The Calgary Flames were playing on the second of back-to-back nights, starting their backup goaltender on the road in front of a capacity crowd that included the 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers Stanley Cup-winning squad. There was no excuse for the Oilers to lose their home opener on Thursday night, no possible reason to think that they couldn’t come away with a victory, but that’s what they do. Even playing their most winnable game of the season, with the deck heavily stacked in their favour, they find a way to disappoint you.
There are several people to blame, starting with Oilers netminder Ben Scrivens. I won’t bother questioning why he got the start, even though he finished with a .898 save percentage in the preseason—far short of Viktor Fasth’s .944 save percentage. For whatever reason, the coaching staff figured Scrivens deserved to start the season, and they were wrong. Scrivens’ performance was oddly reminiscent of Devan Dubnyk’s opening game last season, a 5-4 loss to the Winnipeg Jets. Here’s what I wrote one year ago.
After all the articles, columns and blogs anointing him as the Oilers’ unrivaled starting goaltender Dubnyk was atrocious. Dubnyk couldn’t control rebounds or corral the puck consistently, and didn’t deliver the saves his team needed in the third period. The defence did an admirable job all night, the team gave him four goals, and Dubnyk just couldn’t get the job done on his end. You won’t win many games when your most important player on the ice is your worst player on the ice.
Scrivens was unquestionably the worst of a few bad Oilers. It’s tough to win when you score only two goals, but impossible when your goaltender gives up five goals on 26 shots, including two softies in the opening four minutes. Scrivens handled the puck like a flaming turd bag, directly resulting in the Flames’ first two goals. The Edmonton defence did an admirable job in front of him, limiting odd-man rushes and second chances, but Scrivens didn’t make the big save and sunk any chance of victory down the stretch.
In his postgame comments, head coach Dallas Eakins said he thought Scrivens was “good.” In a long list of questionable assessments, that one has to rank right at the top, fueling the fire for those who see him as being completely disingenuous. Bottom line, Eakins is either stupid or a liar. There’s no other way to account for a head coach assessing Scrivens’ performance as “good.” It’s hard for anyone to defend Eakins and argue that he belongs behind the bench if he honestly thinks that Scrivens was anything better than mediocre.
The Oilers controlled possession during the first two periods, outshooting the Flames 25-11 through 40 minutes. Congratulations, Corsi dorks, we won a completely meaningless statistical battle! The majority of those shots came from outside the faceoff dots or the point, without any traffic in net to create a deflection, screen, or rebound opportunity. Look at the two goals Edmonton managed to score. Both were power play tallies that came on shots from cross-ice passes outside the faceoff dots. The Oilers also hit two posts, one on a Jordan Eberle wrister from the half wall and another from Brad Hunt at the point.
Calgary, on the other hand, played the rope-a-dope to perfection and created chances in tight. Each of the Flames’ five goals came within the faceoff dots—the first on a deflection, the second in the slot, the third from inside the left faceoff dot, the fourth on a goalmouth pass, and the fifth on a rebound chance. After watching that effort, fancy stats guru Tyler Dellow can take his Corsi and shove it. Give me high-quality chances from in close, with players moving and traffic in the slot. That’s how you score, not on wristers that a goalie can see from 40 feet out.
After entering the season with high hopes and optimism, the Oilers find themselves in a familiar spot at the bottom of the Western Conference. It didn’t take long, and the road doesn’t get any easier this week with a three-game road swing against the Canucks, Kings and Coyotes. There are lessons everyone can learn from Thursday night. First, don’t get roped into thinking the Oilers will be able to outshoot opponents 40-26 each night. Second, and even more importantly, don’t fool yourself into thinking it will translate into victories even if they do.
Oil Spills
- Nail Yakupov had a strong game, showcasing his speed and excellent patience with the puck. To my eye, he was one of the few Oilers (Teddy Purcell being another) who consistently looked to move the puck to the net once it found their stick. I don’t mean innocently throwing it at the goaltender, but advancing it and looking to create actual chances. Nice work by those two.
- Edmonton dominated the faceoff dot, 39-27, which helped establish a presence in the offensive zone. Each centre finished better than 50 percent on the dot, with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins being low man on the totem pole at 52 percent. The Oilers have struggled on the draw for years, so that’s an encouraging sign at both ends of the ice and definitely gives the team something to build on.
- It was a mixed bag defensively, but the Oilers were able to avoid egregious mistakes (breakaways and odd-man rushes) thanks to effective puck support. Andrew Ference had a strong game, I don’t agree with any criticisms of Mark Fayne, and Justin Schultz was decent enough. Brad Hunt was shaky, Jeff Petry had a couple dubious plays and looked out of sync, but I felt Nikita Nikitin was the worst of the bunch, turning the puck over in his own end several times.
- Leon Draisaitl had a couple strong shifts in the second period, but predictably looked overwhelmed at times. Mark Arcobello had a better game overall, and put in a better performance than anything we saw from him in the preseason, including winning 80 percent of his faceoffs. Elsewhere up front, Eberle was invisible for long stretches and David Perron didn’t have a strong showing, but nobody was able to cash in 5-on-5.
- To rub some salt in the open wounds, the Oilers had another meathead deposit his jersey on the ice after the loss. Can we knock this off already? It was cute last season, but now it just makes Edmonton look bush league. The players, coaches and management have damaged Edmonton’s reputation enough, the least the fans can do is show some class. Speaking of bush league, the Oilers’ new goal song sounds like someone shaking a bag full of cats. Two thumbs way down, following the theme for the night.
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