The Edmonton Oilers were handed a frustrating 5–3 loss at home last night by the Minnesota Wild. This loss is the latest in the constant string of ups and downs that has been this month. Win-loss-loss-win-win-win-loss-loss-win-loss, that isn’t my computer randomly generating W’s and L’s, that’s the month of November so far for the Oilers.
The game started with a little levity as the Oilers took the lead 27 seconds in on one of the wildest bounces I’ve ever seen. A deflected pass from Leon Draisaitl from his own blue line that skittered lazily on it’s side with more english than King Charles drinking a cup of Earl Grey while scoffing at the EU. It made it’s way through two players legs before curving towards the net and hopping over Marc-Andre Fleury’s stick like it had a mind of it’s own. But you know what they say, you gotta be good to be lucky, this one was pretty much just luck but still.
That first 27 second stretch was the only acceptable spell for the Oilers. It was pretty well all downhill from there. Here are the takeaways from the game:
Defensive lapses made by Edmonton
The main story of the night was defensive mistakes, and they were bad.
On the second goal, Evan Bouchard let Nick Foligno walk right in front of the net and bang home the rebound.
The Oilers gave up the third goal on such an embarrassing comedy of errors you’d think they’d all bet a grand on the Wild to win. After a series of failed clearing attempts, Stuart Skinner let out a rebound (a problem unto itself tonight) that every single Oiler on the ice had a chance to pick up. Instead, Edmonton just stood around looking at each other, suddenly confused at what they were doing on a sheet of ice with a stick in their hands. Troy Stecher actually gave the puck away to Marcus Johansson and was still the best player on the ice, he was the only one trying.
The fifth goal came from a three-on-one that resulted from a ill-advised pinch by Brett Kulak, though the forwards may have been even more at fault. Kulak had pinched and was fighting for a prolonged time (in hockey terms) for the puck and no one was covering for him. The play was close to the blue line but the forwards are still deep, hoping he wins that fight.
At one point Kirill Kaprizov walked Bouchard like a dog in the park and nearly scored but for a great play from Mattias Ekholm. That’s gonna happen sometimes, Kaprizov is a great player, the problem is that it was one of those rare situations where both the attacker and the defender managed to make it look effortless. This, combined with the bad defensive play that Bouchard made in the Toronto loss, where he seemed to give up on a loose puck and give McMann a breakaway, makes it seem like he has an effort problem.
Nagging to problems in net
While you certainly couldn’t blame the entire loss on Skinner there were a few problems. The first of which is the fourth goal. To be fair, this was a great goal, and one that is really hard to defend. The Wild entered the Oilers zone three-on-two and Ryan Hartman sent a gorgeous saucer pass over to Freddy Gaudreau who one-timed it home. Now Adam Henrique did backcheck but didn’t stick to Gaudreau well enough to keep him from taking the shot. This is a difficult play for Skinner, the cross-ice pass right into a one-timer, but as Skinner came across the crease he flailed his blocker out, presumably to swat the puck away, and that’s where the puck snuck through him.
Admittedly, I’m no goalie coach, and if there is one out there who can tell me otherwise, please do so, but it seems to me that in that situation it would be better to just come across the crease presenting the largest blockade possible, arms tight to the body.
The other noticeable problem tonight was the rebounds. I would pay $200 and drive as many miles for a steak as juicy as the rebound the third goal was scored on. Skinner let a smorgasbord of other rebounds of a similarly appetizing nature out throughout the game and was lucky he wasn’t punished for more of them. Skinner played well in the win against Ottawa but the goalie inconsistency is a serious problem for Oilers.
Kapanen’s first game
This was the first game for Kasperi Kapanen and unfortunately there isn’t a lot to say. The only positive you could note was that he drew both Minnesota penalties, other than that he was nearly invisible. Worse even he was on the ice for the third goal mentioned above. If I were Kris Knoblauch I would have benched that entire line for the rest of the period after that goal.
Hopefully Kapanen has more to offer in the future.
Edmonton needs to step it up
This was a bad loss. The Oilers collapsed like a cheap card table under the Minnesota forecheck. They couldn’t get pucks out of their zone with multiple attempts, coughed up pucks, allowed rebounds, and made astounding defensive errors. One of their goals was the luckiest goal of all time, it’s alright though because the other was just mostly luck.
The Oilers lost 5–3 and deserved to lose 8–3.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
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