The Edmonton Oilers may never win another Stanley Cup, but Connor McDavid is a champion every spring. Last night showed the gap between the elite level on this roster and the condemned floor of the current team. Add the lack of depth to a coach who is stubborn on some things and we are here.
THE GA
The first goal LA scored came on the power play, Josh Brown didn’t cover goal mouth and that’s all she wrote. The second GA was on Skinner, he made the first stop but was late for the behind the net bank attempt. He would later make a stunning save on a wraparound try, and if the Oilers won last night we would be talking about it. The third GA I give credit to the Kings, they showed great skill. You’d like Evan Bouchard’s initial pass to be a better one. You’d really like Evan Bouchard to make a better pass on the fourth one. He needs to iron that out of his game. Like now. The fifth goal is on Stuart Skinner, the puck can’t go in from there. I know they were shorthanded but he was not in a good position to stop the shot. Final one is a screen, but considering the heroics of getting the tie, Skinner had to find a way. That’s my opinion on each GA.
THE GF
The first goal involved good work by Evan Bouchard to hold possession and then get it to Connor McDavid. A fab pass by 97 to Leon Draisaitl and that’s all she wrote. Vintage Oilers. Janmark’s goal was the kind of moment every team needs to win a series. An unlikely combination (Janmark, Frederic and Jeff Skinner) got it done. A terrific moment in the game. The third goal was McDavid powering past a defender and then delivering a lovely pass to Corey Perry, who cashed. Jake Walman was key to the next goal, saving the zone and then McDavid to Hyman for another fine goal. The McDavid counter was one of his most electric goals ever. What. A. Player.
THE NUMBERS
The coaching staff chose to dress Josh Brown and then faded him, borrowing from the energy reserves of the five defensmen you see listed here. I’m a Stuart Skinner supporter, but that was a poor game on the big stage and Stan Bowman has no attachment to him. I suspect Skinner’s Edmonton future is uncertain at this time. He needs to deliver, and I’m not sure he keeps the net this spring. That last goal was a killer. You can blame the coach for leaving his top unit out there, you can blame Leon for not having the trailer. I think you also need to ask the goalie to make that save, despite the screen.
A heavy show today on the Lowdown, with your opinions at the forefront. Daniel Nugent-Bowman at The Athletic will be our feature guest, he’ll be on at 12:20 today to talk about Game 1 and what may come. We’ll chat coaching decisions, needed tweaks and more. Plus NBA playoffs, NFL draft and MLB. I’m at Lowetide on twitter, in the comments section here and on the Sports 1440 text line at 1.833.401.1440 directly. We can be heard at sports1440.ca; iHeartRadio, Radioplayer Canada, it’s available post-show on apple and spotify, and we tweet it out on X.
Stu Skinner has a .891 sv% in 36 playoff games.
Love the guy but that’s f$&@ing brutal.
Unless he wins a Cup this year, I can’t imagine he is starting in next years playoffs.
Bouchard has to be better but part of the issue is:
1) the Oilers were down early; and
2) because of injuries and stupid coaching decisions, he played too many minutes.
Despite his gaffes, he was still +1 with 3 assists. Hilarious.
If Kane draws in, who draws out?
Skinner. 100%.
Cosch does not trust him and he had a rough game.
Will be interested to see what adjustments the PP makes in Game 2. The Kings PK was very aggressive, blitzing the puck carrier and rotating very aggressively, and it worked for them. Clearly the PP wasn’t firing on all cylinders, but LA’s PK was good.
That can be exploited/lead to some openings but the Oilers will need to snap the puck around a lot quicker to open up some ice. Making 2-3 hard, tape-to-tape passes in a row to open up some ice and get the PKers back on their heels/reacting and not attacking the puck-carrier down low. I don’t think they’ll be able to post-up on the half wall and generate chances with methodical, slow two- and three-man cycles down low, until they force LA’s PK to back off and play a more passive/collapsed style.
KK went back-and-forth between Perry and Hyman for the 5th man on that unit. I’m not sure which one I’d go with, probably Hyman given he’s faster and can help out a bit more keeping possessions alive by quickly getting to pucks. His boardwork was really good last night.
I can’t get enough of Connors game tying goal. Mikey Anderson has no idea what just happened, just standing there, wondering where Connor disappeared to. Doughty and some other guy no clue what to do in the middle, deathly afraid of leaving a man that only Connor can see open, so they freeze. Then the precision of that shot. Just so so good. If you are feeling blue, then go have another look!
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/article/oilers-take-positives-from-game-1-loss-after-late-rally-we-gave-ourselves-a-chance/?__vfz=medium%3Dconversations_top_pages
The comeback from 97 was one of the greatest performances we’ve ever seen. Unreal.
Citing “cult of Hockey” as a good reference point (especially after Bruce’s passing) is laughable. Those guys are NOT good at what they do. Their biases are very apparent.
This is why advanced statistics exist. From the second Bouchard stepped on the ice as a pro, the Oilers are significantly better than the other team. Expected goals against are a thing. Is he better with Ekholm out there with him?? Yeah, but that would likely apply to every player.
There are a lot of educated and experienced eyes here who saw the same thing: EDM lost the game because of Bouchard, not because of the low talent floor of the rest of the team.
Leavins and Staples understand the advanced stats. They know what Bouchard brings, as do I.
As PennersPancakes says below, those mistakes should have been out of his game in jr. It’s not high event – It’s embarrassing.
Bouchard did not lead the Oilers back into that game. He was on the ice when McDavid and Draisaitl put him on their shoulders and made up for his egregious errors. His secondary assists as a reult of that, and his giant giveaways, are not a wash. And even if they were, this is not what you want or need from your top pairing dman…!
If you’re going to downplay secondary assists as important, then why doesn’t every defense man have 3 assist a game with playing with 97 and 29?
Most players can’t get the puck to those 2 efficiently.
THE GOALIE NEEDS TO MAKE SAVES
Bouchard had three assists, so he was a part of it.
1) Generally agree with LT on the GF/GA. One thing on the final GA – I think if we’re being fair to Stu, it was a weird, flukey goal that’s not an easy save despite the puck moving slower than a bus through a school zone. However, at a certain point you need your goalie to make enough tough saves/saves above expected to win the game, and after holding his own with a strong 3rd period that was an absolute backbreaker.
2) I’ve said before that trying to win with a “good enough goalie to win a a cup” approach to roster construction presents some pretty narrow margins, and if your stopper has an off night or two it can torpedo your season. I understand why the Oilers have taken that low-cost approach given the cap situation the last few years, but I hope they bring in a potential difference-maker as a 1/1A and let Stu be the 1B/backup next year. I worry that its going to be a seller’s market given the weak FA goalie class and the Oilers might be forced to overpay and might settle on another middling 1B type.
3) The Oilers did not lose the game because of Josh Brown, the decision to dress him in the lineup for a stanley cup playoff game was galling. I know there weren’t a ton of better options, but when the guy you give a 3 year deal to so you can count on “organizational depth” can’t even hold his own for 5 minutes of ice time, that’s an issue.
4) The oilers have made a lot of unnecessarily risky/poor bets this year and its coming back to bite them at the worst possible time. Kane (LTIR saga), Klingberg, and Frederic have all been failed bets so far. Frederic had a nice play on the Janmark goal, but he looked slow and ineffective on the forecheck for the most part. The oilers are in dire need of big physical wingers who play a north/south game and can punish the opposing team’s D on the forecheck, but Frederic’s ankle is clearly ailing him and he’s just not able to get in on the forecheck quick enough to make defenders hear footsteps and rush plays. The organizational decision-making the last 12 months has not inspired a lot of confidence.
5) Walman was having a great game and unfortunately took a bonehead penalty. Know your opponent, don’t get too caught up in the emotions of the game, and play to win the game not to beat up/manhandle your opponent when those two things diverge. I’m sure he’ll take it as a lesson learned, I’m not worried about him moving forward.
6) In no other sport does a failed challenge result in a penalty, and for good reason. I hate that a failed coaches challenge results in a penalty. Imagine how dumb that would be in any other sport. Challenge a catch in the endzone on a 3rd and 10 play and lose? Too bad, now it’s 4th and 20 and you’re out of field goal range. Challenge an out safe call at first base and lose? Too bad, now we’ll move the runner to 2nd base. Challenge an out-of-bounds call in a crucial possession at the end of a basketball game and lose? Too bad, now your opponent gets free throws instead of just possession.
7) McDavid was truly transcendent last night. I thought after watching him for 10 years, I’d seen everything, but he still somehow can make my jaw drop by doing something I’ve never seen anyone else do before.
8) The officiating last night was about as I expected. Ticky-tack calls early, changing standard throughout the game (Hyman was getting mauled in the slot on the Oilers last powerplay), but I don’t think the calls were biased for or against one team in a material way. Corey Perry got away with a greasy cross-check to set up his goal, Walman easily could’ve been penalized for his big hits, and the Hyman checking to the head call was bad. A referee overruling a linesman on a puck over glass from further away was also galling. You could have called another 10 penalties on either team. However, I don’t think that the Oilers can or should lay last night’s result at the feet of the officials, and I don’t think they will.
9) I was honestly mentally prepared for a blowout loss, and through 2 periods it was about as I expected. A disjointed team that’s rusty and hasn’t played a high-stakes, meaningful game with urgency in over a month. The end result, frankly, was encouraging for me – making it that close of a game after being down 4-0 and having to defend a two minute 5-on-3 was pretty impressive.
10) The Oilers NEED a non-McDrai line to consistently deliver offence and outscore the opposition. Loading up a nuclear line when they need to is great, but the non-McDrai minutes can’t just be “glass n’ out and defend” until the big guns score a goal and win the game.
11) Bouchard, Nurse, and Kulak all played over 25 minutes last night, they need to get Stetcher back since he’s really the only defenseman capable of playing above replacement-level bottom pairing minutes between him, Brown, Klingberg, Dineen. While I won’t excuse Bouchard’s miscues last night, exhausted players tend to make more mistakes, and having him play 28 minutes a night is not a recipe for sustained success.
12)
53-97-28
33-29-92
21-93-18
13-19-90
run 97-29 out there for 4-5 shifts a period unless you’re down bad and need a goal.
27-2
25-96
49-Dineen/Klingberg
Pickard
It’s one game and you’re not behind the 8 ball until you lose at home.
re 5/8, imo both Walman calls were bogus. The same behaviour had just transpired at the other end on the last whistle. Know your enemy?… maybe the refs should know the LA Kings? Denault looked worse than JFK on that play.
And someone is going to need to explain to me how a puck, flying through the air unobstructed, can have its rotation altered if no outside pressure or force is being applied to it, because even if none of the angles were great, that puck clearly changed trajectory if only slightly. But it clearly touched!
Classic game 1 Oilers.
For as bad as the Oilers were for 40 minutes, they easily win the game with even mediocre goaltending.
I think they have to run with Pickard. Skinner is too rollercoastery.
Anyway, Kings played their best possible game and still almost lost to the Oilers who only played one period.
I think they trot Skinner out for game two. Because he usually has a standout performance after a loss. However, his leash should be short. It was a mistake to leave him in for that third period.
Really too bad we lost that game. We could have broken the kings on day 1
Doughty looked shell shocked after the game.
Why do the Oilers have the propensity for slow starts? They start the season slow, they start games slow and they start series slow. They seem to feel the need to get behind the 8 ball in order to get motivated.
As for Bouchard, I can live with mistakes that are borne out of creativity. Even the pass to the front of the net. He executes that regularly and I’d hate to turn him into a rim it around the boards or an off the glass and out player. But the lack of effort stuff I cannot accept.
Connor will be Connor, Leon will be Leon. I’m excited that both are healthy right now which should give the Oilers the advantage. The question is how will Bouchard and Skinner play? If they play like they did last night then the Oilers won’t go far.
Who is downvoting this obviousness?
I hope Draisaitl’s bench barking in the 2nd is the moment that carries through this series.
This team wins the presidents trophy with league average goaltending, let’s see what Pickard has to give next time out.
I’d imagine Skinner will be starting next game. KK seems to think Skinner always bounce back the next game. One of many KK’s questionable decisions.
It was too late for my son to stay up and watch the entire game but he did get to watch the start.
I told him before the game that as long as Skinner didn’t let in a goal on one of the first 2 shots, we would win even if we went down early.
I hope you watch the last 21 minutes with him today 🙂
If they steal last night game that would of crushed L.A soul and they win the series in 4-5. Now because Skinner was checking out some babe in the crowd it’s going to take 6-7 of gut wrenching energy to dispatch L.A. Enough of Skinner he hasn’t been present all year. Pickard needs to settle things down and make a couple of saves without being on his knees flopping like a fish out of water.
Maybe I’m seeing things but when the Oilers were on a PP in the third, it seemed to me they were trying to force the puck inside more instead of just setting up Drai in his favourite spot. Anyone else notice that?
I can’t answer your question, but in looking at the NaturalStatTrick heatmap it shows all Oilers goals coming from shots “inside.” To my eye, it looked like at minute 39 the team decided to get into the hard area. Get bullish. Create net front chaos. With considerable success. Against a goalie who’s been pretty unbeatable- perhaps because teams haven’t pushed themselves into the hard area?
If Kane is ready for game 2, no chance Janmark comes out and we can probably lock Jeff Skinner in as the healthy.
What about going 13/5? Can’t imagine they do that.
No. I can’t imagine. But what an interesting thought.
Do you mean healthy scratch?
No, it will likely be 12/5. Knoblach will dress Brown or Dineen to sit on the bench the entire game
If Stecher can’t play, Dineen should.
Point fingers at Bouch, Stu, KK, whoever you like, but those first two periods were the first time I’d ever seen an Oilers squad treat the playoffs like preseason. After a lifetime of high octane Oilers hockey moments, win and lose, that was beyond depressing.
Gotta hope game one was their wake-up, with regular programming to resume shortly. I am.
That was a team loss of which Skinner was a part of it but not the entirety. 10 shots through 2 periods including a 15 minute stretch with zilch is unacceptable. 4 shots in the second period is shockingly bad.
Turns out the worry about this group not playing together for the last few weeks of the season was well founded.
Their tactics were bad. They kept trying to establish possession in the LA zone and generate off the cycle and that plays directly into LA’s defensive structure and strengths. They have to try to generate off the rush. Take pucks to the net, get pucks on Kuemper and win the puck battles in order to break down LA’s structure and then they can establish their possession/cycle game.
Watching them continuously gain the zone, stop up and hold possession only for the LA defender to either swallow them up or pick off the attempted pass was infuriating.
If I’m pointing my finger at anybody for that loss it is Knoblauch.
LA had five men back protecting the net whenever Edmonton had possession in the
O-zone. LA was just playing that well. It wasn’t Knoblauch. Then Connor & Leon had seen enough going into the third period and took the team on their backs. I was hoping to see Pickard in the third, but that didn’t happen, and Skinner had a couple more goals go past him. Interestingly both goaltenders had .800 SV%, so I don’t think it was goaltending…. but as usual LA’s goals were opportunistic and some were even lucky.
It goes to show with McDavid & Draisaitl this team can never be counted out.
Huh? you realize the goals they all scored late in the period were off cycles/extended O-zone possession? Focusing on generating rush chances mean end-to-end pond hockey and giving up rush chances back the other way. The team is at the best when they are an o-zone possession monster, and refuse to give the puck back. They were getting outshot the first two periods because they were losing the possession battle.
They need to get to the interior on those o-zone chances and not settle for perimeter chances.
Adam Oates says it kills offense. You get time of possession and shot metrics but it can be so spread out he says many players struggle to produce. I agree with him, we see it when they aren’t able to do their thing they have trouble getting quality chances
Perry and a few others get it. If the score hadn’t gotten so lopsided LA probably would not have let the foot off the gas
I’ve seen enough Stu Skinner for this season, thank you.
It’s got to be Pickard’s net from here on in. He’s far more reliable.
Stu can single handedly lose the series. Pickard can’t. You got to bench skinner
I honestly would have pulled him after the second goal. Glacial does not being to describe how slow he was to move laterally on that play. His recognition has taken a massive drop from last year
If your team has to play a perfect game to make the goalie look good, then you’re cooked. No team plays perfectly. Some goalies cover mistakes, Skinner does not.
Also, with respect to how bad they were early, let’s not forget, Drai, Hyman and Walman and Frederic hadn’t played in weeks, Drai and Frederik even longer (and Kulak flew game day from Canmore and arrived not that long before puck drop).
This team found their legs as the game went on.
What I’m surprised at is how many fans and pundits are surprised that this team, which historically starts slow, and which has had so many injuries and gaps in the lineup, should take 39 minutes to get into the game. I, for one, am happy with what I saw: an incohesive and incoherent group eventually pull together and fire on most of its 12 cylinders by the third period. Much work to be done, yes. But I’m excited for what Weds brings. I don’t believe that the Kings have an answer to the Oilers in compete mode.
The officiating didn’t help. And the first two periods belonged to LA. But the third was McDavid’s.
Excellent analysis LT.
I’ll quibble w/you on the last GA by Skinner. Foegele gives him a big snow shower, is screening, the shot was a knuckle ball and it’s a black puck against a black jersey. If he stayed vertical, puck hits him. But he’s coached to go down and it’s in the net. Just my opinion, feel free to disagree.
The forwards are gassed can’t get back because the team is trying to win it (I like the call – go for the dagger, screw overtime).
Would I have liked him to stop it? Yup. But he didn’t. Have to think the team plays better in Game 2 (shows up sooner). Scoring 5 on Kuemper is huge. They know now what to do to win – go hard to the net, fight to get to the inside and clean up your d-zone play.
Yes! I’m with you on this.
Yeah, but at a certain point you want a goalie capable of winning a stanley cup to make a save that you don’t expect him to make or that he has no business making.
I won’t penalize him for not stopping the last GA, but man you’d really like your undisputed starter to come up with a stop in that moment given how that period/game went, so deflating
Don’t disagree. You’d like your goalie to make some saves.
I would also say the same thing applied to Kuemper last night. There was not one shot he stopped where you could say “he stole it”. He too was very average. LA relies on shot suppressions and clogging the middle of the ice. We saw what we need to do to win. Need to keep doing it.
Yeah, but lets look at a bigger sample size than just one game. Kuemper has had a great year, has won a cup recently, and has shown he’s capable of stealing games in the postseason.
Skinner hasn’t really shown that. So that’s why I wouldn’t hold one bad game against Kuemper, but I will get a bit more frustrated/exasperated with Skinner.
Skinner didn’t seem to have any idea where the shot was coming from.
Kuemper, no different than Quick, Korpisalo, Talbot.
Kings can’t prevent the Oilers from scoring.
Wait until the PP gets going.
Oilers lost game 1 at home twice and dispatched of this Kings team. They are the same.
Hilarious at 4-0, the Kings clearly think this year is different.
The silence of the crowd at 5-5 was clear sign, even they knew this is the same Kings team of years past.
I know I was expecting to see OT. That sixth goal against was incomprehensible.
Wait until the PP gets going? If last night was any indication, I do not believe they will have the opportunity to get going.
The PP hadn’t faced live competition in weeks and LA changed tactics. They attacked and did not give the Oilers time to set up.
Like everything else, the team looked out of synch because so many had not played in a while and they were running line combo’s that were unfamiliar.
No more excuses for game 2. They need to come out better. You can’t play a 20 minute game in the playoffs and expect to win.
I think a key point is this that, at least on paper, this is the worst defence iced by the Kings of the past four seasons.
Two seasons ago the Kings top six was: Anderson, Doughty, Gavrikov, Durzi, Roy, & Sean Walker. (Walker was injured & replaced with Edler)
People saying Bouchard has always been like this. I guess a bit? LT’s own stats show his giveaways are up from last year.
And are we forgetting he was playing at a Norris level for last year’s playoffs?
But this year, from Game 1, he was making stupid-ass passes. I don’t know what happened from last year when he was destroying the Nucks, Stars and Panthers, maybe an undiagnosed concussion?
For everyone saying Ekholm isn’t here to babysit him, it’s not just that. He hasn’t been the same player the entire year.
I don’t know if it’s just that teams are taking him super seriously now and have done extra video on him?
I’ve been a huge fan of this player and what he can bring to the Oilers but he is playing himself off the team right now.
And Skinner? GTFO. He hasn’t ever been the answer.
Bouchard played a team high 28 minutes last night, 3 more then anyone else. While only McDavid had more points on the scoreboard.
I’d suggest that his team high toi is an indication he’s anything but playing himself off of the team.
Look you can argue questionable decisions Bouchard makes, lots of High Risk High Reward so hes in picture but puts up points.
The pass out into the slot from behind his own net was embarrassing. High risk NO reward. He can play it back to Kulak or just chip it into the other corner for McDavid to retrieve, instead he gifts the Kings an unhindered shot in the slot. Skinner shouldnt have to save that but of course he doesnt as Danault shoots it in off his glove but thats a whole other story.
NHL goals are so hard to come by, NHL PLAYOFF goals are even harder yet we have players gift wrapping them for the opposition.That should have been ironed out in London let alone Bakersfield, the fact were seeing that in his 4th playoff is gross.
On the 4th goal, 97 is RIGHT there and doesn’t have his stick on the ice. It looks bad for Bouchard, but that pass happens every game between those 2.
If anyone thinks that getting rid of Bouchard HELPS this team: I cannot help you. You don’t get it. You lose #2, you spend a decade trying to replace him.
Maybe the coaches shouldn’t run 5 D and exhaust an already depleted blue line? Bouchard isn’t Jason Smith, and he never will be. He moves the puck better than 90% of players on the planet
MAKE A SAVE. It’s that simple
Oilers spent 3 decades trying to find Bouchard, they may not find another one until 2060.
Agreed 100%. Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good. The only way Bouchard leaving improves the team is if he’s part of a package for Quinn Hughes or maybe 5-8 other defensemen in the league who likely aren’t being traded any time soon.
Bouchard’s garbage plays seem worse this season under Knoblauch. And there’s been next to no visible correction that they should not be tolerated.
Anyone else’s eyebrows raise when Friedman announced Gary was seriously looking at Kane’s LTIR specifics? So, we have Stone (x2), Sequin, Tkachuk, Landeskog, and Kane just to name a few the last couple years, but yet the Oilers are being looked at by the league… good grief!
https://puckpedia.com/injuries
Yah right. In fact, how often have we been told that the league does not view it as an issue. But hold on, look whats going on in Edmonton… They can’t do that! That’s cheating!
I suspect the league is still butthurt that the Oilers, rather than a major-market team (i.e., American), won the McLottery.
A magic puck gave the Kings a two man ad in a playoff game in a professional sports league.
Three thoughts on this:
1) Refs should not overrule linesmen on puck going out. The linesmen are the ones most experienced and trained with making those calls, plus they usually at the best angles to make the right call–thus, they should have final authority.
2) When there is endless precedence of “influence on the game” being a major consideration in the NHL for deciding what call to make on penalties, especially on calls where it’s not clear cut, it’s pretty interesting to make the call that lands with a 5 on 3 PP with 10 minutes left in the 3rd in a playoff game. Especially on a non-malicious play (i.e. nobody was boarded, nobody was slashed, nobody injured). I get the Oilers forced their hand to make it a 5 on 3 decision vs 5 on 4 if they never challenged, but I think everyone can appreciate why the Oilers challenged, based upon this precedence.
3) They need to get rid of coaches challenge. It’s entirely lost the plot. We’re trying to call rules based off milliseconds and millimeters that shouldn’t matter outside of whether a goal crossed the line or not. Realistically, calling it delay of game was the right call and completely within the reasoning of why that penalty exists in the first place–Walman tried to chip the puck out at a risky angle and got way too much on it and at very best the puck was a c-hair low enough to glance off the tip of the glass. Puck goes out and it’s a whistle. If it was so close they can’t conclusively tell off slow-mo video review, it shouldn’t matter at that point–run with the call on the ice (which is what they did).
Offsides are specifically the worst for this. If a guy was milliseconds and millimeters from being offside, to the point where the linesman couldn’t catch it, it really had no bearing on whether a goal was scored or not. Instead, gets one fan base upset wondering WTF. Just remove it all together.
LT, with all due respect, there is no ironing that out of Bouchards game. That is who he is. A repeat offender. A deer in headlights defenceman who has some quality offensive chops. Sadly, he’s going to get paid by this team for what he brings to the offence but to me, he is most certainly not worth it.
Now, do they get to a tie game without him? Maybe not, but they certainly got down 4-0 because of him. A fair amount of blame to go around in this one and Bouch definitely deserves a healthy chunk of that pie.
On the upside:
1) Knoblauch deserves some criticism. However, the coaching staff adjusted in game by fading Brown and putting together better line combinations. One of the goals was by that bizarro Skinner – Janmark – Frederic line. That’s a fourth line in name only, couple legit top sixers there.
2) I felt like EV play was trending upwards all game, problem is it started at a real slog. Too tentative and too peripheral early IMO. Too many dumb point shots, but credit to the Kings defensive structure.
3) Lots of rust, which I think will be ironed out. Very apparent on the PP in particular, but also at EV. Execution not at the usual standard at all.
4) I thought Henrique had a couple of good chances created and could have had a couple points. I liked J. Skinner’s play, really embraced the high traffic areas.
5) A lot of what could go wrong did go wrong. I suspect less will go wrong going forward. Bouchard has his gaffes but is not consistently like that defensively. Walman had a couple tough penalties but otherwise solid. He activates effectively like Ekholm when he came over. Hit the net young man!
6) Arvidsson, Nurse, Henrique and others had grade As thoughout the game; the game was winnable.
On Skinner:
A lot of good goalies go through rough years. A lot of good players have tough years; I remember a year where Crosby’s EV points/60 was around 1.60. Let’s support our Stu. I don’t know anything about goalies other than, hold onto your hat! Things can turn quickly.
Thank you.
Excellent measured analysis!
Agreed on most points – I like the look of Henrique/Janmark together and think that running a 4L of 13-19-28 would give the Oilers a defensively responsive line that I’d feel comfortable sawing off the possession battle and keeping the puck out of high danger areas.
I thought it showed that it was J. Skinner’s first playoff game. He didn’t play awful, but he held the puck a bit too long at times, and I think he’ll adjust to not having as much time and space. Hope he gets a look with 97 or 29
I don’t blame Skinner for the loss but this year he’s been “Needed one more save” Skinner and he has to find a way, if we’re to go anywhere in the playoffs. I would give him next game But, if he flubs, it’s Pickard. I sure hope it doesn’t come to that.
Our offence(and defence, really) took nearly two periods to get moving but they found their rhythm and started popping. Not surprising since they haven’t been together in two forevers but glad it was this game. It showed that we can score against these guys and it showed that, with pressure, the kinks started to show their cracks.
We deserved better but we were the authors of our own demise early.
Next game is key.
We need to come out hard and clean up our own zone.
Skinner needs to find a way, regardless of the situation.
No Brown. If we see him again in this series, we are in serious trouble…
That felt all too predictable, actually.
Looked terrible for the first 40 (39). Maybe that is to be expected given the shared time off and the new configurations. But they were able to crack the code, which I think is what we always wait for in a series. Oilers can score on LA in LA. Good. Check. Got it.
Now, about that 6 spot against us…
All together now: Bouchard cannot continue to hand the other team goals!
Every time someone would bring this up in the regular season, one of the arguments in defence of the player was that he dials it up in the playoffs. Well, we’re here now. Someone let him know.
Besides the egregious give-away he was butter soft all night …. and we can have the Skinner discussion… but why is he fading off Foegele on goal 6? The guy bleeds contributions to bad goals against. He’s just like Skinner himself who’s capable of a big save but has no sense of the moment.
Bouchard will continue to get big minutes, so he better learn a lesson in the next 36 hours that he ought to have learned many times over by now. Management, similarly, can take note and think about if they want to sewer 25-26, or not.
He is not going to learn those lessons. When someone shows you who they are, believe them.
That applies to a person’s character, not how well they play hockey.
As always, he gave up alot but he still gave more than he gave up overall.
Fans and coaches don’t like high event and that 4th goal was horrawful but he made up for it unlike Brown who was just negative the whole way.
Needs to step up just like everyone else.
Absolutely.
A wise former poster (at least mostly a former poster) on this great blog has said something to the effect of
“thinking a team’s best players are why a team is bad is the Steve Tambellini re-signing Lennart Petrell of sports opinions.”
this x1000000 lol
Brown was actually decent with Nurse on the 5 v 3 and had 3 good blocks.
They were so bad in the 1st it was pathetic.
There were a few questionable calls , but that is the NHL , it is very inconsistent.
Skinner or basically any goalie cannot let in more than 3 goals and expect a win in the playoffs. That said Kuemper let in 5, and was not great either.
My god Bouchard is like a pin less grenade in his own end. It is really getting old this year. His minutes need to be cut down a bit . Sure Brown was terrible so put in Dineen . At least he can skate and passes well.
As for that 6 th goal, Drai, McD were outright gassed. They had basically played 7 of the last 8 minutes. The Oil had the Kings reeling. Maybe put out your checking guys with Nurse who can skate and get to OT with Drai and McD rested. You would have had momentum for sure.
Some sites have contributors crapping on Frederic this AM. Give the guy a break. He had played 7ish minutes in the past 2 months. His hard work setting up Janmark really got the team going extra hard and into overdrive.
I would hope both Kane and Dineen draw in next game.
As for goal I have no clue. Skinner does usually play great after a loss , but do you go with Pickard for game 2? The majority of fans say yes. Pretty sure this coach goes back with Skinner.
Lets hope The boys come out like the 3rd period tomorrow night
Bouchard could have eliminated the screen on the final goal by leaning on Foegele instead of giving him the entire front of the net unhindered.
Bouchard just has to be a normal defensemen and engage Foegele, and there is no winning goal.
Bouchard was abominable the entire game. He owns the loss. A defenseman has to play some defense.
Ekholm is near the end of his career. He is not going to be there much longer to babysit him and hold his hand.
Agreed… Captain Obvious says we don’t lose that game with Ekholm in the lineup…
Then puck never touched Foegele, Foegele never touched Skinner.
Skinner needs to simply make a simple save.
The team generated zip for two periods and I was unable to watch the third so I’m not sure exactly what the switch was that flipped but given the Oilers propensity for slow starts AND the amount of turnover on this roster this should provide some hope of the team improving. However the pp has been out of synch all year and the pk is missing a key cog in Ekholm. 5on5 I think we are better but the script has flipped on special teams and that may be the difference, especially given the way this league is called.
The switch was McDavid deciding he didn’t want to lose. Unfortunately, a good chunk of the rest of the team didn’t get the memo.
same as it ever was.
Will everyone be upset if KK decide to dress J. Brown for game 2? Yikes, cant imagine the uproar.
There’s a lot of obvious good and bad from last night but one curious thing is how well our Offence will do next game. There was a lot of noise that Jim Hiller changed the Kings from a trap team to a more aggressive in the N-zone and we seemed to struggle against this.
Bruce Curlock would know more, but it sure seemed like the Kings moved back to a trap team after they went up 4-0 and then we pumped 5 goals past them. I really hope we can keep up the offence against their new 1-2-2 system as well because even if a few of our goals were “in-zone” goals we still had to get in there with possession
A 4 point McDavid game must be an automatic win for this team. I think the team needs to reload this summer with a new goalie and new coach.
I like the word reload, more than a tweak, less than a reconstruct.
Prospectidence!
Akey & Wakely, Attorneys at Law face possible disbarment from the playoffs in tonight’s Game 7 (one of two in the O). The good news is the match is in Barrie, where the Colts have run the table in the postseason. Wakely was shut out for the first time in the playoffs but still leads the team with 18 points (6 + 12) in 11 GP. Akey remains with a fistful of
dollarsapples.Meanwhile, Muskegon came out of Youngstown with two wins and can close out the series on home ice. A win puts them in the Eastern Conference championship which begins Saturday. Non-round numbers have eluded Berry thus far though.
Barrie (Akey, Wakely) @ 5 p.m.
Muskegon (Berry) @ 5 p.m.
Both times are the same time and are also South View time.
Team looked flat for most of two periods. To be expected with the amount of turnover in the lineup the last month due to injuries. Great third period, let’s hope they carry that over to the next game. Knoblach, Skinner, and Bouchard need to be better. Won’t win the series with the level of performance those three gave last night.
Yeah, Have had a hard time blaming Skinner but he’s never going to be the catalyst for anything. Try something else next season.
Tough one. Excellent analysis on the goals against, LT.
I believe it’s worthwhile to point out that the referees made three incorrect penalty calls that went against the Oilers, I know, bias and all that.
The silver lining is that third period showed that this Kings team is no different than the previous three versions the Oilers faced, in that they absolutely do not have an answer for 97 or 29.
We move!
They also made several penalty calls (or non-calls) that went against the Oilers. If we’re scrutinizing the officials, lets at least add up both sides of the ledger, not just the calls that go against our team lol
The holding the stick penalty on Kulak two minutes into the game that resulted in a goal for the Kings, was not a penalty. The penalty called on Hyman in the third period, was most likely not a penalty. On the Kings ensuing powerplay, the cross-checking penalty on Walman, which resulted in a 5 on 3 powerplay where the Kings scored, was not a penalty.
Additionally, it seems likely that the delay of game penalty called against Walman was the incorrect call.
Which penalties called on the Kings were incorrect?
I included non-calls for a reason, because I think that the refs missed quite a few (on both sides).
The refs missed a cross-checking penalty on Perry that immediately opened up a passing lane resulting in his goal.
The Walman cross checking penalty was a penalty but ideally you’d take Danault for embellishment as well.
Walman’s hit in the middle of the ice could’ve been penalized.
And finally they missed a pretty clear tripping penalty on Perry late in the game when the Kings were desperately trying to get the puck out of their end.
Not saying it perfectly balances out but I don’t think it was as one-sided as folks were making it out to be
— Games late in EST in Toronto…
— Saw highlight package. Definitely don’t feel I need to alter my belief that this isn’t their year
— McD won’t go off like that every game and they still lost.
— Skinner will have more games with a bunch of goals that you wish he could have stopped : no one cares about degree of difficulty. Teams don’t win those games, ever, even with McD .
— The comeback was scoring effect. I take the negative of down so much so early and being dominated rather than hoping that the furious comeback is a sign of how good they can be.
— A better goalie performance and a lesser McD might : let’s see if they have the horses to win those games…
The comeback was scoring effect?
So Mikey Anderson, Gavrikov, and Doughty each got walked over a 12 minute span, because the Kings had the lead?
1 Unfortunately highlight package may skew your thoughts of the game. (For one, I swear that the goals represented every scrap of highlight available from the first 2 periods. Much less action then what it looked like).
2 McDavid won’t go off like that every game…. Maybe not. Would you have preferred a 1-0 loss?
3 Well actually LA just won a game like that, so not sure I buy your thought on teams don’t win like that ever.
4 If scoring effects allow a team to come back to tie the game, does it matter if they are scoring effects? If we had won in OT, would you still call it scoring effects? If Oilers let the other guys come back to tie it is it still scoring effects?
Lot of negative assertions for not having seen the game.
Highlights are a sugar rush. No context. No foreplay. No afterplay. Pretty much useless for understanding the game that just went down. If I can’t watch a whole game I try to watch the last period. It’s not everything (& watching only the third of last night’s game would have missed the whole “Oilers slowly waking from rest/injury/etc” ugliness of the first 39 minutes. Still, I think those last 21 minutes of the game are a better representation of this team than any highlights.
The last goal was a series of errors beginning with an exhausted McD flubbing the dump. Not sure what his intent was but it was not a strong play. It devolved from there.
I understand the desire to ride the momentum and finish the game in the third but it was a poor choice by the coach to have this line out.
I agree. McD and Drai were gassed. No clue what Bouchard’s excuse was not to push Foegle on his arse.
Bouch doesn’t seem to do that. as a general rule.
Probably being gassed, since he played more than anyone lol
he had a 3 minute shift and the coach put him right back out on the ice. what are you expecting??
I’m surprised to see this getting downvoted. I agree, it started with a weak play by McDavid, which is very painful to say. Then we watched Drai skate stiff legged backchecking. He eventually got on his horse but it was too late. SSkinner needs to make that save, no matter what. I thought he over-committed sliding across. I need to rewatch it.
To those blaming Bouchard for not riding Foegele to clear out the screen, then it’s Danault 1-on-0 against SSkinner.
Any one thing on that play could be explained away, or forgiven…. Except, the collection of silly things that happened there is just demoralizing.
That will never happen like that again. It happened at the very worst time. And so many things could have changed it from happening. Coach, puts out tired line, looking for the win. McD, flubs a dump in, Bouch misses the puck on the zone exit (it was in the air), Drai can’t get back, Bouch stuck in no mans land with two guys to defend, so he could not put a body on Foegle like some say, cause then the guy with the puck can walk on in, Stu doesn’t give himself a chance to see the puck (the flip side is Foegle with an excellent screen). Finallized by Danault absolutely flubbing the puck (definitely adding a giant factor of luck, in that that will never happen that way again).
Walman did a good job on that play I thought.
My opinion is that the Oilers need to throw that last play out, and focus on what the heck happened in the first two periods.
Walman is Firey.
They’re going to keep going back to skinner until it’s too late. Le sigh
I think this coach does play him in game 2, buy if they lose I think Pickard will get game 3
LT: “You’d like Evan Bouchard’s initial pass to be a better one. You’d really like Evan Bouchard to make a better pass on the fourth one. He needs to iron that out of his game. Like now.”
Bouchard’s Biggest Blueline Blunder (start this at 9 minutes):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQN1c3E0JVk
You’re right LT, “He needs to iron that out of his game. Like now.” This is defense 101. Any other D-man stops that puck with his hand or preferably body (24″ with equipment). When you try to stop it with the shaft (2″) or blade (4″) of your stick and miss, this is what happens. He’s doing this regularly, and giving up breakaways at an enormous rate.
He wants $9-10M? Get Bent Bouchard! I’ve been quiet on this all season but here we are. Yes, Skinner should have stopped it, but make no mistake that epic comeback game loss is on Evan.
Do the Oilers make the comeback without Evan?
Bouchard was the reason the Oilers needed to make a comeback.
OMG can the fire marshall be the hero if he’s not first the arsonist?
Yes. He was secondary on al 3 assists. MCD and Drai did all the work
He had 3 points, was a +1 and people want him fired into the sun. It’s ridiculous. Look, he touches the puck a ton and will make some errors (shocklingly, so does 97!!!) , but goalies are supposed to stop the puck and Make saves to cover mistakes. Skinner simply hasn’t done it ALL DAMN SEASON. It’s over for him. His lateral movement is ECHL level this season.
Imagine being in that locker room, completing an ALL-TIME comeback to have a shitty goal like that ruin it all. Pickard must start or there’s gonna be even more flat efforts coming because they must be thinking “what’s the point?”
The fact that management did nothing about it at the deadline is so F#$%ing infuriating.
And coaching takes a huge L in this game too. Dressing Brown so they essentially ran 5D and Bouchard has to carry the load, especially with Ekholm out. He was on for 3 straight minutes and the coach KEPT him out there after tying the game.
Great analysis, LT. Agreed on all fronts.
Slept on the game – I think the Oilers will be fine – but KK needs to smarten up. That Brown over Dineen decision was so unbelievably poor, indefensible at the time, more so now.
Dineen is the better skater, had the better year in the AHL – the only thing Brown has over him is more NHL experience – not much of it good.
That decision took me back to the days of drafting coke machines instead of skill in the draft. Yuck. Correct course, move on, and pray to gord that the extra minutes the other 5 defencemen were forced to eat doesn’t come back to bite them in the ass.
The Oilers can’t get the vet thing out of their system, and it has never worked. Play the best players, period. Mistake prone players rarely change no matter how many games they’ve played, just ask Struddy
Well, if Brown has so much NHL experience, he should have seen Kuzmenko standing beside the net and made it more difficult for him to tap in that shot pass for LA’s first PP goal, instead of standing their doing nothing.