Edmonton Oilers Pregame Thoughts

At least the opening goal was funny.

On a night where Marc-Andre Fleury moved up to third all-time in NHL games played with 1,030 and 4th in games started among goaltenders with 1,000, he allowed possibly the goofiest goal that’s ever been scored on him. Leon Draisaitl cleared the puck from his own team’s blue line. Then when Fleury wanted to play it, his stick missed it and it crossed the goal line just under 30 seconds into the game. Two minutes later, Minnesota scored, but it was called back after an offside challenge. Halfway through the first period, the Wild scored again. But guess what, that goal didn’t count either. You’d think with all of that luck in only the first 10 minutes of a game, the door for a lucky win would be wide open. Perhaps we got our hopes up too early. With the Flower still passing pages in record books while also turning 40 next week, he can have a good laugh as his gaffe didn’t cost his team the game.

It’s telling that said goalie with said gaffe was still the better goalie on the ice. I don’t want to give up on Stuart Skinner, I really don’t. I feel that way because Edmonton’s goaltending was exactly like this last season in November before they eventually turned it around. I’m not letting the defense off the hook, by the way. There was soft defensive play on 3 or 4 of Minnesota’s goals. Troy Stecher and Josh Brown forgot how to clear a puck on the third Wild goal. But not every scoring chance against has to be a goal against. Even when Skinner doesn’t play, I’m afraid he’ll let in a goal on the bench. It’s exhausting to see him, as well as everyone else, start this way again; year after year. I’ve alluded to this before, they’re incapable of learning lessons from past seasons.

Kasperi Kapanen played his first game as an Oiler. I didn’t really notice him for most of it, but he did draw both of Minnesota’s minor penalties. I’d be glad to see him being productive that way while waiting for him to get comfortable offensively. Kris Knoblauch revealed that Zach Hyman will be out 4-7 days, so he’ll be just fine quickly before next Friday’s game in Utah. Viktor Arvidsson has been placed on IR, a fear most Oilers fans had before the season started, given his injury history. Speaking of injuries, Darnell Nurse might be making a return tonight after missing the last 3 games as a result of the Ryan Reaves hit. If he is back, it’s only fair to expect a rusty and borderline average game from him. I’m happy that Kirill Kaprizov was okay after getting charlie horsed by Drake Cagguila. It was a late reaction with no intent to injure, but the code still demanded that a Wild player would fight him. It also reminded me that before Thursday’s loss, the Oilers were undefeated when getting a fighting major; 6-0 to be exact. The Minnesota game was their first loss of the season after a fight. Trivia can be funny, sometimes. I’ve let off my steam, let’s move on to the next match. The keys to the game are…

They All Count: I mentioned Draisaitl’s fluke goal, but the goals scored by Corey Perry and Jeff Skinner on Thursday each went off of an opponent’s body. For a team struggling to score enough consistently, and at the right time, don’t fixate on making the perfect play. Paul Coffey is reportedly not happy with Evan Bouchard getting a lot of his shots blocked. As long as you don’t interfere with the goalie or take a penalty during the play, just get the puck on net, because any goal that counts is a good one.

Too Comfortable: Even though the Rangers wound up losing to Calgary the other night, they scored 2 goals in a 16 second span during the second period after being down 2-0. Edmonton was unable to stage their own comeback in their last game. If they go on a big lead, they can’t take their foot off the gas pedal. Keep playing until you hear the third period end horn.

No Laf-ing Matter: I’m channeling my inner Gene Principe with this key. Alexis Lafreniere was the first overall pick in the 2020 NHL Draft. While it’s taken him awhile to produce like a #1 pick, and not every #1 pick is given exceptional status, he’s gradually gotten better each season. He has 15 points in 18 games going into tonight. Coming off a 28 goal campaign last year, he’s finally starting to light up the Big Apple.