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0-2-0, 0 points, 0 p/g | Ranks | 1-1-0, 2 points, 2 p/g |
Western Conference - 13th | Western Conference - 10th | |
27th | P/G | 17th |
20th | ST | 18th |
4th | PK | 19th |
14th | Goal | 19th |
Less is less
The Oilers failed to score a single goal in Saturday's 2-0 defeat at the hands of the Nashville Predators. Like some games, there were a few good points in this one. Cam Talbot looked pretty good. The Oilers didn't give up an egregious amount of bad scoring chances, but the Predators didn't miss on the ones that were given. Late in the second period, a bad turnover at the Predator blue line by Andrej Sekera ended up in in the back of Edmonton's net . Andrew Ference offered up a gift to Mike Ribeiro right behind Cam Talbot en route to Filip Forsberg's second of the season, and that would be all that Nashville would need en route to the W.
With one total goal in a combined 120 minutes of play, the Oilers need to start scoring some goals. Tuesday night in Dallas would be a nice time to start. Let's cut to the tape.
The Oilers are saying
"Our offence has to get better and a lot of that has to do with our power play...I thought our power play sucked the life out of us so that was disappointing."
If it comes to goal scoring, then everything in the first two games is disappointing. No one's scored a damn thing unless you count the weird goal that was credited to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in St. Louis because he was the closest person to the puck. Oilers went 0-fer-5 in Nashville, and the weird RNH goal made it 1-5 in St. Louis (even though the Nuge never had a shot on goal). It's early, and the kinks get worked out soon. At least, that's how I got it written down.
The opponents are saying
"Our puck tenacity wasn't any good, and we didn't defend with any passion...To that point we had been doinga really good job defending. Even game won (3-0 win over Pittsburgh) we defended really hard. I used the word embarrassment after (Saturday's) game. I was embarrassed the way we defended, some of our neutral zone stuff, missed assignments. We had five guys deep in the zone when they scored for the game-winning goal. That was unacceptable for what we've gone through and tried to play defensively". Source
- Taylor Hall missed the morning skate and is doubtful for the game tonight.
- Here's where I take a minute to talk about all of the goals that were scored by the Oilers last game. There, that was fun.
- Anders Nilsson is expected to get the start between the pipes for Edmonton tonight. It'll be Nilsson's first regular season game in an Oiler sweater. Cam Talbot has played very solid for the Oilers and might have a win or two to show for his effort, but, y'know...the whole one goal in two games thing.
- LINES, LINES, LINES, YEAH - Hey, remember how good McDavid and Yakupov looked together on Saturday? You're gonna see more of it tonight in Dallas. 67-97-10 looks to be a go, while the top line will look like 4-93-16. I really miss Jordan Eberle.
- I don't see how Andrew Ference gets into the lineup after his costly giveaway behind the Oiler net that led to the second Nashville goal on Saturday night. If we are to believe what happened in practice on Monday, your third pair could be Davidson-Gryba (my guess), or it could be Reinhart-Ference. Chiarelli likes Eric Gryba quite a bit, so whoever makes it in will likely rotate alongside Gryba.
- Remember your good buddy Ales Hemsky? Yeah, you remember. Too enigmatic, too soft, last one off, first one on, kicked puppies, or some such. He's off to a quick start with a goal and two assists in two games so far. Always love to see Hemsky succeed.