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After a win in Buffalo on Monday night the Edmonton Oilers headed east to face the New York Rangers. Once again the majority of the Oilers players were content with letting good goaltending win the game for them.
Highlights
Game Break Down
First Goal For
This play starts with a simple zone entry after Ryan Smyth dumps the puck in. Cam Talbot stops the puck behind the net and passes it over to Kevin Klein. It appears that Klein tries to get a pass up to Brian Boyle but misses him with the pass. David Perron picks off the pass and shoots it towards the net. The puck bounces up in the air and drops right in front of Smyth who has an empty net to score.
First Goal Against
The immobile Mark Fraser everyone! GROWL!!!
YakCity!
Who would have guessed that having a player in the slot to shoot the puck would result in either a good scoring opportunity or a goal?
The Game Review
Game Rating: 6 out of 10
Once again Ben Scrivens had a great game. If it wasn't for the fact that he had to deal with the Andrew Ference/Mark Fraser pairing he would've had another perfect game. The offence struggled a little but was there when it needed to be and the top line looked very good out there.
Momentum Killer
This belongs to the defence once again. The Oilers struggled to get out of their own end continually, even the best pairing on the night had some bad break downs. I really hope that Craig MacTavish stops focusing on the bottom 6 forwards or 6/7/8 defensemen and really makes a play for a real defenseman.
Momentum Driver
The top line of Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov looked really good out there. They were the three top forwards on the team, only two other forwards had positive Corsi ratings on the night (Ryan Smyth & Ryan Jones). They drove the play and Yakupov had 6 shots on net alone. Granted the game winning goal was scored with Sam Gagner on the ice he was a relative non-factor in tonight's game.
Up Next
Back to back! The Oilers take on the New Jersey Devils tomorrow and will be in tough after playing tonight. Expect Ilya Bryzgalov to get the start in net. If the Oilers were smart they'd also give Fraser a well deserved rest and have Corey Potter play tomorrow.
* Thanks to Tyler Dellow for the idea for the title