This One Stings…Post-Game Fan Reaction: Oilers vs Lightning

This One Stings…Post-Game Fan Reaction: Oilers vs Lightning

Okay, so before we all get really emotional and we flood the comments section and we start freaking out about another loss here, I have to make something abundantly clear. Abundantly clear. And I I cannot be more crystal clear when I say this. Calvin Pickard was maybe the only reason Edmonton got a point tonight, but the goal he gave up in overtime is incredibly deflating and frustrating. It’s the timing of the goals against. And I, like I said, I’m not putting blame on Pickard because without his performance tonight, the Oilers do not get a point. When the offense can’t score, they get the goalending. And when the offense is scoring, they don’t get the goalending. I I This This is what’s frustrating, too. Throwing away points earlier on this road trip against a team like Buffalo. Normally, we should feel really good. We should feel good about one point against Tampa Bay when the Oilers are on the second half of backto-back. Dealing with a ton of injuries right now. Regula took a puck to the head. Managed to come back and grind it out. Walman, he took a couple hard hits. He’s clearly clearly injured right now. He tried to tough through it and play a few shifts. He just didn’t have anything left in his tank. Darnell Nurse, the emotion. He steps up for Wman. He fights a guy that is like 4 in taller than him and like 50 lbs heavier and he holds his own. The emotion was there. The the commitment to defense was there. The the play in front of Pickard was okay for the most part and yet this team still came up short. It’s frustrating. It’s it’s incredibly frustrating and this this isn’t the time for this isn’t the time for a crash out. This isn’t the time to start freaking out about specific players or anything. They grinded a point, which means they can still go 500 on this road trip with a win against Florida on Saturday. It’s not going to be easy. The last game of the road trip is never easy. The boys, they’re probably thinking about their own beds, how close they are to getting there, especially with how many injuries this team is now dealing with. But Tampa Bay is also dealing with a lot of injuries, too. You have to remember Tampa Bay was without their number one Dman tonight as well, Victor Hedman, right? He’s he’s been hurt, too. But for an Others group that is dealing with injury, dealing with fatigue, trying to hold a one-goal lead for dear life, this game reminded me of game six against the Dallas Stars in that 2024 Western Conference final when the Oilers beat Dallas 2-1. And they just sat on that onegoal lead for 50 minutes or 40 minute, however long it was, and then and they were just getting caved in the second and third period. And they were just holding on for dear life. Tonight they tried the same thing. They tried to hold on for dear life and it’s unfortunate that they couldn’t find a way to get that second point. Um, I’m going to have fans ask me about not challenging the offside late in the third period or potential offside. There must have been an angle that the coaching staff saw that saw that the one Tampa player on the far end of the ice getting his skate back on the blue line. But the angle that Sportsnet showed, the one angle, the one still that I’ve seen floating around, it did it it really did look like it was offside to me. But again, do you challenge that late in the game, right? Your team has just given up a goal and if the challenge doesn’t go your way, it is a tie game and now Tampa has a power play for essentially the last two minutes of regulation. If you’re playing to get the point, Chris Knobblock may have made the right choice. Don’t don’t challenge it unless it’s clearly very obvious like the uh Philadelphia one where they gave up a goal late against Philly. They challenged then they won the game in overtime. Um I think tonight was a situation where the coaching staff went eh maybe a little bit too close for comfort. We’re not going to challenge that one. I I loved so much about this game. I loved so much about what the players were doing out there. I love that there was emotion. I love that the give a crap meter was at 100. I love that they were standing up for each other. There was rough stuff after whistles. I love that Trent Frederick scored. We got a goal from Trent Frederick. Let’s go Trent Frederick. And that bottom six as a whole. I mentioned it in the pregame report and I kind of mentioned it yesterday too. Maybe there’s some signs that the bottom six is starting to get their wheels going here. And if the Oilers are going to have any chance of going on a run and getting back into the playoff picture and finding ways to win hockey games, that bottom six has to start being effective. I think no matter what happens at the end of this road trip, there are going to be some decisions that Bowman’s going to have to make. Whether it’s call-ups from the AHL, whether it’s a trade, whatever he thinks he has to do, the Oilers don’t have a lot of cap space right now, and they have a lot of guys that are currently out. And if Regula right now is not 100%, which we know he’s not. Um, and Walman we know is not 100%. That’s you’re down to five Dmen now. You’re down to five Dmen. You’re down to 11 forwards. It’s not looking great in the personnel department. So this is where depth is going to be really tested. This is where the team as a whole, this is the biggest test of the season. Can you survive? Can you survive Saturday against Florida? Can you find a way to get two points and salvage the road trip? They can still salvage this trip. And I know we’re looking at their record and we see that they have not won a game in regulation since the end of October. They have the least amount of regulation wins in the entire NHL. They’re sitting in fifth in the uh Pacific Division. They’ve played more road games than anyone in the NHL right now. Like if they can just survive, right? If they can just survive, that’s I think that’s what I’m just that’s the only hope I can cling on to right now. Can they just survive? By the way, hit the like button if you have not hit the like button yet and subscribe if you’re not yet subscribed. Uh I am going to go through a few of the stats here for the Oilers. We’ll go through the edge visualizer for Trent Frederick’s goal. Uh I will do the visualizer for the Tampa goals as well. Um because there’s a couple interesting things here. Trent Frederick, of course, scored a minute and a half into this game. Nice job by Dry Cidle. He kind of flips the puck in, chases after it, applies pressure, steals it, puts it into Trent Frederick’s wheelhouse, and Frederick with a one-timer. That’s an That’s an EA Sports one-time goal. Uh, beats Vaselki clean. One nothing Edmonton. And and we were feeling good. I was like, you know what, maybe the boys are ready to go. And I thought that first period as a whole was fantastic for Minton. I really really did like their effort in the first period. And to a lesser extent, the second period I thought was still strong. It was the third period where maybe it’s fatigue, maybe it’s the coaching staff just playing that sit back and hold on for for dear life type of play when you’re holding a lead. Um, but they just couldn’t they couldn’t hold on here after Trent Frederick scored his first goal in 20 games. Oh my goodness, Trent Frederick. Nick Paul tied the game late. Two and a half minutes left. Just over two and a half minutes left. Mapani couldn’t get the puck super deep. It’s stolen in the neutral zone and and Tampa was just coming in waves here. Uh Paul, he just he’s just able to walk in, right? He’s able to walk through, guys. You have Nurse and Kulak defending and you have uh McDavid on the back check, but Paul was able to walk in. I’m just going to freeze frame it. He’s coming in now. Nurse, he’s boxing out his man Koulak. He’s protecting the middle of the ice from across crease. This is where I know Pickard was screened for all the saves that Calvin Pickard made. Man, I wish he could have had one here because he played so good. And I want I wanted this win so bad for Calvin Pigard. I really did. I know I’ve been hard on him. I know statistically coming into this game, he was the worst goalie in the entire NHL. His last start, I said he should never play another game in the NHL. Um he may have bought himself at least one more start. He may have bought himself at least one more start here, but Nick Paul being able to just have a clear lane to walk in. Not enough. There’s just not enough there, right? Just wasn’t enough defensively to get Paul. And now Paul again, good power move. gets into an area, shoots the puck, beats Pickard. Pickard likely a little bit screened from his defenseman. That’s a tough one. The overtime goal. This is where it gets nuts, right? Heyman can’t get the rebound. Puck went off of Heyman’s foot into Vaselpsk’s pad and then Rosvic comes in and he just he shoots the puck right on the pad of Vasalefki and then the puck comes up the ice. You get a partial twoon-one, full two-on-one. And it’s again it’s it’s un it’s an unfortunate goal against because you look at what happened just before that. Jack Rosik for some reason just couldn’t elevate that puck and I know it’s an amazing save from Basilki but man if Rosvic could have just Ros had all the time in the world. He could have done anything with that puck. He could have stood there. He could have just grabbed it slowly just backhand forehand tap it in. He could have grabbed it and just did a little flick. He he could have done so much there. And I know when the play’s happening fast, right, he’s just charging towards the goal. He just you see that wide open net as a player, for anyone that has played hockey, this is something that at least I have experienced where you see the wide open net and and you just for a a split second lose focus of how you’re going to shoot that puck. There were times when I played hockey, wide open net, oh, I hit the post. Wide open net, oh, hit the goalie’s goal bad or or whatever. Wide open net, you miss the net. It’s it’s unfortunate. I I can’t get mad at Rosik because he has been an OT hero for the Empton Oilers for a couple games this season. And just in general, Rosik’s play has been fantastic. If we take a look at some of the box stats here, shots on goal 35-25 for the Tampa Bay Lightning. Faceoff percentage was something I talked about this morning that the Oilers, if they could take advantage of the fact that Tampa stinks on faceoffs, have possession more. Uh the Oilers did their job on the faceoff dot. Penalty minutes are skewed obviously because Darnell Nurse he got two five and a 10 for standing up for his teammate. Did not like that call by the official. Did not like that Nurse got the instigator and 10-minute misconduct for that. I felt that both players dropped the gloves at the same time. I felt that Nurse went to him and asked before he dropped his gloves. They had a little bit of words before those gloves came off. It’s not like the hit was made and then Nurse threw his gloves off and grabbed him and just started throwing punches. It was two willing combatants. I did not agree with that penalty, but the Oilers did kill it. The Oilers penalty kill tonight was great on the power play. They just couldn’t beat Vaselki. They had a couple looks, nothing super dangerous, though. Tampa out hit the Oilers, block shots. They had more than Edmonton, which is actually surprising if you take a look at how many shots Tampa had. Uh, and after the first period, Tampa Bay outshot Edmonton 28-11 in the second and third. The Oilers had three shots at OT, Tampa with two. They take the game by a score of two to one. If we take a look at the advanced stats, expected goals in all situations, Tampa 3.53, Edmonton 1.7. Uh if you take a look at the Oilers, they scored and then they just played hang on for dear life hockey. They I mean they were doing a good job at nullifying Tampa in the second as well, right? It was a pretty even game until that third period and then Tampa came out swinging and Calvin Pickard had that great diving save that he made. It was unbelievable. And I thought at that moment I was like picker’s going to do this and the team’s going to find a way. Alas, it is not what happened. Um expected goals in all situation. This this is a game where again I think fatigue plays a factor. Uh the amount of ice time certain guys were getting second half of a backto-back. It it’s a tough one, right? Detto played 2314. Um you had Bard played 2807 because Regula, right, took the puck to the head and he just wasn’t getting regular shifts. Um, Walman only played 10:03. Darnell Nurse only played 1433 because of how much time he was in the box for. 17 minutes he was in the box for. So, there’s a reason why Bouch and Echol were so high in the time on ice department. McDavid, of course, 2406. Pickard did what he could. 1.53 goals saved above expected and a 943 save percentage. Now, I can’t right I when I go to the stat page here, this was from the pregame. The Oilers are now 6 and1 when they get a 900 save percentage. They are no longer undefeated. Although I can still say they’re undefeated in regulation when they get a save percentage above 900. I was going to do questions tonight. Um but I was pretty emotional after the game. I did have to kind of just take a step back, take a breath, and then just, you know, approach this video the way that I did. If you managed to enjoy this video, if there’s whatever whatever your thoughts are, please let me know in the comments section below. keep that conversation going. I do read pretty much every single comment. So, uh, the Oilers are they’re in tough against Florida on Saturday. Babski tonight just had a shut out. So, the Oilers are going to be going up against another very good goalender, a goalender that has had their number since the Stanley Cup final last year. Well, just in general, Babski’s had Emmonton’s number. Um, I look forward to the game. Obviously, I’m looking forward to the live stream. I will be live streaming Saturday, so we’ll see how it goes. All right, enjoy the rest of your evening or enjoy your morning if you’re watching this the next day. Tomorrow I’ll have a day after discussion kind of going over the Washington game and this game and then kind of taking a look ahead at Florida. U not sure how I’m going to structure the day after discussion tomorrow, but keep an eye out for that daily Oilers content here. Hit the like button, subscribe if you’re not yet subscribed, tell someone that you love them before bed tonight. And as always, fight like a kid, fight like Ben. Let’s go Oilers. I’ll see you in the next one, folks. Take care.

The Oilers lose in overtime to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Edmonton’s goal was scored by Trent Frederic, & it was a gutsy effort by an Oilers team that was playing it’s 3rd game in 4 nights and 6th game of an extended road trip. Calvin Pickard was STELLAR, posting a .943 SV% and +1.53 GSAx. Austin Hockey brings you his raw, unedited reaction to the game in tonight’s video. #oilers #edmontonoilers #nhl

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