I missed seeing goals by Zach Hyman get called back, I’m glad we got it again.
Edmonton finally won a game after five straight losses; 3 of them were embarrassing. Calvin Pickard did what’s been a rarity for Oilers goalies this season, he stole a game. Just 1 goal against him on 36 shots, his biggest save was in the final minute of the game. Sebastian Aho, who scored a third period goal that cut a 2-0 lead in half, went on a breakaway after a turnover in the offensive zone was made. Pickard stopped him, and Connor McDavid breathed a sigh of relief, as even the best players make mistakes sometimes. Goaltending has been a hot-button topic this season for Oilers fans. It’s not just how many saves you make or how many goals you allow. It’s when you make saves and when you allow goals. The backup stepped up as the starter against one of the best Eastern teams and gave his team a crucial win.
Had Hyman’s goal not been called back for a kicking motion, the final score would’ve been 4-1 instead of 3-1 with the empty-netter. Connor Brown thought he himself made it 4-1, but Jacob Slavin made another Team USA impression and swept the puck away at the goal line after Brown poked it through goaltender Frederik Andersen. With the road trip from Hockey Hell coming to an end, the Oilers finally came back home a week after the 4 Nations Faceoff. There’s been a lot of talk recently about McDavid possibly feeling fatigued from that tournament. Players don’t make excuses, but he didn’t always look like his usual self on the road trip, and he even admitted it was hard to readjust after playing those Team Canada games.
Tonight and Thursday night are the last two games before the Trade Deadline. Just hearing yesterday morning about No Movement Clauses handed out to players that we hadn’t heard about during the summer at the worst possible time makes Oilers fans more anxious than they’d already felt prior to. Evander Kane reportedly wants to play a couple of regular-season games at the end just before the Playoffs start. He makes a little over %5M and this would put a dagger in the LTIR plans that Stan Bowman and Jeff Jackson wanted to initiate. The only other option would be to trade him. As per his NMC, he submitted his list of teams he would accept trades to. But I also heard rumors that Viktor Arvidsson might be open to a trade. If this is true, moving his $4M would make up for Kane’s hand-tying. We have three more days to overthink and overcomplicate. We need a second-straight win. The keys to the game are…
Game Notes
Get Gibby With It(?): Bringing the subject back to goaltending, John Gibson revealed that he would only accept a trade to Edmonton or Carolina, and he’d want to be the #1 goalie in his new destination, as he’s lost that job to Lukas Dostal in Anaheim. With a .911 SV% in 25 games, he’s having his best season in half a decade. You have to wonder what’s going through Stuart Skinner’s mind if he pays enough attention to the outside noise. This key is assuming that both Gibson and Skinner will be in the starting lineups. If so, Stu needs to have himself a feel game against an opponent that many fans want to replace him with.
Passenger Assistance: During his post-game press conference after the Florida game, Kris Knoblauch stated there were passengers on the team. Then, against the Hurricanes, Adam Henrique opened the scoring with a shorthanded goal. Corey Perry, who is having a good year for his age, scored the 2-0 goal. Bottom 6, secondary scoring hasn’t been common for Edmonton this year. The third and fourth lines need to build on their solid work in Raleigh.
Just Hang On: The Oilers had a 3-1 second-period lead against the Ducks in their last meeting on December 29th. They blew the lead, went into the third period tied, and then gave up the winning goal with less than 5 minutes left in regulation. In two losses on the road trip, Edmonton lost by 3 goals. In one of them, they lost by four goals. Then they lost one by 1 goal and one the last game by 2 goals. Get a healthy enough, don’t let it slip away, and don’t put yourself in another position where you’re once again trying to stage a comeback.
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