StoneWALLed | Post-Game Fan Reaction: Oilers vs Wild

StoneWALLed | Post-Game Fan Reaction: Oilers vs Wild

You know, folks, I feel bad for Stuart Skinner tonight because a lot of the focus is going to be on the fact that he gave up a pretty weak goal in the first period, but the real focus has to be on Yesper Walstead for the Minnesota Wild, who has his fourth shut out in six games. He’s only played 10 games in his entire career. Um, Walstead was a wall. He has Wall in his name and he was a wall tonight. Steuart Skinner, I actually I feel for Stu here. I thought Stu played good. He’s given up one goal in his last two games. I thought he played good tonight, especially some of the chances that Minnesota had in the third period. I thought he did a good job giving the Oilers a chance to get back. The Oilers only needed one, just one goal to at least get a single point in this one. But Minnesota, they scored that one goal and then they’re able to play their game. They’re able to be in the neutral zone. They’re able to keep the Oilers to the perimeter. And the Oilers, for all the zone time that they had, at one point they showed the the zone time on the Sportsnet like ticker uh or score bug. The Oilers had like 12 and a half minutes of zone time and Minnesota had like six and a half minutes. The Oilers had a full six minutes more of zone time, but the Oilers are just on the perimeter the whole game. They’re not able to generate anything from that inner slot. And one, credit to Minnesota’s defenders, credit to their team for, you know, being bought in the system that they play. Uh, and two, also credit Wallstead when they did get those chances kind of in those high danger areas. They didn’t have a lot tonight, but when they did, Walstead was able to make the saves. Uh, I don’t know, man. That’s a frustrating one. There was a lot of discourse coming into this game because the Oilers could have drafted Walstead in the 2021 NHL entry draft. The Oilers, of course, traded down in that draft. Uh, they picked up the 22nd overall pick instead of picking 20th and then I think the 90th overall pick. Um, and the Oilers ended up drafting Xavier Borgo and Luca Munenberger. Well, Borgo is not with the organization anymore. Munenberger is probably never going to be an NHL player. I think Munzenberger is still overseas played in Germany to be completely honest with you. That’s a tough one. I don’t know. I I want to be mad. I want to be frustrated. I want to I want I’m more frustrated at at the coaching. Honestly, I didn’t like how Chris Knobblock was really switching up all the lines. Even in the second period is when he started doing it. And then in the third period, hey, let’s just load up McDry the whole game instead of giving anyone else a chance. Love to see that. And then of course the Oilers offensive system. We’ve talked about this before. It’s a lot of perimeter. Work the puck back to the point. Shots from distance. Most goalies when they see the puck, they’re going to prevent rebounds. The Oilers don’t get any second opportunities at the top of the crease. Um, no rebounds. I mean, Walstead, he’s not giving up any easy rebounds. And when there is a rebound, other teams defenders are able to clear them. Stu gave up one goal. Not a goal you want to give up, but it’s not on him. This game is nowhere near on Steuart Skinner. This was a game where you tip your cap to Yesper Walstead and you also can kind of really analyze the Oilers offense where they had a lot of zone time. They had a lot of shots. They didn’t have a lot of high danger shots and they weren’t able to get one. The Oilers are a team that should be built on offense. They’re a team that should be built on speed and Minnesota really took that game away from Edmonton. The Oilers weren’t able to generate anything off the rush tonight and it it’s it’s frustrating. And that’s how m this is the type of game against Minnesota that Oilers fans are used to. This is the game where I talked about in the pregame report where a lot of Oilers fans have a lot of bad memories going up against this team because of that kind of play and credit to the Wild. They were able to play defensively and they got the job done. The Oilers were not a able to get a single goal. We’ll go over the edge visual visualizer. We’ll take a look at Broaddin’s one goal that he got. That was the only goal of the game. We’ll take a look at some of the advanced stats, some of the box score, and then we’re just going to end things. So, if you enjoy the postgame fan reaction, hit the like button. If you really like it, make sure to subscribe to the channel. The Oilers have started the their fivegame home stand with a loss in regulation. That stings, they need minimum six points on this home stand. So, they have to win three of the next four games. That’s tough, right? You’ve put yourself in a bad spot where if you go 500 or worse on this home stand, this is going to be really telling where this team is going to go this season. And for as good as the effort was, it’s just not good enough. It’s not good enough. They weren’t able to, you know, they weren’t able to get the job done, I guess, is all I’m going to say here. So, let’s take a look at the edge visualizer for Yonas Broadin’s goal. It was off of faceoff. Uh, you had Dry Settle out there with Heyman and McDavid and Buchard and Ekkom. They win the puck back. It’s just a slap shot from distance and Steuart Skinner. I don’t know, man. I don’t know if he lost sight of it. I don’t know if there was like a flyby screen. I really don’t think there was. I think this was just a straight shot on net. every angle that they showed, Stu should have had this. He had his glove low and it went right through him. Uh it’s just one of those plays where I don’t know, man. That’s a tough one because and like I said, Stu is going to get the blame for this game, but when you put up a zero on the goal goalc scoring sheet here, it’s tough to blame your goalie. Stu, we talk about a 900 save percentage, right? I always talk about it. As long as he gives us a 900 save percentage, the team is in good shape. Well, he gave us about a 940 or 950 or whatever it ends up looking like. I’ll take a look at the box score in this game. The Oilers outshot Minnesota 33 to 24. They had more faceoffs. The Oilers went 0 for two on the power play. Penalty minutes were 6 to4 Minnesota. Hits 2519. Wild block shots. The Wild had 20 block shots. Giveaways. The Oilers had 18 giveaways. Takeaways, the Wild had eight. And if we take a look at the box score here for the Mton Oilers, their forward group, Yan McDavid played 23-24, Dry Settle 2258, Heyman 2049. And if we go down to the fourth line, Clattenberg only played 441. Not sure if I agree with that one. Chris Knoblock, Frederick played 830. He’s more than useless at this point. Curtis Lazar played 845. Again, he didn’t get a lot of opportunity. This is where I’m frustrated, though. What did Matthew Seavoy do to deserve to not get to play basically at all in the third period? I think Seavoy had two shifts in the third period. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but Seavo is getting less ice time than Mapani. Henrique Yanmark. Seavoi is getting less ice time than Matias Yanmar. Hello, Chris Knoblock. What are we doing here? Uh Matthew Seavoy, he brings speed, he brings tenacity, he keeps plays alive, he makes good passes. There is no reason if you’re trying to generate a goal in a onegoal game to sit a guy like Seavoy and not play him as much as some of these other guys. What did Yanmark do to deserve 1443 of ice time today? That’s crazy to me. If we take a look at the defense, of course, Bousard had a lot of ice time in the third. They’re pushing. They’re trying to get one goal. Uh Ekholm 2149. Nurse played 1912. Emerson 1639. Regula only played 1610. Didn’t see him a lot out there in the third period. I thought Regula looked a little shaky again. Kulak I thought looked okay. Emerson probably our best defenseman tonight in my opinion. I just his overall game has really it’s been solid. If you take a look at Stu. Yeah. And 958 save percentage. This game’s not on Steu folks. I know everyone’s going to want the scapegoat. They’re going to want it on Steu. This is on Chris Snoblock. This is on the uh the forwards for not generating a goal. And it’s on the coaching as a whole for how the Oilers are coached in the offensive zone. It’s nowhere near good enough, my friends. If we take a look at the uh money puck here, the expected goals deserved a winner meter. the Oilers based on all of the analytics that Money Puck takes into consideration, the Oilers would win 62.8% of the time based on a thousand simulations. But take a look at this. Now, the bigger the dot on the screen, the higher danger chance that it is. So, if you look at the Oilers, they don’t have a lot of big orange dots. They have a few, right? They got a couple shots in the inner slot, but nothing really high danger. But look at all the shot attempts from the point. Look at all those small dots. Look at how many shot attempts they had from the blue line, man. And it’s just it’s frustrating. And if you look at the Minnesota Wild, they didn’t have very many shot attempts. Uh their goal that was scored, what was the percent chance of a goal? 3.5% chance of a goal based on that location, shot angle, speed, all that sort of thing that it takes into consideration. Again, credit to Broaddine. It’s a actually, you know what? I’m not giving Sorry, Brodine. Broaddin, if you see this video somehow, that wasn’t a great shot. Stu should have had it. Uh Stu did make a couple saves in the third period that I thought were pretty key. Uh Minnesota pressed a little bit, but the expected goals in all situations 2.67 to 1.81 in favor of Edmonton at five on five, 2.04 to 1.7. It was a pretty evenly played game at five on five. Uh Minnesota, they had a few looks in the middle part of the period. The Oilers for about the last 7 minutes, 1 2 3 4 5 six shot attempts and then they had nothing on net for the final like 2 minutes. Brutal. Absolutely brutal, folks. Smapani led the way in expected goals four at five on five 84%. Yanmark okay Yanmark had an okay game 68.69%. Good for Yanmark. Uh Lazar Newan Hopkins Emerson. You know what I said Emerson was probably our best defenseman tonight. Apparently that was not the case. Apparently the eye test does not agree with the analytics tonight. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. If we take a look at the Minnesota Wild tonight, uh Liam Ogrren, I don’t even know who that is. Tyler Pitlick played 621. Ben Jones played 639. Be Gojan only played 1134. So Minnesota they they they went pretty topheavy tonight too defending that lead. But when you have the lead, you have the luxury to shorten the bench. The Oilers should have been rolling their lines trying to generate something here. Uh it’s unfortunate. I thought Mapani had an okay game tonight. But Steuart Skinner, he had 81 goals saved above expected. A 958 save percentage. That’s a tough one. I don’t know what else to say. Uh I didn’t take any questions tonight because I I mean what what what am I going to answer, right? Most of the comments are going to be about Stuart Skinner giving up a weak goal and there’s going to be a lot of blame on him. I’m Listen, I’m the hardest person on Stu. I’m going to tell you right now, this game is not on Stu. It was a bad goal against Yes. but the team did not generate anything for their goalender tonight. And it’s unfortunate. Conor McDavid, he has to start being selfish. I’m sorry. I’m tired of Conor McDavid just skating into the zone, button hooking, playing it to the blue line, or when he does get a chance off the rush, he’s always looking for the pass. Conor McDavid scored 64 goals in a season once. I would like to see Conor McDavid be selfish. I don’t care if McDavid has 15 shots in a game. 15. Don’t pass the puck to anybody. Do it yourself. Connor, I want you to start doing it yourself. I want you to shoot the puck a little bit more. Um, it was a frustrating game. Frustrating game. If you went to the game, I’m so sorry. Uh I was looking at tickets on Fan First um like an hour before the game and I saw some tickets in the lower bowl were going for 40 50 bucks. I don’t know, man. I think a lot of fans realized near puck drop. There’s a lot of fans out there that just don’t they don’t like watching the Oilers play this team. There’s a reason why fans in Edmonton hate going up against Minnesota Wild. But if it makes anyone feel better, the Oilers um you know, they’re they’re a little bit better when they’re in Minnesota for some reason. Last year they beat Minnesota 7-1 in St. Paul and they also beat them 5-3. Maybe get some redemption later this season. I’m not sure when their next matchup is. Uh December 20th. The Oilers are in Minnesota on December 20th. That is a 100 p.m. local time start. Okay, maybe never mind. A mata game. I don’t know about that. Listen folks, we’ll talk about this in the day after discussion tomorrow. It was a good effort. Couldn’t get a single goal. That’s not on your goalender. That’s on the offense. That’s on the team as a whole. Just in front of the goalie. Yes, it was a bad goal against, but I’m not going to rip Stew to shreds for one goal against. It’d be a lot different if it was four or five nothing. Yeah, we can probably look at the goalending and and point the finger. I’m not doing that tonight. I’m not engaging with that tonight. And it it just also hurts more knowing that it’s Walstead, the goalie that the Oilers should and could have drafted in 2021. Tyler Wright, Ken Holland, they are literal terrorists in the hockey world, and I will never forgive them. I can’t believe Tyler Wright keeps getting jobs as the uh head of amateur scouting with other teams. He’s with the LA Kings now. LA Kings fans, good luck. Good luck with that. Have fun with Holland and Tyler Wright at the helm here. Yikes. We’ll talk to you soon. Tell them that you love them. And as always, fight like a kid. Fight like Ben. Let’s go Oilers. I’ll see you tomorrow.

Tyler Wright and Ken Holland are terrorists. #oilers #edmontonoilers #nhl

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