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Game 4: Carolina Hurricanes @ Edmonton Oilers

Oilers need to drop Sunday's game at the door and rebound against Hurricanes

By Jeff Chapman
There's something about Tal
There's something about Tal
Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports


hurricanes logo

@
Edmonton
0-0-2, 2 points, 1 p/g Ranks 2-1-0, 4 points, 1.33 p/g
Metropolitan Division, 5th Pacific Division - 1st
15th P/G 14th
9th ST 15th
25th S/G 17th
28th Goal 25th
7 PM MDT
TV - SN-Oilers
Radio - 630 CHED
Rogers Place
The opposing view:  Canes Country

FORWARDS

Milan Lucic - Connor McDavid - Jordan Eberle
Benoit Pouliot - Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - Zack Kassian
Patrick Maroon- Leon Draisaitl - Anton Slepyshev
Tyler Pitlick - Mark Letestu - Anton Lander

DEFENCE
Oscar Klefbom - Adam Larsson
Andrej Sekera - Kris Russell
Darnell Nurse - Mark Fayne

GOAL
Cam Talbot
Laurent Brossoit


Back To Earth

The Oilers took whatever good feelings they had bottled up after defeating Calgary twice in two games and let a Sabres team dominate them on the scoresheet.  Buffalo's Ryan O'Reilly had a four point night en route to a Sabres 6-2 victory over the host Oilers.  There's as lot of finger-pointing at Cam Talbot after this one, and yes, he did have a rough outing.  One goal he allowed was from well behind the red line, and that's not going to win you praise from people.  To add fun to a carnival, Jonas Gustavsson sustained what looked like a concussion after Talbot was pulled, and he'll be on the shelf for the next little while.

There's still some good, as the Oilers had some chances that they didn't cash.  Let's go to the tape.

The Oilers are saying

"I met with the leadership group after the game and asked them if they'd be willing to flip an off-day Monday for an off-day Wednesday, which they will get...I made it real clear to them we weren't bringing them in here and lining them up to skate from end to end and watch guys throw up because that doesn't happen anymore in the NHL.  If you want to continue to coach and you want to have an impact with young players, you have to show the you're prepared to work with them to try and help them.  That's what today was about.  They were really receptive."

Source

That's Oilers coach Todd McLellan on swapping a mandatory rest day on Monday with Wednesday.

Lots of folks didn't seem to mind it when the Oilers opted to turn a day off into a work day, especially after a 6-2 turd was laid in the bowl of Rogers Place.  Unfortunately for the team and the fans, I've got a sneaky suspicion that the NHLPA is going to make hay with this, as the CBA suggests that only reasons that are "compelling" are able to turn off mandatory rest days into days that are not rest days.

What's compelling you ask?  Former NHL players Willie Mitchell and Martin Biron suggest that dropping a stinker in your home rink isn't a compelling reason.

I'm sure we'll hear more from this before it goes away.

The opponents are saying

"In the third, the game was there to be had, and we just made too many simple, unforced mistakes." Source

That's Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters on Carolina's third period woes.

Carolina is just two games into the season, but if you include the OT frame, they've yielded seven goals in just those two periods alone.

Have some of this


  • McDAVID: I don't think anyone will get tired of hearing about Connor McDavid anytime soon, so it's worth pointing out that McDavid earned the NHL's First Star of the week award, beating out Auston Matthews' incredible four goal performance.  He went 3-3-6 in three games, tying the league in points for that week.
  • TALBOT: Everybody take a deep breath and relax.  You're not happy with Cam Talbot?  Not many people are right now, but the fun part is?  Don't expect many changes.  With Jonas Gustavsson suffering his 'upper body injury' in relief of Talbot, I think they're stuck like glue with 33 barring injury. Laurent Brossoit.  And Talbot will get better, hopefully sooner than later.  Unfortunately for Talbot, he had the 100+ foot stinker, and that's what'll get stuck in everyone's mind when trying to make the case against him.
  • BROSSOIT UP: In order to replace Gustavsson, Laurent Brossoit has been called up from Bakersfield.  Defenceman Matthew Benning has been sent down.
  • POULIOT: Beniot Pouliot scored a goal and took a boatload of penalties.  Move him down the lineup?
  • Cam Talbot (2-1-0, .869 SV% / 4.60 GAA) will start for the Oilers tonight. Carolina will likely counter with Cam Ward (0-0-1, .808 SV% / 4.79 GAA)
  • Anton Slepyshev took some line rushes with Draisaitl and Maroon today which may find Puljujaarvi off for the night.
  • Mark Fayne gets his first shot this year as the Oilers will scratch Eric Gryba.
  • Iiro Pakarinen (knee), Drake Caggiula (hip), Jonas Gustavsson (upper body), Brandon Davidson (upper body) and Matt Hendricks (lower body) will not dress for the Oilers tonight.  For the Hurricanes, defenceman Ryan Murphy will be out with a lower body injury.
  • #GOILERS

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