Oilers Postgame: Where Have All The Goals Gone?

Final Score: Chicago 5 – Edmonton 1

Frustrating doesn’t even begin to describe it. The game story, in a nutshell, is that the Oilers finished the 1st period with a decent chance of walking away with a win, despite being down a goal. They then proceeded to finish the 2nd period without a chance to win at all.

It started promising too. With a beautiful start to the game off of a gorgeous forecheck by McDavid, Edmonton had a nice little 1-0 lead only a few minutes in. It was looking great. But follow that up with a weak goal allowed by Talbot and a conversion on the Power Play and Chicago was up 2-1 after 20.

It was not a justified score, the Oilers had outshot and outchanced the Blackhawks through the 1st period. Ultimately, if the Oilers would have continued on with their strong, error free, energized play, this game would have been much different. Unfortunately, that was not the case. And the two periods that followed showed an Edmonton team that looked very similar to the post-All Star break Oilers that met the Wild a couple weeks ago. Against Chicago, that just won’t cut it. That effort resulted in Chicago taking over the game, capitalizing on their chances and walking out of Edmonton with a definitive 2 points. U-G-L-Y.

The bottom line with this team remains that there are way too many passengers and not enough players that are driving and contributing every night. Eberle, Nugent-Hopkins, Lucic,Pouliot, etc. Where is the offense? Where is the sustained effort? It is really hard to win a game when your team is only capable of scoring 1 or 2 gosls a game, as has been the case for the past 5 games. Although, the secondary scoring for this team has really been an issue all year long.

I really do believe that getting in another piece or 2 for this offense will have to be a priority for Chiarelli. A spark is definitely needed. Overall, this was a poor game and an effort that was desperately not needed following the 5 day break. The Oilers will have 0 excuses when they play the Coyotes on Tuesday. From the team’s perspective, I would have to expect that McLellan makes more than a couple adjustments. Maybe a cattle prod could help as well…

Oilers Highlights

I am not kidding, there are only 2…

This beauty by McDavid and Maroon…

ICYMI, @patmaroon scored his 19th goal & @cmcdavid97 picked up his @NHL-best 61st point in the 1st. #CHIvsEDM pic.twitter.com/jpDiWd27i2

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) February 12, 2017

And a rare Nuge fight! What the heck, but nice to see some emotion.

https://twitter.com/ZONA3445/status/830652209079648256

Oilers Player of the Game

Let’s give it to McDavid… 1 assist and at least he was moving his feet all night. If more people played with his effort, this team would be in a better position, which is really saying something.

Up Next: Arizona Coyotes

No excuses. A must win. Tuesday night against the second worst team in the league… Win.