The streak is over, friends 🙁
You’d be forgiven for being worried about this game coming in. I know I was. The lowly basement dwelling Arizona Coyotes have had the Oilers number for what seems like years, and tonight was no different. The Oilers fell to the worst team in the NHL in a shootout, and Mike Smith improved his ungodly record against the good guys to 14-1-1.
The good news is that the Oilers managed to escape Arizona with a much-needed point, and every point counts. While it would have been nice to see the Oilers snap the Coyotes win streak, it was not meant to be.
Here’s how I saw the game, with some tweets thrown in:
1st Period:
-Talbot was busy early as the Coyotes would start peppering him with shots within the first minute of the game, but he was equal to the task. Cam Talbot was pretty much the biggest reason the Oilers were even in this game for the most part.
-It seemed early on like the Oilers were destined to change their fortunes when McDavid scored a gorgeous goal on a breakaway to put the Oilers up early. He turned on the rocket skates and he was gone:
It’s just so beautiful. ? #EDMvsARI pic.twitter.com/CzyF8hVXl1
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 26, 2016
-Patrick Maroon would ring it off the iron a minute later with a nice screen provided by Klefbom in front of Mike Smith. The Oilers would do a decent job early of creating turnovers in the Coyotes end and applying pressure, but the tables were soon turned.
-The Coyotes would turn around and take a shot on Talbot that was clearly stopped, but magically called a goal by the ref. Lucky for Oiler fans, the play went to video review as it was clear the puck never crossed the line. I’m not sure why the review took as long as it did…
When a referee is that wrong he should be forced to take a breathalyzer before play resumes. #Oilers
— Ryan Byks (@IAmByks) November 26, 2016
-Despite not getting the call, this would mark the turning point of the period for both teams, as Arizona would start causing all kinds of problems for the Oilers. Edmonton was having issues with Arizona’s forecheck, issues with turnovers, and issues with transitioning the puck into and through the neutral zone. The Coyotes were outshooting the Oilers 14-6 at the halfway mark of the 1st.
-It would be the Oilers that would tally next off this beauty by Klefbom and Larsson:
How SWEDE it is! ?? #EDMvsARI pic.twitter.com/LeAcZqNVMS
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 26, 2016
-The jubilation would be short-lived as Max Domi would storm right back to rip the puck past Talbot seconds later. It looked to me like the puck hit a body or a stick and changed direction, otherwise I think Talbot would have had a shot like that 9 times out of 10:
#domiNATION pic.twitter.com/OgTn4xhSUy
— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) November 26, 2016
-Maroon would go off for boarding with 23 seconds left in the 1st. I thought the call was a little on the sketchy side, but it certainly wasn’t the worst Team Zebra had to offer tonight. The Oilers would kill off the 23 seconds and exit the period up a goal. They were definitely lucky to do so, and have Cam Talbot to thank for it.
2nd Period:
-The Oilers would manage to kill off the remainder of the penalty, but were still having all kinds of problems managing the puck early on. The same problems that were plaguing them through most of the 1st period were showing up early in the 2nd.
-Kris Russell was not having his best game. He seemed like he was fighting the puck all night (which is something you could say about almost all of the Oilers defensemen in this game). At times in the 2nd and 3rd, Russell looked like he was handling a live grenade.
-Lucic would fail to convert on a glorious pass by McDavid with Smith down and out on a 2 on 1. It seemed like that happened a lot in this game, and if McDavid’s linemates had been able to cash on even half of his gift wrapped feeds, the Oilers could have finished this game up by 2 goals.
Looch. pic.twitter.com/xl8qpzD8fR
— buckle up (@BetaMaleBen) November 26, 2016
-The Oilers would kill off another penalty successfully after Talbot would get called for tripping
-Shortly after, Maroon would strike iron for the second time of the night as McDavid set him up with an otherworldly pass from behind the goal line:
Connor is dishing tonight. ? #EDMvsARI pic.twitter.com/IuC1DMvmBh
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 26, 2016
-As the 2nd period progressed I thought the Oilers did a somewhat better job of limiting their turnovers and pressuring the Coyotes. They seemed to make progress on the shot clock at the halfway mark of the game (something that wouldn’t last, unfortunately).
-Edmonton finally got its own power play with just over 3 minutes left in the 2nd as Lucic took a stick to the chops. Unfortunately, the power play struggles would rear their ugly head again, and the Oilers would fail to score. To Arizona’s credit, they did an excellent job of getting in the shooting lanes and blocking a lot of shots from getting through to Smith.
-The Oilers would go right back on the PK shortly after, as Benning would get called for Delay of Game after an errant clearing attempt went straight over the glass. A lot of people hate this rule, but I’m not one of them. The NHL was infuriating before implementing this rule, as teams would just dump the puck over the glass to relieve pressure. I’ve seen some suggest leaving it up to the discretion of the refs, but I think that would just introduce even more human error into the equation.
-The Oilers would finish the 2nd still up 2-1, but the Coyotes were the ones dictating the play for most of the game.
3rd Period:
-Edmonton would start the 3rd much like it did the 2nd: Down a man. Domi would come down the ice flying and wire one on Talbot, but the latter would stand strong. One thing Edmonton DID do nicely tonight was kill penalties, and they’d kill this one as well. This would be the last PK of the night for them, and they’d finish the game a perfect 3 for 3 on the penalty kill.
-Pouliot would turn around and draw a penalty in the offensive zone! Looks like all that time in the press box finally paid off! Unfortunately, that was pretty much all he did offensively tonight.
-The Oilers would continue to Oiler on the ensuing power play. They managed to move the puck well enough, and controlled it in the Coyotes zone for the 1st minute of the man advantage, but once again the Yotes were blocking shots and the only 2 that did make it throu
gh were easily saved by Smith.
-Arizona would tie it up and make it 2-2 shortly after, directing the puck from the point through a ton of traffic in front of Talbot. Of course it was Shane Doan’s goal. I don’t think Talbot had a chance on this one at all:
Only fitting the captain gets a goal in these jerseys.#ThrowBlackFriday pic.twitter.com/t4aWetEdTK
— Arizona Coyotes (@ArizonaCoyotes) November 26, 2016
-The Oilers would make a few awful giveaways late in the 3rd and if it wasn’t for Cam Talbot this game probably wouldn’t have made it to OT. McDavid was one of the bright spots (as usual) as he seemed like he was creating chances every single shift.
-Both teams would trade chances but the game would go to extra time.
Overtime:
-The story of OT was probably the Oilers failing to convert on yet another power play with 3 minutes left in the extra frame. Eberle would draw the call off some excellent work in the offensive zone, but yet again the Oilers would fail to solve Arizona (this time on the 4v3).
-The other story of OT would be McDavid seemingly scoring a buzzer beater for what everyone thought was the game winner. With literally one second left on the board, he lifted the puck up and over Mike Smith. Video review would show that it was a matter of probably one or two milliseconds that was the difference, as time expired just before the puck crossed the line. What an amazing storyline that would have been!
Oh, what could’ve been. #EDMvsARI pic.twitter.com/MnqWdg1HG5
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 26, 2016
Shootout:
-The shootout was the shootout. Vrbata and OEL would tally for Arizona, with Mark Letestu being the only goal scorer for the Oilers. Smith would make stops on McDavid and Eberle to win yet another game against the Oilers for the desert dogs.
Random Thoughts:
-This was not a good night for the Oilers defence outside of the Larsson goal. Everyone appeared to struggle at times, some more than others. Klefbom was probably the most calm out of all of the blueliners by my eye, and he had his “wtf moments” as well.
-Cam Talbot is a legitimate #1 goalie, and it’s nice to say we finally have one. This game could have been out of control without his play tonight.
-The Oilers need to find a way to start finishing McDavid’s passes. I see a ton of criticism being levied against Jordan Eberle for his one timer (or lack thereof), yet these same people are strangely silent when Lucic can’t put a tap in into a wide open cage from 4 feet away, or Maroon can’t bury it off of a gift wrapped McDavid feed.
–FIX THE FREAKIN POWERPLAY ALREADY. I understand that no team is going to score on 100% of its power play chances, and to the Oilers credit, they did manage to score a goal with the man advantage last game. But this game is such a good example of how good teams can walk away from bad games with a win on the strength of their special teams, and now the Oilers only have one part of the equation figured out.
-At least we got a point! Unfortunately, so did everyone else that played in the Pacific Division tonight (except for Anaheim and Vancouver, who can both go pound sand).
-This was another game where only one line of forwards appeared to generate dangerous chances. I think you can probably guess which line. The Oilers started off the year with all 4 lines chipping in and seemed to have lost that habit after 9 or 10 games. They need more out of key players like Nuge and Draisaitl, and they aren’t getting it right now.
-Edmonton will get a chance for revenge as they meet the Coyotes again at Roger’s Place on Sunday. Unfortunately, it’s an early afternoon game, and the team has a horrible track record with those as well. They need to dig deep and bounce back against Arizona and set themselves up for another win streak. It’s nice to be playing meaningful hockey as December approaches (how sad is that?), but it’s a long season.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
