I'm trying to be more even keel with the ups and downs this year, as of course even for the team which wins the Cup there's going to be lots of bad breaks, and some bad games, but man it's tough after last night. Up 4-2, with 10 minutes left, you have to close out that game, that's such a backbreaker. Would have been huge to start the series off with a win and to immediately take back home ice, but at least it happened in game 1 and not later in the series.
Don't know why the Oilers stopped playing but they did nothing for the second and third periods. Played the first really well, and played how they need to to beat the Canucks. They did overall quite a good job of handling the Canucks cycle in the d-zone and limiting chances, and before the extended flurry in the final 90 seconds of the period, shots were 10-3 for Edmonton. It was looking like Vancouver's series against Nashville where they struggled to get high quality chances.
O-zone play for the Oilers was strong in the first too. They played how they should against the Canucks hybrid zone system. Brought a forward high multiple times to drag their centre away from the net and then used the D or some quick passes to create good looks. But again, they completely stopped playing. Have to give the Canucks credit for coming out to play better, but to only get, what, 6 more shots in the final 40 minutes is horrific from the Oilers.
Nurse-Ceci continue to be a big problem, teams with offensive skill pick on them and it's not a surprise as they can't handle it. I think they can certainly play better than they did last night, but Knoblauch might have to run Nurse-Ceci as another 3rd pair and even their minutes out with Kulak-Vinny. Ekholm-Bouch can't play 30 minutes a night but they might need to be closer to 25/26 if the Oilers are going to win.
Skinner, I try to balance the good and the bad but at this point I just don't know if he has it. Completely respectable goalie for the regular season, but he can't seem to string together multiple good (or even average) starts in a row. Goals 2, 3, 5 were all awful last night.
In my pessimistic mode I saw that was a brutal choke job, giving Vancouver momentum, and the Oilers failed to capitalize on the other teams goalie having a bad game, and if Toccet isn't a dumbass he probably goes to DeSmith for game 2 after seeing that.
If Knoblauch is telling them to sit back and protect leads, as they've now played like that twice, he needs to cut it out. They played to not lose, instead of playing to win. Prevent D makes it hard to win, and the Oilers don't have the D personnel to play prevent D for 30 minutes. They need to play smart while they have a lead, but that's by not making unnecessary pinches or throwing pucks away that will immediately result in odd-man rushes. It doesn't mean sitting back for 30 minutes and never shooting.
On the more optimistic side, I'd say it's only game 1, if they win game 2 they're still coming home with a split which is pretty good. The Oilers only played 20 minutes last night and almost won, and should have. McDavid was a ghost and Draisaitl was lumbering after the injury, and they still almost won. If they can bring what they did in the first period for the majority of the game, they can win this thing.
Hopefully this is a big learning lesson and they buckle down, figure it out, and play like they can. But that has to be the most frustrating playoff loss for me since the Anaheim choke job.
