Saturday afternoon was the second straight that the Oilers had their shutout bid broken in the last half of the third period. Of course, the wins are more important, but you sometimes like to see a donut beside a goalie’s stats card, especially in more than one game.
What stood out most to me in those home games Edmonton just played was the offensive contributions they got from their defense, 11 points in total. Vincent Desharnais even had himself a productive game against Anaheim with two assists. It was also impressive that Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick contributed against their former team weeks after the Trade Deadline. If you’re an Oilers fan, with where they are in the standings, you just say business as usual with a nice grin on your face. If you’re a Ducks fan, with where they are in the standings, the season can’t end shortly enough as you sit through another ugly loss. We in Oil Country remember such a time. The difference being that John Gibson is actually a good goalie with some of the remaining few good years he may still have left being wasted on a rebuilding team. Edmonton didn’t have a goalie like that during their dark years.
The Oilers go from having a brief two-game homestand to now going on a brief two-game road trip. The keys to the game are…
No Mid-Game Collapse: In the last game against St. Louis at Enterprise Center, Edmonton only had a 2-1 lead after the first period. They didn’t look too bad to start, but then the Blues scored four unanswered goals in the second period. Maybe the Oilers won’t score as many goals as they did on Saturday, but don’t take a period off.
Don’t Stop Committing: In the last meeting in general between these teams, the Blues went up 2-0 within the first five minutes. The Oilers woke up later to make a comeback, as they love to do, but the biggest highlight was Ryan Nugent-Hopkins making a hard backcheck to stop Robert Thomas from possibly scoring on a breakaway.
New Third Line Energy: The recent line of Evander Kane–Ryan McLeod–Corey Perry has had some good looks in the last couple of games. Having McLeod center that line allows him to stay a perimeter player while Kane and Perry do all the dirty work. Kane, in particular, has had some good scoring chances. He has to break that long scoring slump of his eventually.
