Special teams is the big winner in this pre-season affair

October 5, 2022 by Kirk Morris

Goals, goals and more goals! This was an entertaining match-up if you love offence.

In the end, it went down to the wire with the Oilers losing narrowly 5-4 against their rivals from British Columbia.

For a game where the Edmonton was fighting both the Vancouver Canucks and the officiating, this one was a wacky, rhythmless, and at times, just plain weird. The boys in orange and blue were penalized a whopping ten times, and conceded three goals on the penalty kill, two of them coming from sharpshooter extraordinaire Elias Pettersson.

Edmonton at times had great grade-A chances, especially at the end of the game, but for the most part were handcuffed by the dictation of play handed out by the Canucks. And a back-up tendy duel, between the Oilers’ Stuart Skinner and Canucks’ Spencer Martin, certainly did not disappoint.

Edmonton Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft was quite candid in his post-match presser, but remained upbeat as always. “Our penalty-killers were quite good, but when you give the opposition the man advantage ten times, you give their skill players to make a difference in the game. It’s a bridge too far, and it showed this evening.”

Three stars of the night

1. Connor McDavid. He was in vintage mid-season form with a turnstile-like hustle and roofed a goal in the second period, plus a dandy of a feed to linemate James Hamblin in the third for an equalizer. Think Davo is ready to roll for some regular season points now? Any arguments there?
2. Stuart Skinner. There was times where he was shaky, but stopping breakaway after breakaway is generally a good sign that he’s also ready for regular season action. Plus, he’d probably would like all the goals back scored against him, but wouldn’t we all? Stu tried to hold the fort, and that’s all you can ask from your rookie netminder.
3. The Officiating. Yes, you read this correctly…they were awesome! [dripping in sarcasm] The referees were also in fine form this evening, being very trigger happy on some very questionable calls and stoppages in play. Darnell Nurse and Markus Niemeläinen didn’t do themselves any favours on the night, both with terrible checks that resulted in trips to the sin bin.

Other notes

-James Hamblin continues to shine, tallying a dandy in the third and keeping the Oil in it. Woodcroft also stated that he was “securing a spot onto the team with tonights effort”. Don’t be surprised if he’s injected into Friday nights’ tilt at home versus the Kraken.

-Jake Virtanen was once again barely noticeable this evening. It’s apparent that the organization is giving him every opportunity to show a glimmer to impress the higher ups for an NHL contract, but it was wash, rinse, repeat kind of effort in Abbotsford tonight from the 26 year-old right winger. Time is up on this PTO attendee.

-Jason Demers also had a very average game on the back end, and one has to wonder if Ken Holland will even hand out a contract at all, let alone a two-way league minimum to the cagey defenceman.

-It was stated after the morning skate presser from Jay Woodcroft, that left-winger Tyler Benson will be “week to week and not day to day” with a lower body injury. Jason Gregor from TSN 1260 said that it was confirmed from a source that Benson will be going on LTIR, which is disappointing news to fans after having a very noticeable pre-season effort.

-Next game: Oilers at home versus the Seattle Kraken, 7 pm MST start at Rogers Place.