Oilers Hang onto 29th Spot For One More Day

The sixth place St. Louis Blues came into Rexall to take on the 29th place Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers, in a bad place all around came into the game only 1 point behind the Arizona Coyotes for 28th spot. St. Louis on the other hand needed to win if they were to have a chance of catching the first place Nashville Predators. The only thing that stood between another Oilers loss and potential Blues win was Ben Scrivens who had a pretty decent game.

Highlights

First Period

• 17:48 - Iiro Pakarinen tries to finish a check and goes awkwardly into the boards behind the Blues net. He appeared to have hurt his knee and did not return to the game.
• 15:04 - Barret Jackman gave the puck away to Derek Roy who got a good chance on net but Brian Elliott made the pad save.
• 7:49 GOAL - After a pretty decent period by the Oilers, Oscar Klefbom tried to make a pass to Roy but he couldn’t handle it. Patrik Berglund picked off the pass and got it quickly to Paul Stastny. Stastny had Jaskin on the right wing streaking in, feathered a pass to him and Dmitrij Jaskin made no mistake.

Second Period

• 13:29 GOAL - The play starts with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins making a nice move in his own zone then skating the puck up until Jordan Eberle can get open. Eberle gets the pass, skates across the ice with the puck and drops it for Justin Schultz. Schultz lets it go and beats Elliot.
• 11:48 - Teddy Purcell, Nail Yakupov and Roy break in 3 on 2. Purcell makes a nice pass to Yakupov but he misses the shot. Purcell is there to bury the puck but it bounces over his stick.
• 4:33 - T.J. Oshie gets a short breakaway but can’t get the shot away.

Third Period

• 15:10 - For the first 5 minutes of the 3rd period St. Louis dominated the Oilers. Nugent-Hopkins & Eberle get a rare shift against the Blues’ 3rd line and come very close to taking the lead on a drive by Eberle & Nugent-Hopkins.
• 14:46 4v5 - Martin Marincin for holding - Drawn by Alexander Steen
• 13:46 - Jori Lehtera gets a pass in front of the net and he is all alone but Scrivens challenges him and makes the stop.
• 12:46 5v5 - Penalty expires
• 11:52 4v5 - Roy for hooking - Drawn by Jaskin
• 10:04 - Andrew Ference, trying to clear the zone, makes a weak attempt to get it past the Blues defender and can’t clear the zone. Ryan Hamilton, anticipating the play tries to make a break for it and has to rush back into the zone to defend. Meanwhile the puck goes right to Stastny who rips it but Scrivens comes up with a great glove save.
• 9:52 5v5 - Penalty expires
• 5:40 GOAL - It was bound to happen with the Blues coming on strong for pretty much the whole period. Stastny makes a few moves on Fayne and the puck fool Scrivens through the 5 hole.
• 1:30 EMPTY NET
• 0:54 - 5v4 - Stastny for closing hand on the puck

Thoughts

I guess we got our last look at Jeff Petry in an Oilers uniform last game. The Oilers decided to scratch Petry earlier in the day because this was the last game before the trade deadline and they didn’t want to take the chance of an injury. It’s funny but this whole scenario reminds of the Tom Gilbert trade when Gilbert didn’t travel with the team to Winnipeg and was traded the next day.

Looking at this team there isn’t a lot to get excited about. Craig MacTavish has already said that 80% of the team would be back next season. We all know that the guys that should be traded aren’t going to be traded and the ones that are traded are going to bring little return.

As for the game, Srivens looked pretty good. As did the top line of Benoit Pouliot, Nugent-Hopkins and Eberle. Yakupov and Roy also had another strong game. As for the defense, especially in the third period, they were invisible, got out played and out worked. This game could have easily been 5-1. Even Scrivens appeared to be frusted with them in the third when he came way out of his net a couple times to challenge shooters.

Up Next

Tuesday night the Los Angeles Kings are in town to face the Oilers. LA is in a tight race with the Calgary Flames right now for the final spot in the Pacific Division so expect the Kings to go hard at the Oilers.