Enjoyed the game. Pretty good effort by the Oil. I thought they stomped Calgary in the 1st, and then there was a predictable pushback by the Flames in the 2nd, and then in the 3rd it was pretty even. Thank God the power-play finally came through at a key moment to win the game. (Though the PK still blows.)
The one guy who still needs to remove his cranium from his posterior is Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. For two and a half periods, he was awful. Missed passes, lost battles, made turnovers on the PP (which he really needs to get off of, at least for a few games). But then there was that beauty pass to Hyman for the game winner... So, I guess that almost redeemed him in itself, but boy Nuge needs to get his game back.
Hyman was terrific, I thought. I was actually thinking to myself, "Well, he didn't get one tonight but I'm really liking his game anyway"... and then as I was thinking that, he scored.
Drai was unstoppable in the 1st period, by far the best player on the ice. Slowed down a bit after that, but 3 points is 3 points.
I'm getting more impressed by Podkolzin. And Emberson held his own.
S. Skinner was great. And J. Skinner's goal was sweeeeet....
The only bad thing to say was the SportsNet broadcast. Look, I've seen Hrudey and the other guy do plenty of Oilers' games before, and I didn't really have any issue. Honestly, I didn't get what many of y'all were complaining about.
But then came this game....
First of all, after Draisaitl completely bossed the 1st period, the Flames' crew said... nothing about it at all. They did praise Tyson Barrie, for some reason, saying he was great in the 1st (he wasn't).
At the end of the 1st -- after Edmonton dominated and led 2-0 -- the SportsNet crew decided to praise Calgary for one good shift to close out the period. At the start of the 2nd, they were still banging on about that shift.
They noted possible calls against Calgary that the refs didn't call. They didn't note any against Edmonton.
Hrudey claimed that Arvidsson "has been struggling so far" -- he hasn't.
After the Janmark clinching goal, Sportsnet showed three defensive plays in a row by Calgary, with Hrudey praising each one. (They then showed the Janmark goal once.) This in a game that was effectively over with 2.4 seconds left.
Finally, as a clincher, Hrudey had to announce the "Flames' player of the game" (he picked a plug). Like, seriously? I can't remember who the sponsor was, but obviously it's the Flames' broadcast advertiser who paid to have them do their thing on the national broadcast. But, why would SportNet even allow that??
