Hanging On Against One Of The Best

Once again The Oilers come close to beating the Stanley Cups champions but fall short on a "defensive error" as SportsNet put it. Let’s see if you agree.

Highlights

The Good

With the exception of the first 5 or 10 minutes the Oilers successfully dominated or kept pace with the Blackhawks. This was probably one of the best games I’ve watched the Oilers play and even though he allowed 4 goals Anders Nilsson was good as well.

The other thing that wasn’t horrible was the Oilers defense. Sure there was a stupid break down on the second goal but the Oilers defense looked the best it has all season. Coincidentally Eric Gryba was a healthy scratch - does correlation prove causation (it may in this case)?

The Bad

The game winner for Chicago. There isn’t really a case for too many men but blaming the Oilers’ defense for that play was brutal on SportsNet. One thing the Oilers need to take away from this game is that play. It beat them tonight but the next time they make it clown school OT (aka 3 on 3) they need to try to implement this same break out.

The Ugly

Once again the Oilers play the Blackhawks and amazingly the referees put their wistles away. With 46 seconds left in the 3rd period Trevor van Riemsdyk hauled down Taylor Hall (no pun intended) while Hall was racing to get the puck. It was blatent and I’m about 95% sure if an Oilers player did the same thing to Patrick Kane, Jonathan Toews or any Blackhawks player it would’ve been a penalty. There were a few other instances throughout the game but this was by far the most blatant display of it.

Thoughts

The Oilers have looked pretty good over the past few games even if the score hasn’t reflected it. They have played Chicago twice and out played them on both occassions, they came close in LA against the Kings, beat the Ducks in OT and kept the game close against the Penguins. The only tough game for them was the Coyotes and that was on the second of back to back nights playing a goalie that they shouldn’t have. The losses so far this year haven’t been horrible, with the exception of the first couple games and the Washington game the Oilers have been pretty close overall. They’ve been doing the right things and are starting to look better and that is without Connor McDavid in the lineup.

Up Next

Well would you look at that. The Oilers face off against this season’s Calgary Flames or Colorado Avalache or Toronto Maple Leafs. The New Jersey Devils are in town. This is a game the Oilers need to win but with the luck they’ve had it’s going to be tough.

Tonight is my last post for almost two weeks. I’ll be back in December when the Oilers are back in town to face the Bruins. Until then Matt has volunteered to look after the post games. See you in December.