Player grades: Zach Hyman scores 50th goal in a losing cause as ...

Oilers 3, Senators 5

On one level, Edmonton Oilers deserved a better fate on Sunday. They dominated play for large stretches and connected for 3 beautiful goals, among them Zach Hyman‘s 50th of the season. Moreover, they held their opponents, Ottawa Senators, to just 16 shots.

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Now the bad news: the penalty kill couldn’t make a stop, and neither could the goaltender.

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The Oilers held a 3-1 lead after Hyman drilled home a perfect Connor McDavid pass on the powerplay early in the second, and it seemed they were on their way. But Ottawa netminder Joonas Korpisalo built a wall in front of his net the rest of the way with a number of excellent stops. Meanwhile the Senators chipped away at the lead, tying the game on their second powerplay goal of the contest late in the second, and winning it on another late powerplay in a third period in which the puck had rarely crossed the Edmonton blueline. The seemingly-inevitable empty netter followed for a 5-3 Ottawa victory.

In a game that featured more than a few, shall we say “marginal” penalty calls, the Sens’ 26th-ranked powerplay was money, twice scoring within 10 seconds and a third time after just 22 ticks. Meanwhile, the Oilers 14th-ranked PK unit dropped to 17th by allowing 3 goals in just 2:38 of PP time, the 2 minutes accounted for by one lonely successful kill and the 38 seconds representing the combined time it took Ottawa to score thrice.

Hard to square that the Senators got the majority of the powerplays given how infrequently they had the puck. All the shot and scoring chance statistics, including our own here at the Cult of Hockey (running count), had Edmonton in the 60-70% range. Except the only one that matters.

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Player grades

#2 Evan Bouchard, 7. Had a fine offensive game with 3 assists, raising his point total to 72 on the season. His standout play was on the Oilers lone even strength counter, when he drew 2 opponents to him before flipping a 5-foot backhand pass to his partner Ekholm with a wide-open lane in front of him. Teed up Draisaitl’s powerplay one-timer for the 2-1, then made a rote pass to McDavid who fed Hyman for the 3-1. His pairing largely controlled the play at evens, but made a fatal mistake with 3½ minutes to play when Bouchard was unable to contain the puck at the point, leaving his partner with 140 feet of ice to cover against a faster opponent. A penalty resulted, followed by the killer PP goal seconds later. Contributions to Grade A Shots (GAS): Even Strength +2/-1; Special Teams +2/-0.

#5 Cody Ceci, 3. The Ottawa native endured a tough sequence that ended with a Brady Tkachuk drive that hit the crossbar. Tagged with a -1 on Ottawa’s lone 5v5 tally when he pursued his own rebound deep into the offensive zone, only to see the covering forwards get caved for an odd-man rush. But his pairing, primarily with Kulak, spent way more time defending than did the other pairs, with Ceci himself on the ice for 8 of Ottawa’s 12 even strength shots and just 4 of Edmonton’s 30. GAS: ES +0/-3; ST 0.

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#10 Derek Ryan, 4. Inserted into the line-up in place of Evander Kane, he played just 7:58 including 0:00 on the PK which may have been a mistake. Mind you he was in the box himself for an unnecessary, though borderline, slashing call, and made his escape just 7 seconds later when Ottawa scored the 1-1. Made a nice pass which set up his linemates Carrick and Brown for consecutive great chances which neither could cash. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.

#13 Mattias Janmark, 5. His usual quiet, efficient game. Had a good chance from close range in the early going, then set up another with a strong rush and pass. As a member of the, ahem, second PK unit, he only saw the ice for a single, successful PK shift; the other 3 were already over before his turn came up. GAS: +2/-0; ST 0.

#14 Mattias Ekholm, 6. Oilers dominated his 19 minutes at evens, to the tune of 29-7 in shot attempts and 15-3 in shots on goal. Made a beautiful pass to Henrique for the opening tally. But he took the costly penalty with 3:12 left in regulation when he was unable to legally contain Mathieu Joseph on a 1-on-1 rush, at least not in the opinion of the referees. GAS: ES +3/-0. ST 0.

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#18 Zach Hyman, 8. A great game by definition given it included Hyman’s 50th goal of a spectacular season, the 20th time an Oiler has reached the storied mark in franchise history (7 different men; see list below). The backdoor tap-in of a McDavid feed on a brief Edmonton powerplay was business as usual for the efficient finisher, who led the team with 4 shots — 3 of them Grade A — on the day. Contributed to 4 other Grade A’s in different ways: a hard charge to the net front, a goalie screen, a won battle… also business as usual. Deserved to celebrate a victory on his big day, but alas. GAS: ES +5/-0; ST +2/-0. 

Honorary mention to Craig Simpson, who hit the 50-goal mark as a member of the 1987-88 Oilers, but who scored 13 of his 56 tallies that season as a Pittsburgh Penguin before a late November trade (for Paul Coffey). The right-shooting Simpson, who also wore #18, scored many of his goals in similar fashion, taking heavy punishment on the edges of the crease.

#19 Adam Henrique, 6. Lined up on left wing with Draisaitl and Foegele. Opened the scoring by going to the net and directing Ekholm’s hard pass into the cage. But was among those beaten by the deadly Ottawa powerplay [sic] when he was unable to suppress Tkachuk’s pass to Batherson in the slot. Drew a penalty. GAS: ES +2/-1; ST =0/-1.

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#25 Darnell Nurse, 4. Strange game in which the Oilers out-and-out dominated during his 16+ even-strength minutes, outshooting the Senators 13-0. That’s right, zero shots against in nearly a full period of work. But the penalty kill was a different story, as he was on for all 3 PPGA in just 1:11, with Nurse deemed to be among the culprits on 2 of them. Led the Oilers with 5 shots on net. GAS: ES +1/-0; ST +0/-2.

#27 Brett Kulak, 3. His pairing was chasing the game, as his 30% share of shot attempts at 5v5 attests; especially when compared to the Oilers’ 77% rate when he was on the bench. That’s… not good. Got some time on the PK due to other defenders being in the sin bin, and lost a key battle on the 3-3. GAS: ES +0/-1; ST +0/-1.

#28 Connor Brown, 5. 10 solid minutes in which the Oilers yielded just 1 shot. Was directly involved in a couple the other way, when his good pass set the table for Carrick’s great look, with Brown himself nearly slamming home the rebound. Dogged in pursuit of the puck, especially on a third-period shift that saw his line hem the Sens in for an extended shift.

#29 Leon Draisaitl, 7. Slammed home the 2-1 with his patented one-timer from a low-angle, whizzing the puck over Korpisalo’s shoulder into the roof of the net. Got the “third assist” on both of the other goals, making a patient pass to Bouchard in the build-up to the 1-0, and cleanly winning the faceoff on Hyman’s powerplay tally. 15/26=56% on the faceoff dot. GAS: ES +1/-2; ST +4/-0.

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#30 Calvin Pickard, 3. Goaltending was the difference in a game his counterpart would have comfortably scored an 8 in our grading system. Allowed all 4 goals to the short side. The first and the fourth were both on the glove side; while it’s hard to lay much blame on Jeff Chychrun’s 2 uncontested one-timers from medium range, both times he was down on one knee protecting the nearside post and slow to react to the cross seam pass. The other 2, by Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson, were both scored stick side from the left circle. Made a handful of good stops, most notably fending off a high deflection from the doorstep, but it wasn’t his day.  Ended a run of 11 straight starts allowing 3 or fewer. 15 shots, 11 saves, .733 save percentage.

#37 Warren Foegele, 4. In decent position to cover for Ceci on the 3-2, but was badly beaten on the play as Stutzle scooted past him, walked in 2-on-1, and scored. Had a great chance at the other end but was unable to convert a net-front deke. Drew a penalty. GAS: ES +1/-1; ST 0.

#39 Sam Carrick, 3. Had an extremely tough night on the penalty kill, in which he played just 1:07 with 3 goals against. Lost the draw on 2 of those goals, and made a slight but fatal misread in the slot on the other which allowed the goal scorer an extra split-second to let fly. Had a great chance at the other end but couldn’t convert. Drew a penalty. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST +0/-2.

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#71 Ryan McLeod, 4. Skated well, but didn’t get a lot done. 2 takeaways, but 0 shots, 0 hits. GAS: ES +1/-1; ST 0.

#73 Vincent Desharnais, 3. Another regular penalty killer who had a tough outing. Failed to cut out the cross-seam pass on Chychrun’s first as he laid down to take away the lane only to have Batherson beat him with a superb aerial pass, exacerbated by no backside support. Strayed too far into the corner on Chychrun’s second. Was in the box himself for the tally in between, though in fairness to Desharnais the call was nothing short of pathetic. 2 minutes for bumping an opponent in a puck battle. It was the second lame call of the game against big #73, the other coming when Brady Tkachuk skated right up his back and took a blatant swan dive which the refs somehow bought. Oilers bench boss Kris Knoblauch was visibly outraged by both calls, a rare outburst from the calm coach. Outside of a bad turnover that became a near miss, Desharnais was solid at 5v5 (shots 10-1), firing a hard slot shot that forced a fine stop. GAS: +1/-0; ST +0/-2.

#90 Corey Perry, 5. Played 14 minutes, mostly on a low-event trio with Janmark and McLeod. 0 shots on net, though he did manage to chip in on a couple of decent chances. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.

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#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 4. Snakebitten at both ends of the sheet. He led the Oilers in shot attempts with 9, generating 5 Grade A’s off his own stick; alas 3 of them were stopped by Korpisalo and the other 2 hit the post. Also led the squad in hits, with 3. Made what we deemed a coverage error as the high forward on Ottawa’s lone even-strength goal. Was among the several culprits on the game winner when he dropped to one knee in attempt to cut out an expected pass, immobilizing himself as the danger man rotated into position to let fly on the eventual, unblocked pass. GAS: ES +5/-1; ST +1/-1.

#97 Connor McDavid, 7. Earned 2 more assists, both on the PP to run his season total to a remarkable 91. That’s already a new career high, with 13 games left on the slate. His best moment was the superb cross-seamer he put on Hyman’s blade on the edge of the crease for Zach’s milestone 50th. At even strength the Oilers dominated play (shot attempts 21-6) but were unable to pierce Korpisalo’s armour despite numerous good looks. Particularly notable was a 97-second shift in the third when he and his linemates marauded around the Senators zone, with McDavid winning numerous puck battles and recoveries, but without reward. GAS: ES +5/-0; ST +3/-0. 

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