In the long history of a pro sports franchise, there are relatively few major turns. The Edmonton Oilers have enjoyed heaven and hell since 1972, and the list of breaking news stories is relatively short. Please read this.
There are 10 distinct chapters: Bill Hunter secured WHA franchise, Peter Pocklington purchases Wayne Gretzky’s playing rights and gains entry into NHL without surrendering 99; the 1979-81 drafts under Barry Fraser; the glory 80’s Oilers under the guidance of Glen Sather; the long Sather-Pocklington coda; 38 investors save the Oilers by buying the team in 1998; the post-Sather malaise; the McDavid lottery win; the McDavid-Draisaitl era.
The next chapter is glory or misery, pretty sure.
GAME 4
Based on the Oilers performance in the first three games of the series, you can make a strong case the current state of Oilers-Ducks (Anaheim up two games to one) has more to do with Edmonton performing poorly than anything else.
Lack of care with the puck, a return to those damnable stretch passes and coaching decisions that make it easier for the opponent are all part of the package. We are hearing Tristan Jarry could play in Game 4, I’m not sure Connor Ingram is a big enough cause of misery to replace but sure let’s try that and see how it goes.
There are some unusual numbers in this series. Kasperi Kapanen is 5-0 goals at five-on-five. Vasily Podkolzin is 6-2, Leon Draisaitl 6-4. Draisaitl is 6-2 away from Connor McDavid, 0-2 with the captain. I don’t recall a time when the coach pulled the ‘make magic’ switch and the Glimmer Twins looked less effective together, but its a small sample size.
There are media personalities suggesting that McDavid isn’t hurt, or that Oilers fans are making up the injury, but my goodness anyone with eyes can see 97 isn’t at his best. His max speed in a single shift during the regular season came October 8 (39.61 kph) against Calgary Flames. His fastest shift in this playoffs in terms of max speed was 36.99 kph on Aoril 22 against Anaheim. He’s still a rocket, but there’s some downbeat in those numbers. He’s also trying to do too much, and I don’t think McDavid is wired to do too little. So we are here.
Fans cheer for laundry. There’s a certain helplessness about that today. This roster has some issues, the coach who found the formula in the last two years can’t find anything that rhymes, the structure of the final 11 games of the regular season has given way to indifference and chaos. I would say no team can turn on a dime, but this blasted bunch do it all the time. We will never pass this way again, change is in the air. Embrace the day, live the moment, even though it may not land in your favour. The most alive we’ll ever be is in the moments that bring great joy and great pain. This is us. Today.
Well if edmonton is out knob block is toast as coach
Silver linings
So we’re supposed to believe that the officials who missed several penalties throughout the game, despite standing right in plain sight of the infraction, such as when Podkolzin got his feet pulled out from under him off a faceoff or when Dostal grabbed Savoie as he was skating by the net saw the puck cross the line from positions where it isn’t humanly possible to see the puck cross the line. Total BS.
That one will sting a bit.
Whatever the opposit le community chest card would be for bank error in your favour it’s pretty uncanny how much in critical big moments this franchise seems to consistently draw the bad kind.
Like that made no sense. I dom’t know how a league can just play that off like just unfortunate protocol always cleatly followed just magically wasn’t.
Willing to bet that was just an underqualified ref shit panic because duck players and crowd were screaming
https://x.com/MaureyL/status/2048641483843023220?s=20
Hard pill to swallow – if this was reversed, this would have been the right call on a goal.
Oilers lost it on the 2 goals up – be a hill to climb, lets see if they can do it!
They won’t win the Cup going 7 in round 1.
I mean, heavy hill to climb but pretty sure the kings won the cup one year by almost maxing out how many games it would take to win a cup haha.
You’re right on the money.
The 2014 Kings went the full 7 games in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rounds (including the infamous reverse sweep against the Sharks in round 1) before winning the Final in 5. They were two games short of the maximum possible number.
The Oilers may have been outshot and outchanced tonight, but that is a different matter from saying they should have lost this game.
2:1 ratio of penalties. With a 2-0 lead, 4 consecutive penalties were called against this team, while at least as many infractions were made by Anaheim.
Sometimes you win games you may not “deserve” to, by the fancies. I am not convinced that Anaheim would have gotten off the mat without the 8 minutes of PP awarded in just over a period of play.
That is beside the controversial OT goal. The truth is that with balanced PP or even PP advantage for Edmonton, which was deserved, this game would not have been tied going to OT.
Yes, the refs are an easy target, but that does not negate the fact that some nights, they are the correct target and can heavily influence the outcome of a game.
I also do not agree with the narrative that Anaheim is just too youthful and Edmonton is too old. Anaheim is not fast because they are youthful, they are fast because they drafted and traded for a boatload of fast players in the top 10 picks (or traded these players for other such players). And they all seem to be in good health. Edmonton has several injuries to key players. There are many players on other teams who are older than Hyman and McDavid and are contributing greatly to their team, even within this series. To suggest that Hyman, McDavid, RNH, and Draisaitl are “done” when they are all younger than Kucherov, Stone, etc. is a choice, and simply not one that we can conclude. Unless you know for a fact that they are all at 100% health, and collectively at the exact same moment at the turn of the playoffs fell off a cliff together.
Hyman is the oldest current F in the lineup and he is currently 33, while Ekholm is currently 35, Murphy at 33.
Knoblauch with zero reaction to the goal.
It is no wonder this team plays like a flat Diet Coke way too often.
He needs to be canned regardless of the outcome of this series. He should’ve been let go last offseason, but the next best time is now.
100% this and it just trickles to the team I feel. It’s like there is “always next game”. I don’t know the coaching code but I’d be demanding an on ice explanation. Instead he does a solemn walk to the room. I’m sure the players notice. It’s as if his reputation precedes any sort of accountability on the refs.
The funny thing is that calling that a goal on the ice is just so inconsistent with how the game is called. Like, I hate the league and I think there is a LOT of BS, but this type of thing didn’t even clear the extremely low bar set by the league in terms of consistency in calling the rules. 100% of the time that’s called no goal on the ice and then in review not enough evidence to say it was, so no goal. I’d love to see another example where something like this happened. I don’t think it exists. Lol. Because: Oilers.
Whatever you say about the video, there is no legitimate circumstance where either referee can call that a goal. Neither saw it cross.
Period.
100%. From where they are positioned, it is not possible that any of them saw the puck cross the line; they even admit that they didn’t see the puck cross the line by not making a good goal gesture/call in real time.
https://x.com/reporterchris/status/2048624771340878010?s=20
The real question is……will Rega call for Pickard to play next.
Nah. Jarry was very good tonight.
On a completely unrelated note…
oilers should call up clatt to add some speed and physicality to the top 6.
Is there a way to upload a photo to the chat? Or upload the photo somewhere else and link to it? I’ve taken the goal into my CAD program to show the goal line in relation to the puck, and I don’t know how they could make the call even in video review. Also the goal line looks narrower than the goal posts when they are both supposed to be 2″ wide.
The Oilers had a lead in the 3rd.
Leon was out against the Duck’s 4th line for an dzone draw and couldn’t hold it at bay.
I get he’s injured but that was the end of a truly miserable three shifts for Leon.
Jarry was good.
Yup he was
I think it was probably a goal.
I also think that fiasco underlines the reality that there are two rule books in this league.
Why did the refs feel pressure to call what physics can definitively say they did not see? No red light. No goal call on the ice. No linesman in view that may have helped them out.
Pressure to make the call the Ducks way is the only thing that explains the decision to call it a goal on ice. Does anyone think the Edmontons or Buffalos or Ottawas would get the same vibe based decision-making?
It’s mostly just that they don’t call obvious trips earlier, or that they give Dostal a ‘warning’ on a clear interference against Savoie. Game was lost in the second with absolutely unbelievable reffing. And then a phantom on-ice goal call. Lol. It’s so stupid. I hate this league so so so so SO much.
Spec straight up asked McDavid how healthy he is and his answer was that everyone is working hard out there and doing the best they can…… can’t really avoid a question any more than that.
The puck went in, if that was the Oilers we’d all want it to count. Regardless of the call, they confirmed it with review.
Jarry has a great game and then leaks the softie in OT. Not sure what to do about goaltending for G5, Knobber has a big decision.
I wouldn’t put it past them to win three in a row, but they just lost three in a row against this ducks team. It’s gonna be tough. I think that was their best game of the series tonight, try to win G5 in Edmonton and get a shot in G6 force G7 at home next Saturday night. Home ice matters in this scenario, they aren’t dead yet.
A Redirection on a nothing play from a nothing shot isn’t leaking a softie. It’s a fluke. A painful one but nothing more than a fluke.
Jarry played fine.
Draisaitl sucked.
I’m sorry but that puck came to him slowly and got through him. It maybe wasn’t a full blown softie but it was leaning the way.
No good answer in the Oilers crease, and likely it’s going to send them home early. But I’d love to see them make a series of it.
If I was the coach I’d start Jarry again.
It was a fluke tip off Nurse’s skate who was executing a damn near perfect tie up and block out of his guy on a nothing shot.
Sometimes there isn’t anyone at fault and it’s just a shitty bounce at the worst possible moment.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave Pickard the net.
Desperate times, desperate measures ‘n all….
NHL Playoff Records
Pickard 8-2 2.72 0.892
Jarry. 2-7 3.09 0.891
Ingram. 1-5 4.10 0.890
The puck may have gone in, but that’s a lie to say that we would have assumed that would have counted. This happens all the time, where you may think it crossed but can’t prove that it did, because the goalie wisely gets his pad and D stick obscures the line. Unless the puck technology is developed that doesn’t rely on direct visualization of white ice between the puck and the line, those are the rules.
And therefore, a non-goal was called to hand a team a 3-1 lead in a playoff series.
So while I may have wanted such a goal to count for Edmonton, I would not have expected it to count based on all of the experience we have had with watching such close calls being less than definitive.
That was some Bullshit, it’s getting to the point where I feel the Canadian franchises need to band together and start calling it out and if that doesn’t work then maybe look at creating something new, good luck USA NHL without Canadian teams.
That being said, regardless of the bullshit officiating, this team has played themselves into this situation and deserve to be down 3-1.
Referees often do not make an official call until after a referees scrum. In this case, it is difficult to see how the referees could make a call “goal” based on their positioning on the ice.
However, I do not think there is much doubt that the puck had fully crossed the line. One can logically infer the white space based on the clear view of the rest of the puck and the goal line.
Based on the video review, I would call that a goal.
Doesn’t matter. Those aren’t the rules.
Inference based on geometry is not subjective. There is sufficient visual evidence when combined with geometry.
Inference is not in the rules.
They call goals good when the glove is completely in the net and the puck is not fully visible. No different.
The officials’ jobs are to observe and make calls based on what they observe. The positions they were in made it impossible for them to observe the puck, yet they all huddled to share what they saw and somehow came to the conclusion that they saw the puck cross the line, which was not possible from where they were positioned. Absolute BS.
Agreed. There was only one official possibly in position to see the puck. He called the play dead from behind the net. Not sure how a scrum changes the call. From the replay, you can infer that the puck crossed the line.
You can infer all you want, but if that was called a no-goal on the play, it would have stood because “inferences” would not have overturned that original call.
No official made a good goal gesture in real time, and not a single official is in a position to see the puck, then they huddle, and it’s a good goal. Total BS.
I can’t recall a more egregious thing than that. No one called it a goal on the ice at the time. What could POSSIBLY have been said in the scrum!? ‘Didn’t you see that Ducks player?? He had a clear view and he thought it was in! I guess it musta been!’
Sounds about right because it’s not possible for any of the officials to have seen the puck cross the line from the positions they were in.
It should be pretty easy for somebody to take a still, create a circle to complete the puck circumference, and draw a line across the edge of the red line. That should solve whether it was actually in or not. Basic geometry.
It’s wild that they don’t have that technology when you look at what the MLB is doing 😆
They don’t want that technology. They want to manage the outcomes to “grow the game” ie increase revenue.
And, right on cue….
https://www.reddit.com/r/EdmontonOilers/comments/1swtsty/unfortunately_its_in/
Doesn’t look good for us.
Honestly, that’s kinda what I thought.
Total lame-ass goal…but it is what it is.
Not how the rules work.
even that angle shows the edge of the puck essentially on the line and you’d have to be squinting to have call space there. And you’re telling me the Ducks and a ref saw that from 20 feet away?
The game is lost with Trent Frederic. His hole is dug deeper.
Twice, he had a chance to get the puck out at a crucial moment. Twice, he failed. Twice, it ended up in the net on the same possession.
He might be the most hateful Oiler of all time.
In what circumstance does he need to see any ice in OT? What did he do in this game that necessitated him being there at all?
I gotta watch seven more years of this guy?!
Oilers in 7.
Play usually just dies on his stick. But sometimes it is worse. I can’t fathom why there was a need to sign him long term. It just makes no sense. This hockey team is not competently managed. The Walman deal is also suss. Sigh. At the end of the day, though, I’m just so frustrated that no one on this team has a fire. No one screaming at the refs for a BS call. No one losing it. This team is so emotionless and it is because it is built around someone who is the best player in the world, but unfortunately not the best leader in the world.
Hey his ankle was sprained give him a break!
All metrics in favour of the Ducks
Much ado about nothing. The puck was in, we dont have a goalie, our best player is operating at 30%, our pk is terrible, Dallas, Colorado and Carolina exist and literally nothing about this season hinted at a long run this year.
Maybe they pull off a miracle, who knows.
Good job ref while standing on the top side of the redline by the boards, and the linesman at the blueline wearing x-ray goggles made in California.
I remember a goal the Oilers didn’t score against LA that sat in plain view that was barely, but clearly across the line that was declared a no goal.
This is par for the Oilers course.
Yep, I remember the goal you are talking about. Clearly in, but called no goal
I took a still of it off my tv on my old phone. I’ll see if I can find the photo in a couple of days when I at home.
I am in the Edmonton area until tomorrow night.
Are you talking about the goal when big save Dave took his glove and crossed the line with it, and the replays showed the puck in the glove with nearly the entire glove over the line? That was admittedly the first time I saw the “goal inferred” rule apply, but I believe even then the initial call was ruled a goal by the closest ref and it made sense.
I am not sure, I thought it was Quick, but based on phones, I think it happened before 2019,
I remember that happening with Quick as well. Puck in glove, glove in net, but no goal because technically the puck was never visible while over the line.
There is absolutely no way the down low ref saw that puck cross the goal line as he is terribly out of position. The high ref can’t see it either, if he says he saw it he’s lying. Full stop.
That being said, once they called it a goal on the ice, we were hooped because there wasn’t enough evidence to overturn the call.
I hope someone from the Oilers A) blasts the officiating and B) uses this as a rallying point.
Backs against the wall.
This is how the conversation with the refs went. “Anaheim celebrated so it must be a goal. Let’s call it a goal on the ice so Edmonton has to challenge and there has to be clear evidence to overturn it.”
Isn’t it wild how much better the Oilers were the past 10-15 games without Draisaitl?
And as soon as he’s back, they’re back to being buttplugs?
I think that, too, falls on coaching. The Oilers didn’t get worse with one of the best players in the game coming back. But the bottom 6 no longer has an identity. As it always has been under Knoblauch.
Worth noting that this has Jay Woodcroft strategy all over it. Remember how we went into that Calgary series with everyone thinking the teams were pretty even? And he just dummied Stanley Cup winning coach Darryl Sutter. Absolutely destroyed him tactically.
The Oilers were idiots to let him and Manson go.
Well, the team was 2-9-1 and already in danger of missing the playoffs.
Dallas Eakins had pretty good fancy stats too when we let him go. Unfair comparison, perhaps, but both had to go nonetheless.
I agree that Woody was a good coach for us.
Come on now Woody is the answer?
The fact they called that a goal on the ice after the huddle is absolutely egregious – no-one called that a goal but, in that discussion, one of the four said they saw it in? BS.
On the replay, you can’t over-turn the call because Jarry’s skate is blocking the one camera and you can’t tell if its fully in or not.
It should never have been called a goal on the ice – awful!
Frederic not only on for both year-ending goals but directly responsible. His puck protection skills are abysmal so he was just stripped cleanly.
If this were a real league, those 2 referees would be fired tomorrow.
Not sure the referee union, their collective agreement and the law agrees with that, even though that was awful!
F1 made changes after the Hamilton Verstappen fiasco. The NHL will never change
There’s a reason Brenk has 13 playoff games in 11 seasons.
They absolutely let the crowd and Ducks change their decision for them. Beyond bush league.
So the call of a goal by the zebra determined the outcome of the game even though he did not see it over the line and did not call it a goal initially.
Well the Ducks player said he saw it over the line. That must be good enough for the refs. Sounds fishy to me.
Ducks win they think 🤔.
It’s been that kind of a season, hasn’t it?
The fact is, we needed a convincing win. Even if the officiating was bad, we didn’t get a convincing win.
If this team isn’t going to go deep in the playoffs, and they’re not…..maybe it’s just as well to get some rest, and reload for next year.
And we can’t really blame a lack of depth when guys like Kap, Podz, and Dickenson have been some of the better players.
Leon with that limp little backend in the 3rd was his third turnover in as many shifts.
Got away with the first two and cost his team the lead with the 3rd.
A not good very bad 40 minutes to close out that game from the big man.
Was strange seeing McDavid speak with ref after. He looked uninterested. Didn’t seem upset with the call. Must be adopting the personality of his coach.
Those refs are sensitive and have proven to take things personally and seek vengeance, when McDavid doesn’t speak to them gently.
He didn’t call it a goal on the ice. Not at any time. And he couldn’t see it.
Who were the officials tonight?
The ref at the blue line did, or atleast that’s what the broadcast said…
The panel is saying none of the officials initially called it a goal on the ice.
They did but not until after their huddle – not as the play happened – the key is what they determined after that huddle.
At the blue line?!? That is insane. That ref must have hawk DNA. Or he’s full of shit
He’s full of shit if he saw it from outside the blue line, through Jarry’s pads
Off Nurse’s skate.
I don’t have a problem with that being called a goal if video review says it is.
But there’s no way in f*cking hell that should’ve been called a goal by the back ref. That’s stupid and visually impossible.
But what would the refs tell Corey?
There’s no camera angle that actually shows the entire puck crossing the line lol
There is no credible evidence, rigged horseshit.
The initial call was a guess but it probably was fully in.
So officiating in the NHL is guess based? Yeah that tracks.
K.K needs to step up and go off on the bush league reffing. No way did the ref see cross the line
He won’t.
Coffey should. Someone might actually listen to him.
Oilers best players being owned by the 4th line is the story
100%
Frederic out for the tying goal and the losing goal when he shouldn’t have seen the ice.
yea you’ve zeroed in on a new guy since Nurse has been playing fine.
Draisaitl also had full control and turned it over with a limp backhander to nobody that was easily knocked down right before the goal was scored.
Of course its Nurse with the deflection. He was due for a deflection in
Goodnight Kris. Thanks for the two runs.
Another prime Nurse tip btw.
I remember about a month ago, the Cult of Hockey saying that at that point in the season, Edmonton defencemen had deflected 20 grade A shots against their own goalie and that Nurse was responsible for 10 of them. It’s not just bad luck when a single player is responsible for deflecting grade A shots on their own goalie at the same rate as the rest of the d-core combined.
The initial call is suspect, but I agree with the review. You can’t definitely say it was **not** a goal by the review. But the original call seemed pretty bogus.
There should not have been a conference among a bunch of stripes who had no idea what they saw. The dude behind the effin line who had direct sight should have made the call immediately, and if he didn’t see it cross, then it should have been no goal, with review, that would have shown the same.
I am quite incensed how they could do this, after all the BS this game. If I was the coach, knowing this is already the end of my time here, I would tear into the reffing on this game, and for the league.
Problem was he wasn’t behind the goal line until after Murphy pushed the puck under Jarry’s skate. None of that whole process makes any sense.
This the NHL
Frederic out for the last 2 Anaheim goals where he was completely useless
Good at collecting a large paycheck, tho
He’s useless 99% of the time, even if his line isn’t being scored on.
Rigged bullshit.
Not that they deserved any better sending #10 over the boards.