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The Oilers lost a hard fought game in double overtime after battling back to tie the game with just 18 seconds left. This was a legendary tilt, full of all the things that make the Stanley Cup finals the greatest sporting event on the planet: Lots of hits, lots of greasy plays, a ton of skill, and a burning desire for each team to put it in the W column. Unfortunately, tonight that was not in the cards for the Oilers.
The team did well in the first period despite some chaotic moments and a rash of penalties in both directions. They struggled mightily in the second period for the second straight game. The long change is proving to be an immense challenge against Florida, it’s something they need to tighten up if they want to win this series. The third and OT were much better overall. There are some real breakout challenges they need to rapidly tweak via video, and they are making way to many icings. On the flip side they played over 40 minutes of “good enough” hockey, so they have something to rebound off of, there are just some details to polish. Given that this game went to double OT it was somewhat hard to grade, it wasn’t a “clean” game in either direction no matter if you look at the score sheet, the event sheet, or just the general flow of play. The Oilers tried to play too much Panthers hockey tonight, and they’re going to get beat with experience there. If they force the Panthers to play the Oilers game, they’re going to be much more successful, but that’s going to take a bit more maturity.
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the Oilers.
Evan Bouchard, 6: Overall solid game from Bouchard, but burned on the double OT goal against. Not entirely his fault, Ekholm missed wide and it hit the stanchion weird and popped Marchand on a breakaway. Scored a goal off a blocked shot he initially fired. Two assists. Otherwise pretty solid defensively. Super eventful stat sheet, and had a couple penalties of debatable quality too. 34:29, 1-2-3, Even, 4 PIM’s, 8 shots, 4 blocks.
Mattias Janmark, 4: Quieter night for Janmark tonight, and for his whole line actually. Shelled on shot shares at 5v5 with 12 for, 23 against. Certainly not as strong a performance as game 1. 16:53, 2 hits.
Mattias Ekholm, 4: Struggled at times tonight, including missing a shot wide outside that lead to the Marchand breakaway in double OT after it hit the stanchion weird. Not much else going on tonight either, but did much quite a few minutes. Ekholm’s stick being shot out of reach should have been a penalty and it is not a particularly good look that it was uncalled. 29:59, 1 block.
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Adam Henrique, 5: Not much particularly notable but did throw 6 hits, second to only Kane. On ice for no goals in either direction. 18:48, 3 shots, 6 hits. 58% on the dot.
Trent Frederic, 4: Also relatively quiet. Failed to finish on a couple decent opportunities and took a penalty. I still want to see more from Frederic, and the clock is ticking fast there. 16:21, 3 shots, 4 hits. 33% on dot .
Darnell Nurse, 4: Somewhat high event, particularly in the icing department. Kulak and Nurse are struggling against the punishing Florida forecheck. I wonder about running 11/7 next game to bring Stecher back in to give some more RHD support and allowing Knoblauch to double shift McDavid and Draisaitl to throw some curveballs. No goals for or against while Nurse was on the ice, which is good, but spent some heavy minutes hemmed into his own zone. 27:56, 2 PIMs, 4 Shots, 3 hits, 3 giveaways, 3 blocks.
Brett Kulak, 4: Spent too much time on the wrong end of the ice tonight. 19-29 Corsi, and appears to be struggling with the off-hand assignments alongside Nurse. I don’t believe Kulak was on ice for any goals, but there was some really dicey stuff going on while those two were out there. Hopefully just a blip in the radar. 27:50, 2 giveaways, 1 block.
Connor Brown, 4: There’s a good chance Brown is still injured (also potentially a reported illness), as he has not been his usual self this series. His line had a tough time with shot shares (11-25), and expected goals weren’t any better. I hope he gets back to his old self quickly, we need that version of Brown. 22:53, 4 shots, 2 hits, 4 giveaways.
Leon Draisaitl, 6: The top lines had an eventful night, scored a huge goal off a beautiful play by McDavid, and assisting on Bouchard’s goal. Yet, still ended the night -1. I don’t blame Leon on the OT GA, he did his very best, but I wonder if his efforts contributed in the end to the goal going in. He made a hell of a backcheck on that, so I can’t really fault him there, sometimes that’s just hockey. 32:29, 1-1-2, -1, 4 shots, 1 hit, 2 giveaways, 53% on the dot.
Viktor Arvidsson, 5: Overall pretty good game, with one assist. Fared better at moving the puck in the right direction than others in the bottom 6. 15:39, 0-1-1, 1 shot, 2 hits, 1 block.
John Klingberg, 4: Struggled tonight. Got roasted on a forecheck in the corner where he wasn’t quite aware enough of the danger that lead to an extremely high danger chance against. Struggled to move the puck out in his usual effective fashion. 23:17, -1, 1 shot, 2 blocks.
Kasperi Kapanen, 4: Directly responsible for the Seth Jones goal, making multiple mistakes that ended with the puck in the net. After an amazing game 1, this was not his best performance. With that said, he’s been finding ways to make dangerous chances for too and almost buried an OT goal to end it just prior to the Marchand goal. Underwater on shot shares with the rest of his line (9-21), and even worse xG numbers. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him come out again for a game.
Stuart Skinner, 5: Stuart Skinner gave this team a chance to win tonight, but was not as good as Bobrovsky. Made a couple phenomenal saves to keep his team in it, but frustrating results on breakaways (which arguably the Oilers gave up way too many of tonight). I also am noticing his focus being broken by things happening elsewhere on the ice (the Ekholm stick incident for example). He wasn’t bad tonight, he’s not why they lost, but we sure could have used one more save. .881 Sv%, -0.62 GSAx. 5 GA on 42 Shots.
Corey Perry, 7: Scored the enormous tying goal with 18 seconds left, so automatic +1 there. Played quite a few minutes by his standards and was generating chances with the top line. 25:48, 1-0-1, -1. 3 shots, 2 hits.
Evander Kane, 7: Fairly solid game from Kane, scoring the opening goal for the Oilers, and throwing a team-leading 8 hits. Was generally in most scrums and mixing it up all over the ice. Took a penalty early that lead to a PP GA. One wishes for a little more consistency exiting the zone without issues at the blueline. 24:25, 1-0-1, 2 PIMs, 1 shot, 8 hits, 3 giveaways.
Vasily Podkolzin, 4: Quiet night by Podkolzin standards, just 1 hit, and very little else to show for his 12:45 of icetime. I hope this was just an off night and not a sign of something worse. He was so impactful last game, I hope he can shake this off. 12:45, shots, 1 hit, 2 giveaways.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 5: “Not bad, not great” as the saying goes. On the plus side of shot shares at evens (29-23), but -1 and took a penalty. The faceoff dot was not kind to RNH tonight. 25:45, -1, 2 PIMs, 2 Shots, 4 blocks. 14% FO.
Jake Walman, 6: Played big minutes, made few mistakes, generally speaking. Had one assist on the game tying goal on a smart initial shot. Very impressed with Jake through this series overall.
Connor McDavid, 7: Monster game from McDavid with 3 more assists, all while fighting through a ton of adversity. You’d like to see him draw a call or two occasionally. Gorgeous play on Leon’s PPG, deking half the Florida team before dishing to Draisaitl for his famous executioner shot. Splendid. The entire PP1 unit struggled on the short handed goal, but McDavid’s performance overall was quite strong. Despite all the assists, ended up even on the night, so take that for what you will. 35:07, 0-3-3, Even, 7 shots, 1 block, 45% FO.
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