Oil Spills: Friday Links - Another Loss

About Last Night

Apples vs Orange - Apples Win -- The Copper & Blue
After a strong start from the Oilers, St. Louis bounces back and wins it 4-2 in the final 25 minutes

Blues Vs. Oilers Game Recap: Oil Spilled Part Deux -- St. Louis Game Time
I feel like we've just seen this...

Cult of Hockey player grades: Wretched Edmonton Oilers fall to 0-4-0 despite Taylor Hall’s best efforts - Jonathan Willis -- Cult of Hockey
The losing continues. For a bit there it seemed like it might not. Taylor Hall put a great individual effort in to bring the Oilers to within one goal late in the third, and then drew a penalty to send Edmonton to the power play. It wasn’t enough. The Oilers’ power play, as it has every time it has been deployed this season, continued to misfire. The Blues killed that penalty and another one too before coming back to score an insurance marker and put the game out of reach.

GDB 4.0 Wrap Up: Blues @ Oilers -- OilersNation
Welcome home, Connor. I'm sorry it wasn't a better homecoming. Final Score: 4-2 St. Louis

Edmonton Oilers can’t beat the Blues in last first regular-season game at Rexall Place - John MacKinnon -- Edmonton Journal
The Oilers home opener was at once a hopeful ‘Hello’ to a bright future with rookie centre Connor McDavid and the start of a long, sentiment-soaked ‘Goodbye’ to the arena where a city’s hockey dreams came true a generation ago.

It’s becoming the same old, same old storyline for Edmonton Oilers - Jim Matheson -- Edmonton Journal
While the Edmonton Oilers look better in losing this October, optics aren’t as important as statistics.

Oilers drop second game to Blues this season in home opener loss - Rob Tychkowski -- Edmonton Sun
If this keeps up, those Farewell Season signs at Rexall Place will take on an entirely new meaning.

Blues head coach Ken Hitchcock says his team did a good job of shutting down Oilers speed - Derek Van Diest -- Edmonton Sun
The Oilers have not beaten the Blues at home in nearly four years and have only two wins against St. Louis in their last 22 games.

Around the NHL

A Plea to Caps Fans: Let's Be Better -- Japers' Rink
Fans in two different buildings have taunted Patrick Kane by turning a serious situation into a joke... let's not make it a third.

Mike Babcock and the 40-second shift - Tarvis Yost -- TSN
A big focus early on for Babcock has been player shift length. Babcock’s been adamant about bringing the average shift length for both forwards and defencemen in Toronto way down, and this is consistent with how he’s historically coached. In Detroit, Babcock was almost militant about shift length.

Mike Richards has ‘desire and want’ to get back to NHL, suitors taking wait-and-see approach -- The Hockey News
Richards is officially an unrestricted free agent and his agent, Pat Morris of Newport Sports Management, says the 30-year-old center is ready to get back to playing the kind of hockey that earned Richards his 12-year, $69-million contract in 2007.

Empty-net goals on the rise as coaches roll the dice -- TSN
While systems and player deployment remains incredibly nuanced around the NHL, the influence of analytics and advanced statistics is being felt most at the end of games. Coaches are pulling their goaltenders earlier in favour of the extra attacker, heeding a years-long call from the numbers community. Those extra attackers have not yielded many points in the standings yet, but coaches are no longer deterred by public or media backlash over more lopsided final scores. There is little difference between losing 5-2 and 4-2.

Florida Panthers may get more tax dollars to curb financial losses -- Puck Daddy
The Florida Panthers have asked Broward County at least twice recently for additional public funding, and twice they’ve rejected. But apparently the third time might be the charm as the team looks to offset significant financial losses.