The Oilers play the Flyers in Edmonton tonight, but that’s not what the talk is about. Kyle Beach, also known as John Doe in the ongoing sexual assault investigations against the Chicago Blackhawks, revealed his identity this evening in a heart-wrenching, brave interview. This follows the release of the investigation results yesterday, which culminated in many front office members of the Hawks, including Stan Bowman, stepping down.

While this is a necessary step in the right direction, more is still to come in this case. Joel Quenneville and Kevin Cheveldayoff are still to be interviewed by Gary Bettman, after their statements claiming innocence and ignorance, were proven to be false within the investigation. Secondly, players on that championship team – who have been accused of knowing the details and taunting Beach about the assault – need to be further investigated. That includes the Oilers’ Duncan Keith, who provided this interview earlier today.

Oilers lineup vs. Flyers:

Hyman - McDavid - Puljujarvi
RNH - Draisaitl - Yamamoto
Foegele - Ryan - Kassian
Perlini - Shore - Turris

Nurse - Bouchard
Keith - Ceci
Koekkoek - Barrie

Koskinen

Biggest note here is that the Oilers will be giving Evan Bouchard an extended look on the top pairing after his strong road trip in Arizona and Vegas. Perlini and Turris draw back in for Benson and Sceviour. Koskinen with his third straight start in Mike Smith’s absence.

Flyers will counter with:

Giroux - Couturier - Konecny
Farabee - Brassard - Atkinson
Lindblom - Laughton - van Riemsdyk
Aube-Kubel - Thompson - MacEwen

Provorov - Braun
Sanheim - Ristolainen
Yandle - Seeler

Hart

The Flyers will be without the services of Ryan Ellis for this game, and apparently Ellis is second best in the league by xGA/60 at 5-on-5. So a loss for the bad guys.

First Period

Less than a minute into the game, Zach Hyman is able to draw the first penalty of the against Rasmus Ristolainen for hight sticking. The top powerplay unit for the Oilers looked good, spending most of the period in the Flyer zone, but were unable to capitalize before Hyman took a penalty of his own for hooking. Koskinen made a few nice stops to keep it even.

After the early penalty fest, the officials decided to put their whistles away for a few (seemingly?) obvious penalty calls against the Flyers after Koskinen was barrelled into and McDavid was tripped.

The wires cross in the defensive zone for the Oilers, Giroux takes a quick wrap around past Koskinen. 7:22 into the first and its 1-0 Philly. Edmonton’s fourth line caught against the top line. Not long after, Nate Thompson or Aube-Kubel sneak a garbage goal in. 2-0.

A few seconds later... Tyson Barrie with his first of the year! He takes a sneaky backhand pass from Draisaitl before dangling through the Philly defence and ROOFING a backhand. 2-1 for the Flyers.

Less than 15 seconds after the Barrie goal, Atkinson is caught cheating (tripping). Oilers to the PP. A few shots, but no damage.

At the end of the period, McEwan buries Cody Ceci from behind into the boards. Two for boarding and the Oilers third PP opportunity, where the home team finally breaks through. McDavid, off Braun’s stick, and we’re all tied up.

But don’t go yet... Philly scores with 0.7 seconds left to tie it. Goals a couple seconds apart and it’s 3-2 Philadelphia after Nurse coughs one up in front of the net.

Second Period

Less than a minute into the period, the top line connects to even it up quickly. 3-3 after Hyman’s sixth of the year. Last three goals scored in a grand total of 1:12 of game action. Sixth consecutive multi-point game for Connor.

A beautiful sequence by Bouchard midway through the period, standing up Couturier in the defensive zone and in the same breath finding RNH behind the Flyers’ D for a breakaway chance.

Third Period

After another egregious missed call in the offensive zone on McDavid, the Flyers come back down and sink a softie past Koskinen. 4-3 Philly on Atkinson’s second of the game. Another one Koskinen will wish he’d stopped.

However, apparently the whistles do exist, and Koekkoek is off the box for crosschecking. The Oilers kill it, but they look a little deflated. Curse of the soft goal.

They finally call one for McDavid, who sarcastically offers a “thank you” to the officials for the the interference call on Travis Konecny. No luck however, and Puljuljarvi is banged up on the play after taking abuse (similar to Koekkoek’s penalty) in front of the net. No call. Turris missed the wide open net after getting a few seconds with the second unit.

The Oilers continue to plug away, but are unable to break through as the Flyers clog up the neutral zone, pot an empty netter and bury the Oilers. Oilers fall to 5-1-0.