Life is meaningless, eat Arby’s. Final Score: 7-4 Sharks
Coming into today’s game, the Oilers were 3-1 in matinee games so I was hopeful that maybe, just maybe a daytime matchup would be just what the doctor ordered. Something different to change the pace and the routine a little bit, ya know? The unfortunate thing, of course, is that the time of day has nothing to do with the fact that the Oilers are still without their best defenceman for another month or more and that the San Jose Sharks have the kind of depth that can make you pay on every shift. Pffft… who needs depth anyways? Even so, I was hopeful for a win as I always am. I figured that the laws of the universe would eventually allow for this losing streak to end and that today was as good of a day as any for it to finally happen. Expect the unexpected, right?
Unfortunately, the Oilers faked us out a little bit in the first period after they were able to open the scoring, grabbing themselves a lead that would last for all of 16 seconds. After Rattie’s McDavid’s goal went in, the Sharks really started to pour on the pressure and flex their offensive muscles. Their passing plays were crisp, their cycle was effective, and they certainly looked like a team that’s challenging for the division lead rather than one that’s hanging on for dear life like the Oilers are. To put it simply, the Oilers needed to find a way to win this hockey game and they couldn’t get anywhere close to making it happen. Once again, they couldn’t get any forward not named McDavid, or Draisaitl, or Nugent-Hopkins to score a goal and it’s pretty damned tough to win hockey games in the NHL when you’re not getting goaltending and two-thirds of the ice time is being eaten up by guys that can’t contribute.
Eventually, these terrible losses will be enough to kickstart some real change around here, right? Anybody? Hellooooooooo? Until then, we’ll just have to add another loss on the pile.
The wrap.
THE BRIGHT SIDE
- Connor McDavid opened the scoring for the Oilers with his 20th goal of the season after it looked like Ty Rattie had initially put the puck in the net. Upon reviewing the play, it was decided that Rattie’s shot did not cross the line and that the puck was not in until McDavid knocked it in shortly afterwards. The captain scored again when the game was already over and done with, which is a shame because he put on a wonderful display of hand-eye coordination to deflect the puck in out of mid-air.
- At this point of the losing streak, I’m looking for bright sides and I’ve gotta say again how much time I have for Caleb Jones and that I was thrilled to see him score his first NHL goal. Since being thrown into the mix, his numbers have increased and he’s looked more and more comfortable with each passing shift. He may not necessarily be ready for full time action right now, but the Oilers could have a player here if he can keep progressing as he has been so far. The only downside is that he wasn’t able to celebrate his first NHL goal more than he did because the Oilers were getting shit kicked by the time he put one home.
- Leon Draisaitl scored a really nice goal in garbage time to give the Oilers three goals on the day. He picked the puck up with speed, walking past the Sharks defenceman before perfectly placing a wrist shot in the top corner. Much like Caleb Jones’ goal, it’s a bummer there was nothing to celebrate at this point because the goal was a beauty.
- Ty Rattie had a nice game today and I thought he was one of the better forwards the Oilers had. He may not have scored the first goal like we all thought he might have, but he did finish the day with three assists and for that, I salute him.
- Welcome back to Jujhar Khaira. I’ve really liked the way the guy has been playing lately and it was good to have him back in the lineup after finishing up his two-game suspension.
- The Oilers looked good on the penalty kill tonight. The Sharks are very effective with the man advantage and I thought the Oilers did a fine job of nullifying the attack. It’s not often that we get to use the PK as a bright spot but today’s pickings are slim so I’m starting to reach here. Edmonton finished the day with a perfect 0/3 when down a man.
- The Sharks have an experienced team down the middle so I was surprised to find that the Oilers won 57% of the draws. I mean, it didn’t matter at all but I’m trying to look for positives here.
- The game is over now.
THE FACE PALMERS
- Only 16 seconds after Ty Rattie got the Oilers on the board, Donskoi finished off a beautiful beautiful passing play that had absolutely carved through Edmonton’s zone and in past Talbot. This goal could probably be used as a tic-tac-toe case study.
- Tomas Hertl gave the Sharks their first lead of the game after allowing them all the time and space they could ever need in the offensive zone. Once again, the Sharks moved the puck around efficiently and the Oilers weren’t able to gain possession before Tomas Hertl found the puck in the slot and buried it past Cam Talbot.
- Why is it that Logan Couture always seems to score against the Oilers? After Thornton set up behind the net, Couture was able to find some space at the side of the net and banged home a perfect pass through Talbot to extend the lead to two goals. It was a tough angle goal that Talbot got a piece of but wasn’t able to keep out of the net, and the hole got a little bit deeper. Couture added a second goal after the Oilers completely blew it in their own WHILE ON THE POWER PLAY which allowed Evander Kane to pick up a free puck and find his teammate open in the slot. Gross.
- Erik Karlsson put the Sharks up by three goals after his snapshot from the point found its way through traffic and past Cam Talbot. Unlike what the Oilers were doing by giving Jones all the sightlines he wanted, the Sharks were piling up the bodies in front of the crease to create havoc for the goalie and it worked to a tee on this goal.
- Melker Karlsson started the third period with the Sharks’ fifth goal that came as a deflection off of a Brent Burns point shot. I was mad enough when Karlsson scored his first, but when he added another to give the Sharks seven on the day I was just hoping for some kind of merciful death.
- How did the Oilers only get one power play chance in this whole game? Then again, they allowed a goal against on that chance so maybe that’s a good thing?
- Peter Chiarelli is still the General Manager somehow.
- The NHL site had the giveaways listed at 12 for the Sharks and 10 for the Oilers but I don’t buy that. Then again, the Oilers never really had the puck so I guess they weren’t able to give it away?
- On Thursday night, Cam Talbot replaced Mikko Koskinen after 20 minutes and shut the door against the Canucks so it wasn’t overly surprising to see him get the start in today’s game. I’ll be the first to say that he was not very good today, but he certainly wasn’t the only one that could be described in that way either. From the crease out, the Oilers were simply outmatched and it’s interesting that Hitchcock left him in for all seven. Talbot finished the night with 33 saves and a .825 save%.
- I bought cheap beets from Superstore and they’re awful. FML. As always, you can join in on the #BeetCast conversation over on my Twitter account.
SCORING SUMMARY
1ST PERIOD
TIME | TEAM | DETAILS | SCORE |
---|---|---|---|
06:28 | Edmonton | Connor McDavid (20) ASST: Ty Rattie (3), Leon Draisaitl (28) | 0-1 |
06:44 | San Jose | Joonas Donskoi (7) ASST: Erik Karlsson (25), Tomas Hertl (18) | 1-1 |
10:13 | San Jose | Tomas Hertl (14) ASST: Brent Burns (32), Erik Karlsson (26) | 2-1 |
2ND PERIOD
TIME | TEAM | DETAILS | SCORE |
---|---|---|---|
06:39 | San Jose | Logan Couture (14) ASST: Joe Thornton (12), Joe Pavelski (9) | 3-1 |
18:45 | San Jose | Erik Karlsson (3) ASST: Barclay Goodrow (5), Joonas Donskoi (11) | 4-1 |
3RD PERIOD
TIME | TEAM | DETAILS | SCORE |
---|---|---|---|
02:41 | San Jose | Melker Karlsson (5) ASST: Brent Burns (33), Kevin Labanc (20) | 5-1 |
08:25 | San Jose | SHG – Logan Couture (15) ASST: Evander Kane (13) | 6-1 |
10:40 | Edmonton | Caleb Jones (1) ASST: Ty Rattie (4), Drake Caggiula (4) | 6-2 |
14:09 | San Jose | Melker Karlsson (6) ASST: Erik Karlsson (27), Barclay Goodrow (6) | 7-2 |
16:53 | Edmonton | Leon Draisaitl (19) ASST: Milan Lucic (7) | 7-3 |
19:54 | Edmonton | Connor McDavid (21) ASST: Chris Wideman (5), Ty Rattie (5) | 7-4 |
#GOODCONTENT
Saw this dude in the Mercer before the game. pic.twitter.com/LUVNL63w0u
— Woodguy (@Woodguy55) December 29, 2018
Just a few more days until New-Year-New-Refs?
— FatDad69 (@fat_dad69) December 29, 2018
Hertl looks like Seth MacFarlane. Also, my phone likes to autocorrect Hertl to Jerky. Mmmmmm.
— The Towel Boy (@TheTowelBoy) December 29, 2018
Chiarelli trying to navigate the trade market the past 3 years pic.twitter.com/vDNmeN3GJQ
— McLangester (@Tlangester) December 29, 2018
The best player in the world and one of the best coaches in history can't put a shine on the roster that Chiarelli built.
— Travis Dakin (@TravisDakin) December 29, 2018
Talk to me, Twitter. Tweet at @OilersNation and @jsbmbaggedmilk for your chance to land in the Best of the Tweets.
Source: NHL, Official Game Page, 12/29/2018 – 4:45 pm MST
It’s OK … just an angry Jets team up next having lost their last two …
Soon to be 6 game losing streak and counting. The ultimate insult would be LB starting and then shutting out this AHL team that happens to have Connor.
Buff injured though
Meaning the Jets won’t ice any players as slow as Looch … ?
Dear Daryl,
You are single handidly ruining a legendary team that is the Edmonton Oilers. Since you have bought this team you have failed us. Your infatuation with KLowe and Mact is absurd and the fact they are on the payroll is embarrassing for even us 2nd tier fans. If you are as smart a business man as you seem to be then do the right thing and fire EVERYONE in management and start from scratch.
Wtf trashed this? Lol Kevin? Craig? Do you guys have a oilers nation account?
My favorite WHA Oiler was Jim Harrison. One year he broke his wrist punching out some dude from the New England Whalers. Just thought I’d bring that up cuz nothing about this current team inspires me.
Talbot finished the night with 33 saves and a .825 save%. Yet they still give him starts. This has been going on for two seasons. When is enough enough?
44th ranked goalie in the league and he’s starting. It boggles the mind but then he lives up to his stats with an .825% performance.
Jones went .847. Crap goalie- maybe worse than Talbot. But a vastly better team in front of him.
The “Oilers Braintrust” has to something right? Fire Chiarelli , make a trade, drink some more red wine, something.
Scrivens 2.0?
JUST 1 more welfare pick please sir. we only want 1 more. BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! garbage team with garbage soul.
lose for Hughes
How many times Tkachuk gonna turtle tonite? I’m guessing two
Your folks have the adult site blocker on the computer again so your spending time here…
wouldn’t ‘Oilers get ‘*ffed again’ be blocked though?
Imagine being Daryl Katz and paying $200 Million to buy a team just so he can hang out with Gretzky here and there, suckering city council into paying for a new arena and letting the crazy people (Chia and Bobby) run the asylum… all this while you’re team craters.
But hey, they got a plan folks…
The plan is to continue to sell $27 burgers and $13 beers.
Talk about an “F” you to the fans wallet
All they care about is the fans wallets. Winning, we don’t need no stinking winning.
Unfortunately that is not going to happen. There are very few hockey markets that would have put up with this much incompetence for this long.
The Katz curse continues.
You know, I’d wish that the people who have season tickets or on the waiting list to say “Nah, I’ll wait for you guys to figure it out before I buy season seats again, good luck” but only a few actually do
I have friends who have good lower bowl seasons tickets. They go to a handful of games per year and sell the rest – reliably breaking even or better for more than a decade.
They tell me keep them just in case the oil make the playoffs. I doubt they are alone.
And a hundred grand 50/50
Chia is a Harvard Man, you know.
Happy holidays everyone.
I quit going to games last year. I quit watching this year, and it’s been a lot less stressful.
Last season, people complained about McLellan’s coaching and the kool-aid drinkers would argue about it. Finally the Oil woke up and got rid of him. The last few seasons, Talbot has been sub-par. It took some decent games from a KHL free agent for people to see Talbot’s career numbers were based on playing for a strong Rangers team, and his one decent Oiler season was in a year where no one was injured. Time to ship him out.
The Lucic fans are fewer and fewer and the Chiarelli fans even less.
I’ll start watching games after Chiarelli and the Old Boys club is fired. They can keep Gretzky though. He seems like a fun drunk.
Another instalment in Aquila Productions upcoming documenting “Wasting McDavid: Squandering a Generational Talent”
Hmmmm, i remember all that blah blah about winning cups with all those high picks. What happened, ALL TALK ZERO HEART OR SOUL. Chump team.
Katz’s cronies happened, for far too long. Calgary fans have to be ecstatic that the team they cheer for isn’t run by morons that think they know something about winning. Unbelievable
Ya flamers are the best team that has won almost absolutely nothing lol
What have we won lately? You clearly missed my point.
I’ve said it before but why does the goalie coach still have a job on this team? Katz’s nephew? So many goaltenders have hit bottom with this guy. Not that the rest of the team hasn’t sucked lately but the suck always starts with goaltending and filters out from there.
Yeah, I think reflexively blaming the support staff (as Oil fans do) is a bit silly, but it’s hard not to wonder what’s going on here. Why is our goal-tending always so bad? Is it poor team defense? Maybe, but that wouldn’t explain why goalies start out strong here, then tend to get worse the longer they play in Edmonton. It’s baffling. And I can’t even blame Chiarelli for this one.
Talbot is such a sieve … will he even be in the league next year? Have to say McD impressed me with his slight of hand goal at the end of the game there, too bad it wasn’t actually meaningful …
Any McD goal is meaningful
It’s almost embarrassing to wear my Oilers gear!
Games like today make me happy that I didn’t renew my tickets. Gosh that was hard to watch on TV.
Poor McDavid. On pace 120 pts and not much support
How can a Hockey team suck so hard for so long? Need to start the “ McDavid asks for a trade” pool. It shouldn’t be long now.
Firing of Chia is inevitable. To fix the damage and do a proper rebuild will take a couple years at least to make this team competitive again. Also – take time to let the other prospects to develop. Chia urinated away too much value with other moves. Trade what? Get what? Will just create new holes.
Completely screwed this roster over.
I’m not sure if I ever witness a worse period of hockey by two ‘NHL” wingers than P1 by Caggulia and JP. Cags blows the pinch coverage and sets up a 3 on1. On the ice for the 2nd goal and Cags takes a penalty behind the Sharks net. I don’t think I have ever seen a player look more lost than JP tonight. He has to learm in NA hockey you have to be quick you can’t take those wide figure skating turns it takes you out of the play. No ability to read the play. Thinking he should be in the AHL, not for his development but because he is such a detriment in the NHL. Marody may not have near the physical attributes as JP, but if you want to wim hickey games today, Marody is a better choice.
From the time he gave the puck (may I say game) away vs the bolts JP has been absolute garbage. If he can’t handle that adversity get him put of here, he is a detriment to the team.
JP needs to go to the AHL…unfortunately…things are not looking good for him. Yak 2.0. Will likely end up in the K.
Is JP a case of typical Oiler mismanagement of a blue-chip player or is it a player selected in the draft that shouldn’t have been selected at that spot? Ultimately Oiler management is responsible for screwing it up and the accountability or repercussions will be nonexistent.
Is it safe to say that Lucic took Hitchcock’s advice and is no longer focused on scoring?
I wish somebody would go on a Dallas Stars like tirade.
At least hearing, “You’re ****ing horse****” might invoke a response from a listless group.
Gifting a press box player 3rd line minutes can only happen in Edmonton.
Not sure what I’m going to do with all of my free time now that I have stopped watching them this season. Any ideas???
Try watching the flames, they actually have a hockey team down there
This is what we are made of? A bologne sandwich at a steak party. Sick of this…and I’ll say it now. Next year We will be better. 0 and 6 heading into new year. Lose to Arizona just cuz and then another 0 for 3 in California. That would be 0 and 10 and season all done. Let’s see Hitchcock spin the positive on that performance. I’m all done…wish there was something.ething else to do during our long winters. Sick of picking a team to cheer for in the playoffs.
Fried baloney is excellent.
I have fried any baloney in ages, it’s on the menu tomorrow. Thanks
Newfoundland steak.
prison bacon
Prison bacon! . made me laugh, good one.
There are a few decent players on this team, but most of them not so much. They are just not good-enough, and I don’t mean Larry.
Is Katz is pre-occupied with his women problems? Is that why he doesnt do anything regarding restructuring the Oilers management.
Those casting couches won’t run themselves.
Downvoters, those casting couches will run themselves?
Your comment was defamatory.
Fair enough. Story covered by numerous news outlets in 2017.
Just need to look up Viva Glam magazine and Daryl Katz.
Hes an absentee owner. He dont give a crap. Lives in palm springs 10 months of the year. Keep paying for those seats coiler fans.
I think he’s a huge oil fan. Of thirty years ago.
His plan of reuniting all of his friends back on the cup with him as owner looks to be becoming ashes (yet again) and he has no idea how to resurrect it without canning them all.
And he hasn’t the guts to clean house.
Ad nauseum – he is Phillip wrigley redux. And thus is yet another tragic story of an owner so in love with his team he can’t get out of the way and let them succeed.
Unfortunately, another chapter in the history of sports but for the wrong reasons.
This franchise is cursed. It doesn’t matter who comes here. U may as well start trying to condition yourself to root for another team. After 34 years of oilers I’m trying to shift to jets. Tired of wasting hours of my life watching this gong show.
You’ll be back like the rest of us.
Yup, just when you got out, they’ll pull you back in.
No firings yet?
Sh¡t runs downhill!!!!!
#firekatz #firelowe #firegretzky #firenicholson #firestauffer #firehunter
The same people that are Anti-Chia are Pro-Talbot. Bizarre.
lol @ Alex …
Stop eating beets baggedmjlk. These guys aren’t worth it…its not even funny anymore and we respect you way to much for you to continue.
When TF are some of the other guys gonna contribute? No more contracts to guys on the basis of desperation. Keep money free for players that show something more than this sad sack group of coat-tail riders
Quit talking that way about Leon