Tough breaks ‘the way this season’s going for us’
Bruins’ charge in third period too much as Oilers squander great game by Talbot
On a night when the 40 players who gutted it out for 251 hours in the World’s Longest Hockey Game were saluted at Rogers Place, the Edmonton Oilers’ Longest Season of Hockey continued unabated.
Teams win nine times out 10 when they’re up by two goals after two periods in the NHL, but the Oilers, after a strong first 40 minutes against the 82-point Boston Bruins, crashed and burned in the third.
As soon as Noel Acciari, part of the Trench Connection Line (ex Oiler draft Riley Nash and Tim Schaller) as Boston Globe scribe Kevin Dupont calls the Bruins’ fourth unit, caught a gift when his shot went off Ryan Strome’s skate and past an outstanding Cam Talbot, it was all uphill for the Oilers.
He had made 34 saves in the first 44 minutes.
“The Bruins played to win, we played not to lose in the third,” said Oilers coach Todd McLellan.
No big surprise there.
Boston’s 17-2-2 in their last 21 road games, and outshot the Oilers 45-20 after beating Calgary 2-1 in OT on Family Day.
The Oilers got last year’s Talbot and killed all three of Boston’s power plays, looking a lot like the team that’s 86.6 per cent on the road on the PK, not the home 54.8 per cent coming into it.
They got strong work from the line of Strome and Juhjar Khaira, who both scored, and Anton Slepyshev, who set up the Khaira goal. Their fourth line guys Mark Letestu and Zack Kassian were dogged as was D -man Kris Russell, playing his 700th game.
But their best players weren’t their best players offensively.
True, Brad Marchand and Patrice Bergeron didn’t get any points either for the Bruins, but Connor McDavid, coming off his third hat trick of the season in Colorado, and with seven points in three career games against Boston, had just two shots and was 4-14 on faceoffs. He was on for David Krejci’s winner with 64 seconds left.
In hindsight, always 20/20, maybe Leon Draisaitl, who was 12-14 on draws, could have been out there instead.
Patrick Maroon had one shot in a very quiet night as he waits to see what team he gets traded to. The left winger on the No. 1 line, Drake Caggiula, struggled mightily and was beaten out of the corner by David Backes on the winning Krejci sequence.
On the second line, Milan Lucic’s goalless streak ran to 23 games, even as the hits keep coming (six). On defence, Darnell Nurse, even though he played 22 and-a-half minutes, had trouble.
In the end, it was another sad song by a team that’s won 24 times in 59 games.
Talbot definitely deserved better. The Acciari goal was symbolic of the Oiler season.
“We just can’t catch a break,” said Talbot, who was 5-1 against the Bruins lifetime before this. “It’s the way the season’s going for us.” Losers lose. Winners win. Last year, the Oilers got games like this to the end for a high-fives at the final buzzer. Not this season.
Strome, who’d gone two months without a goal before popping one in each of the last two games (35-footer on Anton Khudobin Tuesday), figured they counted on Talbot to get them to the finish line.
“We played 40 good minutes, then sat back too much,” he said. “I don’t know if the shots were too indicative in the first two periods the way was going (30-14). A lot of them were dump-ins and stuff but then we let Cam down (third).”
Kris Russell, tired of all the losing, went quiet cowboy after the game. He’s seen this movie too much where they can’t follow a win (Colorado) with another.
“We just didn’t play well enough to win,” he said, and walked away.
“They pushed, they ’re resilient,” said Khaira, who got his first goal in a month.
“We didn’t have an answer for them.”
Just more question marks for the Oilers.
The Oilers were in protect mode in the third, not win mode.
There was a sense of inevitability when the Bruins tied it on defenceman Matt Grzelcyk’s goal (standing by himself after the Oilers couldn’t clear it).
The winner at 18:56 of the third was the kind of goal teams with 82 points score and teams with 52 allow, skating off with slumped shoulders.
In the end, they ruined a terrific night for Talbot.
“I thought he did his best work on their power plays when they had 10 shots ... it’s too bad we couldn’t find an extra goal for Cam because this was one of his best efforts this season,” said McLellan.