Throw Back Friday

On Glen Sather night the Oilers and the New York Rangers fought to a 12 goal game. It was a night to remember. Since I started doing the post game reports on Copper and Blue I haven’t witnessed a game like this. The last time I saw a game like this I was somewhere between 6 & 10 years old.

I have to say that in the third period, I was convinced that Jim Matheson may have called the game after the Chris Kreider 3-2 goal when he tweeted this out.

Not best goal Nilsson's given up lately, and it's 3-2 as Kreider shovels one home. This might be 6-4 when this is over.

— Jim Matheson (@NHLbyMatty) December 12, 2015

You have to admit he was pretty close.

Highlights

(This may take a while)

The Good

The offense in this game was crazy. The Oilers got a massive contribution by the third line with Lauri Korpikoski getting the hat trick. Taylor Hall and Leon Draisaitl also had exceptional performances. In fact all of the goals came from either the first line or the third line. It was crazy and fun to watch.

The Bad

In a 7 - 5 game there is usually only two things you can blame, the defense and/or the goaltending. But in this game one thing really stood out. The Oilers had 3 power plays and for some reason Justin Schultz is the "quarterback" of the first unit and he sucks. Trying to gain the zone, Schultz flubbed multiple times. He couldn’t get the puck deep and made some pretty dumb moves. With the exception of the 4 - 3 goal by Hall (started on the PP), Schultz just made horrible decissions with the puck. I really hope McLellan and staff give the first unit a better blue line option soon or it will end up costing them games.

The Ugly

Like I said in a 7 - 5 game there is only two options to blame and tonight it was definitely the goaltending. Luckily it was the goaltending on both ends. Henrik Lundqvist looked horrible against a pretty bad NHL team. On the other side of the ice it wasn’t Anders Nilsson bailing out his team tonight but the other way around. Both goalies looked horrible, it was truly a throw back to the 80s.

Thoughts

So 5 wins in a row is really something. Something we haven’t witnessed in a long time as Oilers fans. This 5th win moves the Oilers past Calgary and Anaheim and places them 1 point out of a playoff spot. To top it off the Oilers are outside of the bottom five for the first time in very long time and are 2 games below .500. Saturday and Sunday are very busy for the NHL so the Oilers could be back in crapsville on Monday but as an Oilers fan it’s very encouraging to have the team riding a 5 game winning streak.

Up Next

The Oilers hit the road on Monday to face the Bruins in Boston. Just over a week ago the Oilers pushed Boston to a shootout and won. Boston will be on home ice and so far this season the Oilers have struggled away from Rexall losing 11 out of 15 games on the road. If there is a chance for the Oilers to come out as victors they are going to have to score like they did tonight. I really hope that is the case because tonight was quite fun to watch.