Oilers fall 4-0 to Red Wings

The Oilers were shut out in a 4-0 loss to Detroit this afternoon, in a game that serves as a microcosm of the team’s struggles so far this season.

After a six goal outburst over the world-beater (but not really) Devils on Friday, it looked like the Oilers were finally going to stop making every goalie they face look like late 90s Hasek.

Wrong.

That was wrong.

It happened again, today.

Today’s Hasek understudy was the Dominator’s countryman, Petr Mrazek, who made 36 stops en route to his first shutout of the season.

To be fair to the Red Wings, focusing on their goalie’s 36-save shutout may be a understatement of how well they played, on the road, against an Oilers squad that is believed to be far superior to them, regardless of what the standings currently say.

The Wings managed 35 shots on goal, despite playing with a big lead to protect for the majority of the game.

The Wings had a two-goal lead by the halfway point of the first period, courtesy of goals by Frans Nielsen and Gustav Nyquist. And they never took their foot off the gas, increasing their shot total in each period, while getting goals from a pair of former QMJHL stars in Martin Frk and Anthony Mantha.

Weird stat of the day

Martin Frk’s stat line was big for fans of binary, as it was all ones and zeros:

1- 1 goal, 1 assist, +1, 11:11 of ice time

0- goals by the Oilers, vowels in his last name.

Gambler’s Take

The Oilers have been absolutely brutal to bet on this year, as they’re still often big favourites in most games, despite their record.

Today was no different, as the closing lines had them at -210, which equates to an implied probability of victory of 67.74%. It also means that a $100 bet on the Oilers today would have only resulted in a profit of $48. But they lost, so you would’ve lost all of it.

Yamamoto’s 9th game

The rookie recorded 2 shots on goals, both of which I would define as the dangerous variety, in today’s game. It appears to me that the kid is one of the 12 best forwards in the organization right now. In fact, that’s actually a bit of an understatement. This team should be in win-now mode, but the 2017-18 version of this team is looking less and less like a contender every day. Even if you think this team can play at a 100-point pace from now on, the lack of points banked up to this point makes just making the playoffs a real challenge.

Should the Oilers do everything in their power to get there, even if it means potentially sacrificing a year of a future impact player on an ELC, in a year where that cheap contract may come in more handy?

I would lean towards a no on that question. But I also thought the Pouliot buyout made no sense to a team with plenty of cap space now, but not in the future, who are also in win-now mode. So who knows what actually happens.