More of the Same

The Oilers entered tonight's contest on a 6 game losing streak and still without a win against a Western Conference team. Tonight's game wouldn't change any of those issues. Out of all of the games the Oilers have played over the past 2 weeks, tonight's game against the Dallas Stars was probably the most winnable contest. The problem is the Oilers just can't seem to get their act together. Questionable coaching decisions (see Luke Gazdic), horrid goaltending, and a power play that just can't score have combined to make this season worse than the ones before it.

Highlights

Breakdown

First Period

• 19:52 - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins wins the faceoff back to Nikita Nikitin but the puck bounces over Nikitin's stick and a 2 on 1 ensues for Dallas. But Nikitin comes back break it up.
• 18:03 - Steve Pinizzotto gets a shot on net from the half board but Kari Lehtonen kicks out the rebound. The rebound goes right onto Matt Hendricks' stick who gets a great chance.
• 16:39 - Jordan Eberle gets a great chance on a wrap around attempt but Lehtonen stops it
• 16:06 - The puck comes to Luke Gazdic along the boards in the Oilers defensive zone. Travis Moen races towards Gazdic who panics and tries to make a pass back to Jeff Petry but completely misses him. This creates a chance for Moen but luckily Petry was able to get back to break up the play.
• 15:33 - Trevor Oleksiak feeds a pass to Erik Cole that turns Justin Schultz around. Martin Marincin already anticipating the play cuts to the right side and gets the angle on Cole to prevent the shot but the puck slides to the slot for Ryan Garbutt who just misses the net.
• 14:19 - This play starts with a harmless shot on net from the blue line by Jamie Benn. Eberle, who has the angle on the puck lets up and Benn is able to beat Petry to the puck. Nugent-Hopkins goes to the corner to assist Petry and Tyler Seguin is able to sneak in and gain possession of the puck. David Perron tries to swipe at the puck while Andrew Ference drops to the ice to take away a pass to Cody Eakin. Neither works out which leaves Eakin wide open in front of the net. Viktor Fasth gets a piece of the puck and luckily it just bounces around that no one else can get a handle on it.
• 10:49 - Nail Yakupov drives to the net and gets a really good chance
• 8:42 - Seguin makes a nice move on Nugent-Hopkins then makes another on Petry and tries to get the puck over to Jamie Benn but it hits Ference and goes straight to Fasth.
• 7:11 GOAL - Shout out to SportsNet and their inability to show faces offs as Jason Spezza wins the draw, outside the zone I must add, and gets it over to John Klinkberg who takes a shot from just shy of centre ice and beats Fasth on the glove side.
• 2:07 PK - Cole gets in behind Schultz & Ference and gets a good chance on net but Ference ends up taking a holding penalty.
• 2:00 - Seguin gets a pass right off the faceoff but his one-timer hits the post.
• 0:30 GOAL - Boyd Gordon wins the def zone draw back to Petry. Petry's attempt to clear the zone gets stopped up and the puck goes to Gordon. Gordon and Hendricks end up with a 2 on 1. Gordon holds onto the puck the entire way instead of making a pass. The initial shot on net is stopped but Gordon somehow gets to the rebound and scores from a bad angle.

Second Period

• 17:29 - Gazdic gains the zone and gets a shot off that is stopped but Yakupov rushes in and gets a pretty decent chance that just goes wide.
• 14:01 GOAL - This play starts with the Oilers trying to make a wholesale change. Eberle gets the puck into Dallas' zone but doesn't put much pressure on it and goes off for a change. Klingberg retrieves the puck and notices that Seguin is all alone in the neutral zone. Seguin was Schultz's check but Schultz decided to change leaving Marincin on the wrong side of the puck hustling to check Seguin. Seguin roofs the backhand.
• 11:00 - Eakin scores on the rush but it is waived off as the whistle went before the puck crossed the line.
• 9:51 - Ales Hemsky and Cole get a 2 on 1 break against Nikitin after Mark Fayne's shot was blocked and he wasn't able to get back into position quick enough. Hemsky gets the puck over to Cole who is now behind Nikitin and the shot is stopped by Fasth. Spezza is able to pick up the rebound in the slot but Fasth makes the stop again.
• 6:29 PK - Ference takes a slashing penalty on Hemsky
• 2:18 GOAL - Petry gets the puck behind the net and gets it up the boards to Purcell but Purcell is checked immediately so he pushes the puck back to Petry. Petry tries to get the puck over to Ference but it hits the back of the net and slows down before it gets to him. This puts Ference in a tough situation and Eaves pushes Ference off of the puck. Benn beats Mark Arcobello to the loose puck and feeds Tyler Seguin in the slot who beats Fasth high glove side.

Third Period

• 17:20 - Yakupov gets a pass over to Leon Draisaitl who makes a nice move but can't finish.
• 15:51 - Teddy Purcell fights for the puck behind the Dallas net and gets a nice pass out to Arcobello in the slot but Lehtonen makes the stop.
• 14:01 GOAL - Nugent-Hopkins beats 2 Stars to the puck and gets a pass to Eberle behind the net. Eberle makes a nice "between his legs no look pass" to Taylor Hall and Hall makes no mistake and scores his 100th goal of his career. This was also Nugent-Hopkins' 100 assist of his career.
• 12:35 PK - Nugent-Hopkins gets called for hooking on Klingberg
• 11:10 4v4 - Trevor Daley gets called for interference on Ference
• 7:34 PP - Ryan Garbut delivers a knee on knee to Hall. Good thing Gazdic was around to protect the guys. Luckily Hall wasn't injured on the play.
• 7:43 4v4 - Hall takes a hooking call on Vern Fiddler.
• 4:27 - Eberle gets the puck behind the net and makes a great pass up to Nikitin at the top of the faceoff circle. Hall, Eberle and Nugent-Hopkins all crash the net. The puck squeaks through Lehtonen but Eakin is there to keep it from going over the goal line.
• 1:45 - Eaves gets the puck behind the net and feeds it out to Seguin in the slot but Fasth makes the stop.

Thoughts

Both of the Oilers goals were quite nice. It was nice to see Hall hit the 100 goal mark and Nugent-Hopkins hit the 100 assist mark.

Tyler Seguin is a goal scoring machine

Goaltending needs to improve. If, and that's a big if, the Oilers are going to win the goalies need to stop these shots. This could have easily been at least a tied affair if Fasth could've stopped a 80ft shot.

The game was within reach but some stupid defensive mistakes and bad goaltending sealed the Oilers fate tonight.

Looking Ahead

The Oilers continue to face more Western Conference opponents. Thursday they face the Nashville Predators.