|
|

DETROIT, MI - FEBRUARY 09: Drew Miller #20 of the Detroit Red Wings and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins #93 of the Edmonton Oilers battle for the puck during a NHL game at Joe Louis Arena on February 9, 2013 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Dave Reginek/NHLI via Getty Images)
The Edmonton Oilers have scored over 50% of their total goals this season on the power-play it has been my concern all season long been the source of goals would dry out.
Today, in their Hockey Day in Canada matchup with the Detroit Red Wings, which was a power-play filled battle, the youngsters from Edmonton were out- scored by margin of 2 to 1 in the special-teams category they rely on so heavily.
The Detroit Red Wings penalty kill is ranked 26th in the National Hockey League at 72.2%. Yet the Edmonton Oilers were only able to strike once on eight opportunities. Justin Schultz notched his fourth goal of the season all coming via the power-play. Schultz has really impressed me with his ability to be the quarterback on the PP. He is a major reason why it is fifth best in the NHL at 25.9%.
Games that play on with the script like the one followed this afternoon concern me because if Edmonton Oilers have any even strength production to fall back on the team probably would win games like this one.
If you have followed Edmonton for even one game this season you know this is our witness horrible isn't a strong enough word to describe the lack of production five- on- five. If you take a look at the team stats so far this NHL season you will find the Edmonton Oilers at 29th in that category at 0.53 goals a game at even- strength.
I did not see this being the teams’ problem heading into the season considering the Edmonton Oilers have the greatest group of high-end young scoring talent in the entire NHL. Only the Florida Panthers are worse when it comes to scoring at full strength. Simply put, the Edmonton Oilers will not win hockey games at all if this trend continues. On top of that, the team takes a high number of stupid penalties per game which doesn't allow any consistency to the game plan.
Detroit Red Wings' superstars made the Edmonton Oilers pay for their mistakes with multiple point efforts by Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg. Niklas Kronwall hammered home his first goal of the season for the game-winner.
The Detroit Red Wings scored one extra power-play goal, than the Edmonton Oilers to earn the 2-1 victory.
Game notes:
Nikolai Khabibulin appeared in the net for the first time this season and made 28 saves in the loss for the Oilers.
For the first time all year, Sam Gagner was not awarded a point in a contest. Snapping his 10 game point-scoring streak.
Categories: None
The words you entered did not match the given text. Please try again.

Oops!
Oops, you forgot something.