Not really a game I'd throw any sort of blame to any individual players here. It was just a team not being able to crack the other team up and down with the difference being 5 on 4 play and Connor McDavid.
Outside of a few nice individual plays, the team really struggled to get any offense of note going and really just couldn't open up the ice against the Oilers, which I reckon is something you have to be prepared for when trailing against a Tippett team. Credit to them, though, their team defense was miles better than it was last night, and other than special teams, it was the difference.
Good:
Not too many guys I can explicitly put in the "good" column as the whole roster was just sort of "meh" tonight. However -
Schmidt: Comes exactly as advertised, great on both sides of the puck and does what you want him to do. Great shot, poise, and play all around. Happy to have him.
Alright, I guess:
Most of the team for me, lol. No one really stunk it up out there but couldn't get much done regardless. Notably -
Horvat, Pettersson, Boeser: Need to do a little better as top end guys. In games like these these are the players that need to really come out and tilt the ice, creating regular grade-A chances, and they didn't do that tonight. They did it last night, though, so I'm not gonna be too harsh on em. Onto the next for them. Miller really makes a difference, that's for sure. Also, Pettersson needs a new stick manufacturer.
Hoglander: Also comes as advertised, really. Seeing what I want out of him but also very much seeing the D zone struggles he's been said to have. I think that can be ironed out, though, and he's showing me more than enough on the other side of the puck for such a young rookie, so again, not gonna be too harsh. Keep working it out in practice. He's got a great work ethic so I'm sure he can commit to it with some good coaching and more exposure to NHL play.
The rest of the D corps: Pylonized a bit by McDavid but, yeah. That's going to happen sometimes. Sometimes being on D against McDavid is like trying to save a goal 3 on 0. No chance. The lack of speed somewhat concerns me, but overall, I think they've all made noticeably good plays over the last two nights and have encouraged me to the point where I think our D will still be better this year than last year. Not seeing what's making people ready to whip Juolevi out of the lineup just yet.
Our fourth line: Actually pretty ok? They're doing more than I expected them to when it comes to possession and zone time, but not much is coming out of it on the score sheet. Still, though, surprisingly not the problem so far.
Rough Outing:
Hughes: Not sure how much to attribute to losing Tanev, but this was an off-night for his standards either way. Just a little bit slower and more sluggish than we'd hope at times and standing still on a few plays uncharacteristically. One of those times you gotta remind yourself that this is only his second year and that he's still what, 20? 21?
Our third line: Doesn't really do much of anything, lol. I think that depth-wise, this is our team's greatest existential weakness. What really separates great teams from good teams is the depth in that third line to contribute. Has generated very little of worth either offensively or defensively thus far.
Our PP and O zone time: As an overall unit, our team is very, VERY non-threatening on offense. They're not really skating quick enough in transition to break up the D, are very much not connecting on key passes in transition enough to create consistent high danger chances, and by the time they get to the O zone we usually do a number of completely worthless going-through-the-motions moves that do literally nothing other than give the other team a chance to clear.
How many times are we just gonna go to the D... to one circle... to the D... to the other circle... to a telegraphed cross-seam pass that doesn't work and ends our zone time? Or how many times will players just skate around the net slowly before looking around again and seeing that nothing about the situation on the ice has changed? Our cycle is actually kinda dogshit. The boys kept the puck on their stick waaay too long every time they had it and gave the Oilers all day to get in the way of the shot or put their sticks into passing lanes, as the blocked shots stats in particular indicated.
Happy with our first performance, and not quite as happy with this one. Reminiscent of the Jekyll-Hyde Canucks we saw last year; which is really concerning, because this team really needs to find some consistency to actually make something out of its lineup. Part of me wants to hope our execution improves as the season goes along but these are issues we had late into the year last year as well.
