A couple of bad defensive breakdowns where the d-men and Scrivens sort of combined to screw up.
Scrivens looked shaky all game, not just on the goals, fighting the puck all over.
Fayne was a mixed bag, a few really good defensive plays a few really bad defensive plays, I write it up as a new system and a more intense conference, you can tell he's a smart player.
Nikitin probably could've used a few more days to get back on track after his injury, not a very good bight, but he is one of those guys who looks worse than he is due to his clumsy style.
Schultz looked sloppy. Hunt good offensively, bad when he had to defend, a better defenseman gets a stick on the passer for the first goal against, not sure his shot and offense is worth not having the more active D of Nurse/Klef/Marincin on the ice for. Ference probably should be in the PB for a few this year. Petry was Petry, glourious in spurts, terribly stupid at times.
Hall didn't look like he was firing at all cylinders. RNH looked like the string of a violin. Eberle just don't care, he's a 55 feet player, he's excellent in those 55 feet, but when not there he's just annoying. That line needs to step it up.
Pouliot had some good and some bad, not the brightest player at times but very toolsy and a great fit on that line. Drai looked nervous at first got going as the game went on, he looks very strong on the dot with the ability to win his fo's cleanly and his D looks like it'll be an asset sooner rather than later, didn't create a lot of offense but it'll come. Yak was great defensively, he's taking the two-way thing seriously, had a lot of good plays offensively as well, probably our best player alongside Joensuu last night imo. Why didn't they get more ice in the third again?
Purcell is a real live NHLer and will provide us secondary scoring. Arcobello played smart defensively but didn't give much offensive support. Perron was terrible for most of the game. That trio looked so-so, I think Perron needs to drive the line for it to work.
The fourth line looked great. Hopefully noone tells Joensuu that pre-season isn't over, best game I've seen him have as an Oiler. Gordon moved the puck up ice well, had a few positional mishaps in the D-zone but overall very good. Hendricks is pretty pointless with the puck on his stick but he's great at separating guys from the puck.
Losing this way sucks, the d-men as a whole needs to step up, noone really had much of a game and those junior breakdowns needs to stop from the whole team. The first line just need to get their **** together, they were the line that seemed to get stuck most in the d-zone and they need to get more grade A looks offensively. They should carry this team 5 on 5, not just on the PP. Goaltending needs to get better, we'll see what Fasth can show us, he's at least a more calm goalie stylewise, Scrivens was very messy.
On the plus side Yak looks like a new player, great decisions most of the time, passed up on some shots but otherwise very clever. Drai held his own on D and showed some promise on the other side, once he finds his groove I think we'll see more offense as well.
The forecheck looked solid, there were some systemic play offensively that we didn't see at all last season, they usually got the puck out of their own zone quickly, didn't get hemmed as much as we saw last year, albeit against Calgary.
We lost 2-5 against one of the worst teams in the league that's never good and Eakins had some questionable coaching in the 3rd but at least there was some structure in the teamgame that we didn't see through all of last year.
We did corsi the crap out of them so at least Tyler Dellow is happy...
And no I'm not looking for a debate, only a bad joke so just walk it off boys.
