing set up on the mad advantage and Montreal had the best chance in that two minute stretch. That’s unacceptable and Edmonton needs to iron out their issues on the PP. They scored one PP goal over the six game trip, and that goal came in game number one.

For the first time this season, the faceoff dot was an area of concern for the Oilers. They were dominated in this regard, and were at point somewhere around 10% in the dot. They ended up winning 20 face-offs and losing 39. That can’t happen if the Oilers hope to be successful moving forward. That said, they’ve been good there all season long.

The final ten minutes of the first period was terrible for Edmonton. Everyone minus Dubnyk looked bad in this stretch, and Edmonton gave up two goals. It started with Luke Gazdic taking a bad penalty and the Habs scoring a quick PP goal. Then it was Nail Yakupov committing a brutal turnover that ended up in the net.

Were it not for Devan Dubnyk, it easily could have been 4-0 after the first period. The Oilers played well overall, but this stretch nearly cost them the game. They can’t have ten minutes periods were they forget how to play, or they won’t win many games. This needs to be fixed ASAP if the team wants to keep winning.

Overall it was a good game from Edmonton tonight. They battled back and were the better team for about 45 minutes. This one could have gotten away from them, but they reeled it back in and were able to win their second straight game. Now they head home with a little bit of momentum, will they be able to keep it up? We’ll have to stay tuned for the answer.