November 23, 2022 by Ryan Lotsberg

It was a long night on Long Island for the Edmonton Oilers. The Oilers fired 49 shots at Ilya Sorokin and the Islanders, but the Oilers couldn’t get one by the young netminder. The Islanders took this one 3-0.

Call Outs:

Leon Draisaitl struggled through most of this game. He took a penalty for a hit from behind early in the game. It would be entirely fair to suggest that John MacIsaac made the call far too late, perhaps after looking up and seeing a replay on the jumbotron. Nonetheless, Draisaitl took the penalty. He gave the puck away when he circled behind his net slowly and stopped in the corner. That giveaway led directly to a glorious Islanders scoring chance. He didn’t appear to be moving all that fast as he watched Sebastian Aho follow a rush and score the 3-0 goal.

The first Oilers powerplay was rough for Tyson Barrie. He was near J.G. Pageau when he scored his short-handed goal, but he wasn’t able to tie up Pageau’s stick to prevent the goal. Moments later, he did well to keep a puck in at the point, but it deflected to an Islander skater. He took a penalty to prevent a breakaway.

Evan Bouchard got his first goal of the season… It’s just a shame that it was an own goal. Pageau centered the puck from the corner, and Bouchard tipped it into his own net when he tried to break up the pass. It was an unfortunate break for Bouchard, who continued to struggle to get shots through in the offensive zone as well.

Standouts:

Sorokin was the standout of this game, let’s not make any mistake about that.

This is an Oilers piece though, so I can’t pick an Islander. Eleven of the 49 Oilers shots were taken by Zach Hyman. Hyman had a few chances near the blue paint. There was a play in the second period where he received the puck in the slot and tried to jam the puck under Sorokin’s pad while moving across the crease. He flared out to Sorokin’s left to receive a pass on the powerplay, and he immediately pulled the puck to the crease. Hyman had another quality look from the low slot on the last Oilers powerplay of the game. Nobody scored for the Oilers, but Hyman’s eleven shots jump off the page.

Shout Outs:

Darnell Nurse had three shots and a blocked shot in over 26 minutes. The problem with his game was that he had three giveaways. He wasn’t on the ice for a goal against, which is the most important thing for Nurse.

Ryan McLeod struggled at the faceoff dot, but he finished tied for second on the team with five shots on goal. He added a hit, a blocked shot, and a takeaway in just under fifteen minutes of action. Like Nurse, he wasn’t involved in any of the goals against.

Brad Malone played his first game since being called up last Friday. He played a simple game. He finished with two shots, three hits, and a blocked shot. You can see that I’m grasping at straws for shout outs tonight.

It would be easy to sit back and say that Sorokin stole one for the Islanders. The guy made 49 saves and got a shutout. The Oilers didn’t record their first shot until shortly after the 12 minute mark of the first period. They peppered Sorokin in the last 48 minutes. However, I don’t think the Oilers made life difficult for Sorokin. All of Sorokin’s saves looked pretty easy. The Oilers had several good chances, but I didn’t feel that there were any GREAT chances. I think that was the easiest 49 save shutout that has ever occurred.

The Oilers conclude their New York road trip with a visit to Madison Square Garden for a date with the Rangers on Saturday morning. Yes, it’s an 11 AM start.