OILERS 2 v COYOTES 3 OT - GAME NOTES:
Coyotes are like 217-0-3 versus the Oilers. If the Oil can never tame the Yote trap, then they'll never win the Pacific. Ever.
Five on five the game was duller than a spoon. What do you expect, it was the David Tippet Trap Coyotes. The powerplay, though was good for both teams, but their penalty kill was also not so good.
So with that, why did the Oilers lose last night? 3 things:
1. No Klefbom and he's out indefinitely, so that hurts the PK and the defense will remain one of the worst in the league.
2. No Hendricks as he's out for a 3 game suspension and he's the best PKer. And although he's a winger, he takes d-zone start faceoffs and is 60% on the dot, as well. Very valuable player.
3. Nilsson. .876 SV% is not good. I thought he came out of the net too much, leaving the weak side wide open like the Grand Canyon down the highway.
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| Image courtesy of the Edmonton Sun |
And BREAKING: Zack Kassian has been called up from Bakersfield. Yak returns from his freak injury so now we have the Zack stack and Yak back. (You're welcome.)
Projected lineup for Friday vs. the Sharks:
Hall - Nuge - Purcell
Pouliot - Draisaitl - Eberle <-- that line was good last night
Yakupov - Letestu - Kassian <-- Kassian is a right-shot so this fits.
Korpikoski - Lander - Pakarainen
Gazdic sits. Look for him to be put on waivers soon. When Hendricks gets back, I'm making the prediction that Hendricks becomes the 4th line centre and Lander also gets put on waivers.
Then when McDavid returns, it's three scoring lines.
Hall - Draisaitl - Purcell
Pouliot - McDavid - Yakupov
Hendricks - Nuge - Eberle
Korpikoski - Letestu - Kassian
Pakarainen
But that's almost all meaningless when the defense isn't there to get the puck up the ice to these guys. Why? Because the Oilers defense has the least number of total assists in the league.
With Kassian here, that means there's a forward going to be moved in a big trade for defensive help. Purcell, Eberle, or Nugent-Hopkins will be gone.
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