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The Oilers faced off against the best PDO team in the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche, and put on a performance to please even the most skeptical "fancy stats" egghead.
Highlights
Taylor Hall's Hat Trick Goal
Looking at the box scores, I noticed something interesting, Corey Potter gets credited with the second assist on this goal but his pass to Hall occurs 20 seconds before the goal and his pass is from behind the Oilers net. After Taylor Hall gains the zone he and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins play a game of pass and shoot a couple times before Hall finally scores. Watch the highlight of the goal and you'll notice Potter never actually touches the puck.
Break Down
After the Potter pass with 30 seconds remaining, Hall carries the puck across the blue line (24 seconds remaining) and drops the pass to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Nugent-Hopkins tries to get a pass to Hall (22 seconds remaining) but he can't handle the pass. Hall goes to the corner with the puck, circles back and gets a pass across to Nugent-Hopkins (16 seconds remaining). Nugent-Hopkins circles back then puts the puck on net (13 seconds remaining). Semyon Varlamov kicks the rebound out and with 10 seconds left in the game Taylor Hall scores his hat trick goal.
Tweet of the Night
Truer words have never been spoken.
The #Oilers seem to have some sort of split-personality disorder. Lose today, annihilate tomorrow. #eighttotwo
— John Perozok (@Jperozok) December 6, 2013
Take Aways
Taylor Hall
Yes his corsi numbers didn't reflect his game (+10/-20) but he had 7 shots in this game. 5 of those shots came on the power play, hence why they didn't count towards his corsi score but he had a very good game.
Devan Dubnyk
Great bounce back game. Both goals he allowed were plays he had no chance on. The first goal was just a pinball bounce off of a bad turn over by Nail Yakupov. The second was another Sam Gagner gaff. Great game by "The Big Easy". By the way does anyone other than SportsNet call him that? Might be time to give up on pushing that nickname.
Ryan Smyth
Playing less minutes has really worked out well for Smyth this year. When he is forced to play with replacement level players (i.e. the Phoenix game) he struggles but when he can play a proper checking role with decent line mates he does quite well.
The 5 on 3 Power Play
I don't know how the Oilers managed to get a goal on that power play. Colorado was able to clear the zone twice and broke up zone entry a couple of times as well. I was almost certain the Avalanche were going to kill that penalty off. Worst and luckiest 5 on 3 I've seen in a while.
Three Stars
- Taylor Hall
- Devan Dubnyk
- Ryan Smyth