Well, now that the Oilers are out of the playoffs by enough that no one is pretending they’re in it, we can sit back, hope Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl pad their stats, and enjoy garbage time.

Some things I would like to see are Andrej Sekera showing us he can still be good, see some younger players step up, and see if the goaltending can get a bit more consistent. The Oilers are in the middle of a GM search, and hopefully they find a good one of those for the first time in forever. But while we wait for all of that to unfold, we still have meaningless games to watch. This is one of them. Hope for highlights.

First Period:

Lots of dump-and-chase to start this game. Connor McDavid did manage to get into the slot and take a shot deflecting high and wide on his first shift. Since then, St. Louis has taken a few shots, and the Oilers none.

A quarter way through this period, and the Oilers are yet to generate a shot. That being said, St. Louis isn’t looking great either. It’s just one of those game where the teams are feeling each other out before — hopefully — turning up the heat.

Ryan O’Reilly gets a good chance going wide on the defender and taking the puck to the crease. Koskinen doesn’t have to make a huge save, but it is an important one.

St. Louis is starting to take advantage of the Oilers defense here. David Perron managed to muster a few dekes through the offensive zone on his way to getting a good shot on Mikko Koskinen. This has happened a few times tonight.

There’s is the Oilers first shot of the game 9:20 into the game.

Draisaitl committed a horrible giveaway, and it resulted in an outlet pass to Vladimir Tarasenko coming in alone on Koskinen. He walk in, and tries to go high-glov, but Koskinen luckily keeps it tied at zero. Remember when the Blues were off to that terrible start, and there were rumors about Tarasenko being available? That would have been quite the overreaction. Luckily he didn’t score.

And with just over 8 minutes left, Jayden Schwartz takes a wrist-shot from a bad angle in the circle, and it beat Koskinen up high. I am positive there are people complaining about him not staying on his feet right now. That wasn’t a great goal to allow. 1-0 Blues.

St. Louis keeps up the pressure in the Oilers end, and now the Oilers take a penalty. It appears to be for high-sticking. So far the Oilers haven’t looked very good, and a goal against here could really make it look like one of those games. We need a kill, or this writer might be taking a break.

Scratch that, it’s actually Vince Dunn of St. Louis taking the penalty. We actually get a powerplay, and maybe a chance to get back to a tie game. Really wish Sportsnet wouldn’t take commercial breaks when important things happen.

And the Oilers powerplay didn’t look very good, struggled to get anything going, and it ended prematurely as the Oilers take a penalty of their own. This time it’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins taking a seat for high-sticking. Everything I said two paragraphs ago is still true.

We are having some net issues with Mikko Koskinen repeatedly pushing the net off one way or another. There’s a minute left, and they have the ice people out there drilling new holes and making a scene. One day this might be complete.

Alright, now that the game is back underway, the Oilers killed the penalty, and the rest of the clock. They didn’t look good this period and were out-shot 13-4.

2nd Period:

27 seconds into the period, Jayden Schwartz sends a pass over to a streaking Alex Pietrangelo. Pietrangelo takes the puck to the backhand and easily beats Koskinen to make it 2-0. Yes, it is going to be one of those games.

Had I not watched the season premier of Billions already, I’d be turning this game off and doing so.

Three minutes in, Darnell Nurse gets called for cross-checking as the Blues were getting a bit too close to scoring another goal. Need another kill.

St. Louis is really good at completing passes in the offensive zone. They spent almost the entire two-minutes in the Oilers end getting good chances, but the Oilers killed it.

Well, sort of — Jayden Schwartz makes it 3-0 just as the penalty expires. Watch something else guys, this is getting bad.

Anthony Stolarz is coming in, but I am not sure that is going to help the fact that the Oilers have 20% of the shots.

Of all those things I listed in the intro that I hoped to see, now I care about none of them. No one getting hurt is good by me.

David Perron banks one in on the very next St. Louis shot. 4-0.

David Perron used to be an Oiler. I remember being very happy that we got a first-round pick for him from the Penguins. It’s just better not to think about what happened to that pick.

Nine minutes into the period and the Oilers haven’t managed to muster up a shot.

With four minutes remaining, Sam Gagner takes a penalty for tripping and I have a strange feeling that the Blues are going to manage to score again. It’s well past the point of mattering, but it’s my gut feeling.

Gut feeling was wrong. The Oilers actually showed more jump than they have all game on the PK, and St. Louis is getting called. On the delayed penalty, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins puts a puck into the Blues’ net, and the Oilers are on the board. Still less than a third of the shots, but we’re on the board. 4-1.

And right around a minute later, and the last of the period, Zack Kassian manages to beat whoever the Blues goalie is — I haven’t had to hear his name much — and he makes it 4-2. Ok, if you really stretch your hope, you can almost get on board with a comeback, here.

That’s how the period ends. And being down by two is one hell of a lot better than being down by four.

3rd Period:

St. Louis appears to have gone back to their high-possession ways to start this period. They’re completing passes nicely and playing keep-away as the Oilers can’t seem to do anything.

Five minutes in and Alex Chiasson is making his way to the box for hooking. This could be the nail in the coffin.

It was. David Perrson deflects a Brayden Schenn shot, and it’s 5-2. It took about ten seconds on the powerplay. I think it’s safe to call that the game.

Maroon adds one just for good measure.

As does Schwartz, completing his hat-trick.

Blues win 7-2, and I am ready for the season to end.