The Oilers were dealt some more bad news prior to the beginning of the game after it was announced that their starting goalie Devan Dubnyk was injured and would not play against the Kings. Queue Richard Bachman a late call up from Oklahoma City.

The Kings View

Corsi

Fenwick And Deployment

Shift Chart

The First Period:

The first period started with the Oilers registering the first shot on net but it quickly went downhill from there. The LA Kings dominated the rest of the first period registering 10 shots to the Oilers 5 shots and leading the Oilers in Corsi events 17 - 12.

As it goes the Oilers took the first penalty of the game after Justin Schultz took a penalty for holding. On the ensuing penalty Richard Bachman held the team in there as the abysmal penalty kill took to the ice and stopped the 2 shots against.

At the 12:16 mark of the first period Kyle Clifford followed up on a missed hit by laying his knee into Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ knee send Hopkins flying head over heels. Nugent-Hopkins was down for a while and was taken to the Oiler dressing room for further assessment. He returned to the game just in time to start the Oilers first powerplay with 9:45 remaining in the first.

A short while after the Nugent-Hopkins injury, in an effort to break up a 2 on 1, Ladislav Smid went crashing into the net and appeared to injure his shoulder. He remained on the bench but appeared to be in a lot of pain.

This could’ve been a very dangerous period for the Oilers but some how came out of it tied on the score sheet and lucky on the injury count.

The Second Period:

The second period started as well as the first the Oilers didn’t register their first shot on net until 4:10 into the period which happened to be on the power play. Two seconds later Nail Yakupov scored his first of the season and what seemed like the Oilers first power play goal of the season.

At the 16:58 mark of the second Mike Richards scored on what was probably Bachman’s only real shaky play of the game. The Oilers also killed off two penalties and only allowed only two shots against.

The period ended much like the first with the score tied and the Oilers getting destroyed in almost every possible category including grit. Oh ya and Ryan Jones fought and so did Luke Gazdic.

The Third Period:

Again the Kings gave it to the Oilers. The Oilers really did look like the junior team that Lars Eller said they were. After almost 15 minutes of toying with the Oilers at the 13:57 mark of the third it appeared that Mike Richards had scored but was waived off after Matt Frattin interfered with Richard Bachman, there was no penalty on the play. As the period drew on it appeared that Oilers were going to lose yet another game but thanks to the heroics of the Oklahoma City netminder a regulation loss wasn’t in the cards. With 25 seconds left in the 3rd Bachman stopped a sequence of shots to keep the game tied at 1 and force overtime.

Overtime:

The overtime period was all LA. The Oilers failed to register a shot on net let alone a corsi event. As has been the trend for the past few games the Oilers were called for a too many men penalty with 1:58 remaining. LA registered two shots on net 4v3 but Bachman was up to the task. With 36 seconds remaining Jeff Carter was called for tripping and 3 on 3 hockey ensued. As I mentioned before the Oilers were unable to register an event and the game went to a shootout.

The Shootout:

After stopping 47/48 shots Bachman’s super powers for the night quickly disappeared. Richards scored on a relatively simple shot up high, Bachman stopped Carter’s shot and allowed a quick snapshot from Kopitar to beat him.

On the other side of the ice Jordan Eberle tried a new move which had me fooled as I had thought Quick had stopped, Perron took a shot that was easily stopped by Quick and Nugent-Hopkins shot wide.

And there you have it this the fourth game this year that the Oilers were completely dominated in both Fenwick and Corsi and have come out with at least a point.

Three Stars

On a night where the best player on the team was 38% CF there is really only one player on the team that deserves a star.

The Copper & Blue Three Stars:

★★★ -  Richard Bachman

★★ - Richard Bachman

★ - Richard Bachman