Oilers vs Arizona: Post-Mortem

The Oilers came in to today’s game off a loss to the Coyotes on Friday in Arizona. For whatever reason, the Coyotes have had the Oilers’ number since 2011, with a record of 21-0-4 against the Oil. Mike Smith came into today’s game with a 14-1-1 record against, so even if you don’t believe in luck you’d have to think that there was something in the air. Would the Oilers break the curse of the Coyotes trap, and shake the monkey of poor afternoon performances off their backs?

Nope.

It’s too bad they couldn’t get it together a little better, because today was as good of a day as any to break the streak. Instead, the Coyotes walk away from this home-and-home with 4 points, and the Oilers only managed to steal one. I’m not going to get into it, because I assume Alex Thomas will write about it for tomorrow, but I’ll just leave this here:

https://twitter.com/Alex_Thomas14/status/803006129642967040

The Good

• Sunday afternoon sellout crowd. I guess CFL fans weren’t too concerned about missing the start of the Grey Cup after all
• Cam Talbot came into today having played the most minutes of any goaltender in the league, and has helped keep the Oilers well in some of their games. Talbot getting the start wasn’t a surprise; he’s earned it.
• After sitting in the pressbox for a couple games, Benoit Pouliot drew back into the lineup. He wasn’t responsible for bad penalties and wasn’t awful, so maybe he learned.
• Milan Lucic scored a goal and tried to bring a little bit of his legendary swagger to the game. The first period was a decent period for the Oilers, and Lucic was in there, trying to mix things up and send a message.
• While the Oilers first powerplay wasn’t great, the shift immediately following was unreal. Kris Russell hit the post, Oliver Ekman-Larsson  blocked a shot, and i was the best shift of the period.
• Just before the Oilers scored in the 3rd, their PP was unbelievable. It felt like they were building some momentum.

The Bad

• According to Drew Remenda, a screen is now known as an “ocular distraction”.
• The first powerplay was flat, and the Oilers failed to capitalize on not having to face OEL.
• Speaking of, the only player on the ice who was able to matchup with Connor is Olver Ekman-Larsson. That’s going to be a fun thing to watch for years.
• Radim Vrbata scored on a 3-on-2, and in his first intermission interview he seemed surprised he even got the opportunity.
• Dave Tippett should trademark the style of hockey that the Coyotes play. It was predictable beyond belief, and it worked perfectly.
• With Adam Larsson already in the penalty box, Martin Handzal and Kris Russell take coincidental minors. Handzal’s penalty was legit, while it looked like Russell was penalized for breathing too loudly.
• On the winning goal, both Darnell Nurse and Jordan Eberle ended up wildly out of position, and the puck found the back of the net.
  

  .@ebs_14 pic.twitter.com/3TiavIelpq

  — Jeanshorts (@JSBMjeanshorts) November 27, 2016

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• The Oilers were, again, unable to force the Coyotes to play up and instead played down to the level of the 30th place team in the NHL.

The Takeaway

This isn’t the same team we saw in October. While the same problems that have plagued the Oilers in years past aren’t necessarily present all the time, today’s game was a real stinker. I saw lots of comments on twitter about how quiet the crowd was, and while sometimes I think crowds can go quite pretty quickly, there wasn’t a lot in that game to really keep them in it.

We’re nowhere near jersey-on-the-ice status, but I can see that there’s some discontent in the fanbase, and it’s directed in a number of different places. I’m not sure if there’s a consensus whipping boy like there has been in the past, but there are a couple targets standing out in my mind. Tuesday’s game against Toronto will be a real test.

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!