Postgame Wrapup: Lightning in a Bottle

The Oilers came into tonight’s game against the Lightning looking to kickstart a win streak that will take them to the Christmas break. Taylor Beck (the AHL’s leading scorer) was called up and made his 2nd start for the Oilers this season. Save for a vicious slash in the 2nd period, he had a pretty steady game and looks like he might ready to make the jump to the bigs, maybe on a permanent basis.

After a number of games where they couldn’t muster 2 points, this game was crucial to settle things down and keep the Oilers in a reasonable place to challenge for the playoffs. This is the latest they’ve been in a playoff spot in 10 years, so hopefully they stay there and actually get into the postseason.

And with that, we wrap….

1st period

No Remenda. The hockey gods are smiling on us.
Victor Hedman is a very good D-man. The Oilers could absolutely use someone like him on the blueline.
Brandon Davidson starts off the game with some great defensive play
Mark Letestu, power play guru doesn’t score – 0/1
Big Rig’s lack of speed is very noticeable when he’s on the ice with RNH
Hendo almost scores but can’t convert
JT Brown’s hit on Russell was pretty greasy
PP #2 – Killorn streaking in shorthanded is a scary sight, but no one scores.
Nuge is a cheater, but it was a weak call – no shots for TBL on that power play
Lucic still skates through cement, but it didn’t cause any real problems (this time)
Somehow the Lightning escape the period without being scored on, despite being outshot a million to 5

Listening to the panel talk about how the Oilers don’t have any scorers other than Connor makes my blood boil, for reasons. You can interpret that however you want.

2nd Period

Oilers have some decent jump to start the period.
Kevin and Louie talking about Connor’s faceoff work. Chris the Intern from ON says that shows that Connor is human after all.

@TheNationChris it’s because he has a Super Collar Bone now #SuperHealed

— Matt Henderson (@Archaeologuy) December 18, 2016
Drai gets sent to the sin bin for a high stick. Rules are rules, but that’s a bad call.
Lucic scores on the powerplay. Ben Bishop either has ridiculously slow reaction time, or Milan can put some heat on his shot.
Matt Benning is an actual 12 year old playing hockey, and should absolutely have been pulled by the concussion spotter after landing on his helmet-less head.
Powerplay – the Oilers need a guy in the low slot. Everyone is playing too high, and the cycle gets broken up really easily at that.
Hendo gets a cross-checking penalty because he shouldn’t be playing (at least not over Pouliot and Slepy).
After a flurry of activity in the Lightning end, the score is still 1-0 because no one can hit the net.
Oilers do a lot of cheating, apparently. Taylor Beck with a ridiculous slash with 2:29 left in the second.
RNH cannot buy a goal, but that miss was sure exciting.
Jonathan Drouin ties the game on the PP, with 1:01 left because of course he does.

Panel talking about the revolving door of McDavid’s linemates. This is a problem, and I think that TMac needs to at least play pairs so that Connor has one guy he’s used to. Sure, he’s the best player in the Western Conference by a country mile, but he needs to have someone consistency on his wing.

Also Brian Boyle is on the TV and there ain’t nothing wrong with that.

3rd Period

Lightning open the period with a lot more oomph than the Oilers.
Tampa takes a 2-1 lead on a textbook 2-on-1 goal by Tyler Johnson.
Zack Kassian almost gets a breakaway, but can’t convert.
The Lightning have infinitely more jump than the Oilers in this period
Koekkoek takes a hooking penalty after a flurry of activity around the Lightning net. He might not be the best player on the ice, but he’s got the most fun name to spell and say.
Alan Thicke clip at the end of a TV timeout. RIP Mr Seaver
Neon Leon scores on the PP with a beautiful tip-in off a shot-pass from Letestu.
It only took 8 minutes, but the crowd is finally back in the game.
5 minutes left, and it feels like both teams are playing for a tie.
Tampa has done a great job neutralizing McDavid. Over 20 minutes of ice time, and only 1 shot.
Tyler Johnson is faster than I expected he’d be. Wow.
Victor Hedman can play a million minutes per shift when necessary. Too bad the Oilers will never be able to rip him away from Tampa
For a team on the second half of a back-to-back, and playing their 3rd game in 4 nights, the Lightning have played a heck of a road game.

Overtime

Oilers are 5-4-1 in one goal games going into this OT
Eberle with some wheels early.
3-on-3 is crazy fun to watch. Ban the shootout, 3-on-3 forever.
Tyler Johnson can wheel, and so can McDavid.
Tampa has a great OT cycle, at least with Killorn-Johnson-Hedman on the ice.
Oilers PP with 9 seconds left in OT. No dice.
OT solves nothing and we go to the shootout

Shootout

Letestu scores
Point misses
Draisaitl misses
Drouin scores
McDavid scores a highlight reel goal

Just the sickest mitts. #TBLvsEDM pic.twitter.com/kx2nIEdkQS

— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) December 18, 2016
Boyle misses

Oilers win!

After a sloppy third period, the Oilers come back and win for their 8th home victory of the season.

Leon Draisaitl is named the game’s first star, and Andrej Sekera takes the 3rd star honours.

The Takeaway

At this point last season, the Oilers had just fallen out of a playoff spot and had just ended a six-game win streak. They haven’t mounted that kind of streak yet this year, but this is the kind of game they absolutely would have lost last year. The two points they earned tonight will go a long way to building some momentum to get to the halfway point in the season.

Connor McDavid does make everyone around him better, and sometimes it’s still a little bit unreal that he’s an Oiler.

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’ll even have some limited edition Oilers Rig tshirts for sale ($15).

All proceeds from the fundraiser go to the MS Society of Alberta.

See you there!

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