Game Five 2022-23: Blues at Oilers

by Lowetide

This is a preview of Game 5 of the 2016-17 season, with the Oilers at 3-1-0 and looking much improved over October of 2016. This year’s team is 2-2-0 with a goal differential of 0 (14-14) through four games. Last season after four? 4-0-0, with a +5 goal differential. The coach, Dave Tippett, was a wonder in October and got fired in February. In the NHL, life comes at you fast.

THE ATHLETIC!

WHAT TO EXPECT IN OCTOBER

  • At home to: VAN, CGY, BUF, CAR, STL, PIT (Expected 4-1-1) (Actual 2-2-0)
  • On the road to: STL, CHI, CGY (Expected 1-1-1) (Actual 0-0-0)
  • Overall expected result: 5-2-2, 12 points in 9 games
  • Actual October results: 2-2-0, 4 points in 4 games
  • Oilers in 2022-23: 2-2-0, 4 points in 4 games

Edmonton would win the game in October 2016, although the St. Louis Blues scored (Nail Yakupov) first. The usual suspects scored for Edmonton (Tyler Pitlick, Milan Lucic, Connor McDavid EN) and were off and running on a memorable season. I’d say the 2016-17 season was the most satisfying since 2005-06, except it’s so obvious no one need say it. Last year, 2021-22, eclipsed the 2016-17 experience and we’ll see about this season.

THE 2016-17 OILERS FIRST FOUR GAMES

This is the 2016-17 club after four games. The offensive stars (Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle) were all firing missiles and sending cherry passes; the complementary wingers (Milan Lucic, Patrick Maroon, Benoit Pouliot, Anton Slepyshev, Zack Kassian) all chimed in; some veterans (Mark Letestu, Kris Russell) were off to fast starts.

What the Oilers needed, and didn’t get in 2016-17, was a strong statement season from one of the young forwards. Peter Chiarellin called them the ‘1994’ group, as they were born that season. Slepyshev, Drake Caggiula and Jujhar Khaira were chief among them, but Joe Gambardella, Braden Christoffer and Mitchell Moroz were all in the pipeline. Chiarelli needed someone to pop in the 20-22 age group. Not one of them delivered.

OILERS POSSIBLE LINEUP TONIGHT

Ryan McLeod and Evan Bouchard are 22, and in McLeod’s case he is a second-round pick. He’s about where Slepyshev and Caggiula were, and looks to be making progress. We shouldn’t overstate this, but McLeod’s play so far this season is one of the truly encouraging signs onthis team. I’d throw in Stuart Skinner and Markus Niemelainen into the conversation among today’s youth.

CONDORS!

Bakersfield plays tonight and tomorrow, and after three games there are things we can say with some authority.

  • James Hamblin (1-3-4 in three games) is earning a recall with his fine play.
  • Mike Kesselring (3-0-3 in three) is emerging and is 22 years old. I think he may see NHL time this year.
  • Markus Niemelainen (0-1-1 in two games) earned his recall with fine play.
  • Xavier Bourgault (0-1-1 in three) is touching the puck often and making crisp, astute passes. He also has five shots on goal.
  • Tyler Tullio is also 0-1-1 after three and having his own impact on the games.

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danny

I think people are overreacting a little to this loss. St. Louis are a team that plays an excellent system / team game, with players that know their role and execute them. They’re a top team.

Edmonton are getting back to the system they learned last season, it’s early, there’s a curve.

The bright side, is with time our system play gets better and better, plus we have a much higher offensive ceiling than the Blues.

Last night was a case of a great systems team, playing against a team trying to stick to their system, and not hang Soup out to dry.

It’s a process. I’m impressed they only surrendered one goal to STL. They’re a counterpunch team that could have won 6-5 as easily against tippet era Oilers.

Harpers Hair

Well…they actually scored two.

STL is not only a well structured team but they are built on tremendous depth both at forward and defense.

Last season, they had seven 20 goal scorers and look to repeat that as Kyrou and Thomas keep developing.

No surprise that they were the only team that could give Colorado a fight in the playoffs last season.

By comparison, the Oilers remain a very top heavy team both at F and D with little contribution from the supporting cast.

danny

Well actually zero non empty net 5 on 5 goals, if you want to get pedantic.

STL are a great team with great depth. Edm had a very good showing against them last night.

If Edmonton opened the game up they probably could have lost 9-6 but they held them to zero ES goals. That’s the path they’re following.

Up arrows for sure.

Spartacus

Sucking St. Louis’ dick today, are you?

Bulging Twine
Solly

Blues beat us easily. It didn’t look like they were ever in trouble that entire game. Any decent chance we generated (maybe 3 all game) was an easy save with zero rebound or danger. Something is missing on this team. Most talent we’ve ever had during the McDrai era, and there’s no improvement this year. We’ve taken steps back even from least year. How does this always happen to us? We can’t stay at a high-end calibre year over year…we just can’t.
Drai looks like he’s still playing on one leg and a turnover machine so far. Don’t see much heart in his game.
McD trying to do everything still, I thought we had enough talent in the top-6 to make his nights easier…not by my eye.
Kane is struggling at everything except hitting.
Nuge looks normal…still can’t drive his own line but useful most nights.
McLeod looked the most dangerous…put him with McDavid or Drai…he’s earned it.
Pool is not a good hockey player….the patented whiff-shot came out today. Foegele is outplaying him big time.
Yamo was on the ice…and that’s about it.
Ryan looked decent today.
Shore is a 13th forward at his best.
Nurse is running around all over the place constantly trying to do too much. He gives up possession at an alarming rate every game.
Ceci was steady and dependable. He needs to stay healthy all year or we’re in trouble.
Kulak is good, but he hasn’t been yet. Same issue as Nurse, needs to si.plify his entire game.
Boosh still takes a second too long to make plays. No offensive danger from him yet at all…crap.
Barrie might be our 3rd best d-man right now. And he’s not playing exceptional or anything.
Neimo looked good. Simple, reserved, safe plays for most of the game. Best game yet for him.
Murray needs to go when we can afford it.
Campbell played well and gave us a chance to win. Made some big saves on some terrible giveaways and bad play in front of him.

This team isn’t a cup contender to this point…we are at fighting for a wildcard level. I sure hope its just early season struggles, because we look to be worse than last year. Not good.

hunter1909

Have been busy recently and unable to watch most of the season to date, other than a few moments and highlights if they win.

This team misses Duncan Keith’s steadying influence. He was universally ripped apart for being useless last season but I never bought that argument.

Who are the available veteran defencemen, because that’s exactly who Mister Holland is going to be looking for before the deadline. The defence is missing steadiness. Maybe they figure it out, I have no idea how good these guys are without Keith.

Against Carolina they appeared in their best self mode. 82 games is a very long time for these young players, who are probably going into the playoffs in much the same way as last playoffs.

Had thought about 1st place and trophies but not for this bunch so far.

They will make the playoffs in a canter, just the same.

Am imagining something like 2nd or 3rd in the division.

Last edited 2 years ago by hunter1909
fistycuff

The Carolina game felt like they were hanging on…most of the night. Something is missing…both on defence, and offence. If not for the Special teams, would they have any points yet? I shut this one off after the second period. Lots of talk from the team about this and about that. How they need to get off to a good start, how they need to be a tough barn to play in, how good their offence is and they know they can score goals…so far it’s all a bunch of talk. Getting shut out in your own building is bad. Nuff said. Now show me.

Tarkus

Summarizing!

Schaefer continued his scoring barrage with two goals on the night, giving him 10 already on the season. Also had a team-high 7 SOG.

Maatta had his first multi-point game of the season with 1+1, and Munzenberger had an aPPle as Vermont’s offense erupted in a 6-0 victory.

Chiasson and Lachance each had an assist.

Brind’Amour was held off the scoresheet, though he went 14-for-22 (63.6%) on the dot.

nelson88

Don’t want to jinx the kid but it appears after all these years they finally may have found their Milan Lucic (the good version)

jtblack

Only 3 D men have ever won the NORRIS & CONN SMYTHE in the same season…

1-
2-
3-

Spartacus

1 – Scott Niedermayer
2 – Larry Robinson
3 – Bobby Orr

OriginalPouzar

So, Dahlin and this scoring every game – that’s now 5 straight games…..

jtblack

Crazy eh? STAR in the making …he looks very good this year ..

McSorley33

Is Buffalo just going to roll their whole western road trip here?

jtblack

They are finally a better team ….

who

Tage Thompson looks like he’ll be full value for that contract. So far.

jtblack

I will add. – i think Makar is 2nd best player in the NHL behind McD

jtblack

AVS are dominating VGS tonight .. score close. Play is not …

Tarkus

A primary aPPle for Chiasson as the Wheaties finally get on the board in period three.

OriginalPouzar

Whoa, Bourgault picks up the puck at his own blue on the PP, slices through the neutral zone, splits two D and goes in all alone – doesn’t cash but draws the 5 on 3 PP.

Wow!

Tarkus

All he does is score goals!

Schaefer turns a deficit into a lead with back-to-back goals in the middle frame. That’s ten, ten goals on the season. Ah ah ah!

Tarkus

Goal #1

Goal #2

And now he’s tied with Bedard for the Dub lead in goals.

McSorley33

What the hell….!

OriginalPouzar

Tulio with a lovely cross-ice, stretch, sauce outlet pass to sprint Philp for decent grade B shot attempt. Tulio has some confidence I think.

OriginalPouzar

Kesselring with an around the glass clear attempt on the PK, it hits a stantion inside the blueline, the d-man bobbles it, Hamblin takes advantage and buries the SH market on a clear and free breakaway.

Not sure if they’ll give Kesselring the second assist on it – would be cheesy.

OriginalPouzar

Condors get caught on a poor line change and Kostin can catch the 3rd guy driving on a 3 on 2 and former Condor great, Adam Cracknell deposits the game’s opening goal.

OriginalPouzar

Ryan Holt

@CondorsHolty
·
22m

Calvin Pickard gets the nod. Adam Brubaker comes in for Darien Kielb and makes his Condors debut. Of course Mr. 1000 Adam Cracknell captaining the other side. Talk to ya in 15 #Condorstown!

—–

I presume Rodrigue will get the start tomorrow.

Look forward to another game of Bourgault with the captain and McKegg (presumably) and I think the Philp/Engras/Tulio trio has earned some more minutes.

Tarkus

Munzenberger picks up an assist on Vermont’s fifth (!!) goal. That gives him four points on the season, already surpassing last year’s total.

kgo

Boys played way too perimeter today, not a terrible effort…but weren’t asserting themselves in the middle of the rink

McSorley33

Yep. Rink board advertising play.

Home plate area is a scary place for most…..save for Hyman.

St.Louis is a team your going to have to win ugly

kgo

I guess Kulak’s elite skating is only in the forward direction…an alarming pattern is emerging .

Tarkus

Joel Maatta scores his 1st goal of the season as Vermont goes up 2-0 in the first.

Tarkus

Video evidence thereof (Maatta’s goal begins at 0:38 of the clip):

https://mobile.twitter.com/JackMainTV/status/1583969311999201280?cxt=HHwWgMCojc7ssfsrAAAA

Tarkus

And now gets a helper late in the third.

SwedishPoster

When there’s as little real estate as the Blues give up the passing needs to be sharper. Simple as that.

Bling

So far, puck moving / breakouts from the back end are pretty poor.

Brogan Rafferty's Uncle Steve

The d is missing Keith’s passing so far.

who

Agreed.
I thought Nurse, in particular, was making terrible decisions with the puck all game. And he wasn’t the only one.
The Blues are a patient, lock down team. And yet the Oilers dmen kept forcing breakouts into traffic or kept trying to hit the home run stretch pass. This resulted in constant turnovers in the neutral zone and more time defending for the Oilers.
Why can’t they make the simple short pass to the obviously open option?

OmJo

The Avalanche are 2-3-1, and the Lightning are 2-3-0.

Step away from the panic button.

106 and 106

Can’t wait for the boys to hit the road.

Too many games at home after 3 weeks of camp in Edmonton.

McSorley33

Maybe.

But no last change with Ryan Murray and Kulaj might be interesting….

Tarkus

I only caught the last half of the game. Counted at least four dumb decisions by Nurse with the puck (including two icings).

KnightRain

The unforced icing around the 12 minute mark stands out to me. We were gaining momentum and he quashed it all by himself. He’s gotta do better than that.

jtblack

Thats nothing new … good solid defenseman … just not elite ..

KnightRain

Damn. Not unhappy with most of the game but we were, as someone said earlier, second to the puck to often. A good test to show us what we need to get better at. We were in this to the end. A few things to clean up but it’s not a tonne.
Bet next game we’re harder on the pucks and and fighting even harder for second chances.
Great game to learn from. Blues are no pushovers. This will only make us better in the long run.

linkfromhyrule

Just absolute careless and lazy play from some of the top players today. Puck management is a thing that matters if you’re interested in winning hockey games. Nurse and Draisaitl need to lead by example and not try to average 1 turnover per shift. That is a trend that pre-dates this game for both of them this season. McLeod, Foegele, and Campbell all had good games. Kulak, woof. Oops he already tripped again

OmJo

Not going to lie, kind of mad at myself for wasting a rare Saturday afternoon off work on watching this game. Don’t care (too much) if the Oilers lose as long as it’s an entertaining loss. This wasn’t that. Sloppy play after sloppy play.

Last edited 2 years ago by OmJo
dunterpunter

well, you should be. haha. you wasted a saturday afternoon watching tv.

McSorley33

Flat out boring hockey by St. Louis.

fistycuff

Boring by both teams…being shut out in your own barn is not good nough with a talented team like the Oil.

thelongdark

Drai with a terrible game.

SK Oiler Fan

Has he had a good one yet?

dunterpunter

8 points in 5 games, trade the bum

McSorley33

Other teams are tapping their stick when he is on the ice lately….

SK Oiler Fan

4 PP points.
His 5v5 play has been uneven

teamblue

Seem to hear something like this every year about Leon. Always starts slow.

fishman

The Blues are playing playoff calibre hockey. Not sure they can keep it up but an impressive performance. Wow Leddy is a good D and I like their young forwards. Oilers have to find another level to beat the Blues.

Harpers Hair

The Blues always play like this.Even when they get outshot, they usually win because they’re so hard on pucks in their own zone.

SK Oiler Fan

Have always liked Leddy. Seems to be a bargain every year

Derek

The fourth line put more pressure on with the goalie pulled than the big boys.

Bling

Pretty good game, but need to tighten up the execution. Lots of passes that were a touch off.

Younger Oil

If other teams pay attention to the tape of today’s game, we’re in trouble. Blues playing a great game, smothering us at every opportunity.

Derek

Alot of unforced errors by the home team.

thelongdark

So sloppy all afternoon.

OmJo

The Oilers have them right where they want them!

Theil

Second to every key puck it seems. Our zone entries have largely led to nowhere today. It’s been rinse and repeat. No penetration to danger areas with any semblance of control.

mphilip316

This team does not look sharp at all

KnightRain

What a backcheck by Drai!

David

Am I crazy or do the Oilers park themselves in front of the opposing goalie far less than other teams?

SK Oiler Fan

Always seems to be one getting to the front of the Oiler G usually with minimal resistance.
Oilers need a Hyman on every line

KnightRain

Keep calm. Don’t cheat. Don’t fall into their trap. Keep working hard and bury a chance.

fishman

Not sure what has happened to Kulak over the off season but not seeing him good this year. I was quite happy this summer when Holland resigned him but he simply has played poorly in the first 4 2/3 games. Murray and Kulak have both been poor. Oilers D simply not good enough right now.

KnightRain

The pressure of a new contract and higher expectations, perhaps? Whatever it is, he’s really overthinking things, making things harder on himself. He, also, needs to find his calm feet.

nelson88

Best game I have seen Niemo play. Keep it up young man.

37-71-13 looks good. Keep them together and eventually they will start to cash.

KnightRain

Niems is finding his calm feet. Some physical hits and made a few good plays. You can see him building his confidence and it’s great to watch.

KnightRain

Whew. That was scary and fun. Couple of chances at both ends that could’ve been goals.
Kulak is having an adventure, eh? Check his skates and his peripheral vision. Seriously.
Third line is working their butts off. Feels like their gonna get in the scoreboard tonight.
McDavid starting to get that Determined look. Hes gonna have to do it himself probably cuz Yammo can’t remember what to do with the puck when he gets it…
Jacks giving us a chance. Let’s not waste it.

SayItAin'tSo, Gretz, SayItAin'tSo!

Starting to come on a bit now.

Foegele is playing great. Awesome creativity to split the d and get in. McLeod is so fast.

Top line is a hair off on passes. Drai line just isn’t clicking today but that can change.

Liking things for the most part. Kulak is exhilarating to watch today. He’s part of every high event chance either way. I’d prefer it not be this way but it’s entertaining.

Theil

Frustrating game. No crispness at all to the Oilers’ game, every pass is in the skates or to the opposition. Are the Blues incredibly disciplined, or do they just look like defensive juggernauts due to the Oilers having no flow today? It feels like they always have four guys back and ready on every rush.

Material Elvis

The Oilers need to work on their defensive zone breakout. The forwards aren’t giving proper support; too spread out and they seem to have one winger playing high in the neutral zone.

Bling

What a glorious chance for Nuge. Have to get that shot a touch higher.

SayItAin'tSo, Gretz, SayItAin'tSo!

Brett Kulak is the most dangerous player on the ice.

Holy hanna he’s having a day

KnightRain

Feels like a playoff game..,
Thats good. We gotta learn to not panic and win these.