More of the Same

After the Oilers defeated the Sharks in Edmonton the home in home series shifted to San Jose. Knowing what had happened just two nights before many of us believed that this was going to be a blood bath and the Sharks didn’t disappoint! They were determined not to lose to one of the perpetual losers of the NHL and they came at the Oilers hard.

Highlights

First Period

• 15:27 GOAL - Jeff Petry makes a hockey pass to Ference but Ference loses the puck between his feet but ends up gaining control of it. It looks like he tries to get a pass up to Yakupov but Draisaitl intercepts it. Draisaitl then gets checked and chips it back to Ference who is not ready for it at all. Thornton gets to the puck first and chips it to Pavelski who just fires it on his back hand.
• 14:31 GOAL - This all starts with Justin Schultz losing the puck battle in the corner. James Sheppard walks out with the puck and makes a great pass to Melker Karlsson. Karlsson takes the shot but Scrivens stops him. No one takes Barclay Goodrow all alone in the slot and he raises the puck over a down Scrivens.
• 12:27 PP - Brent Burns gets his stick between Hall’s legs and takes a tripping penalty.
• 7:52 GOAL - Draisaitl makes it to the puck first and finds Eberle after that its all Eberle. Eberele force Stalock to over commit then dances with the puck and puts in the net.
• 4:39 - Eberle strips Mirco Mueller of the puck at the blue line with leads to a partial 2 on 1 situation with Nail Yakupov. Scott Hannan sprawls and takes away the pass. Jordan Eberle does a spin-o-rama and hits the post.
• 3:59 - Steve Pinizzotto and Andrew Desjardins fight which ends up taking away a decent chance for Hendricks
• 3:45 GOAL - Teddy Purcell knocks down a clearing attempt by the Sharks. He notices David Perron streaking in and gets the puck to him in the slot. Perron just releases the puck immediately and beats Stalock.

Second Period

• 18:20 - Leon Draisaitl goes heavily into the boards and is favouring his leg as he tries to get off of the ice
• 16:22 - Draisaitl gets a chance in close but can’t get it over Stalock’s pad
• 13:64 GOAL - After the majority of the period, up to this point, was spent in the Sharks zone the Sharks maintain the zone. Hannan takes a shot from the point and Couture redirects it past Scrivens
• 12:32 PK - Pinizzotto takes a holding the stick penalty
• 12:25 GOAL - And off of the draw Joe Pavelski scores on a perfect tic-tac-toe passing play
• 8:19 - Yakupov makes a play to keep the puck in the offensive zone. He turns back and gets the puck to Oscar Klefbom who drills it and hits the crossbar
• 7:50 PP - Karlsson takes down Draisaitl and takes a holding penalty
• 4:46 - Mike Brown tries to take a run at Hendricks but ends up injuring himself

Third Period

• 15:56 - Gazdic gets hammered by Dejardins
• 15:30 - Andrew Ference’s stick gets Ben Scrivens right under the mask and into his face
• 10:00 - At about the 10 minute mark Eakins started juggling the line which seemed to cause some confusion between the Oilers players
• 5:29 GOAL - Brent Burns scores on a pass from Andrew Ference

In Review

So the Oilers started off the game with on 1 (O-N-E) NHL centre. Matt Hendricks actually played a pretty decent game but the two boat anchors on his wing made it next to impossible for him to actually play hockey. Before the game even started it looked like it was going to be a loss. San Jose wasn't going to let Edmonton beat them two times in row and the Sharks were determined to beat the Oilers.

On the other hand Edmonton didn't play a horrible game. If it wasn't for Alex Stalock and the goal posts the Oilers could've easily had the lead a couple times in the game. This was a tough game for the Oilers but they played a relatively similar game to the one they played on Sunday the only difference is that the bounces didn't go their way (how many times am I going to say that this season?).

The Oilers owned the possession game today. Hopefully they can carry this into the new year and actually start capitalizing on it.

Up Next

This isn't going to be fun. The Oilers meet the Ducks tomorrow night. I'm guessing that Viktor Fasth gets the start and hopefully Brandon Davidson gets to see some ice while Keith Aulie gets to watch from the press box.