OILERS ROOKIES LONG ON EFFORT, SHORT ON SCORING
Edmonton prospects burned by Flames despite stellar play of goaltender Rodrigue
You never want to read too much into a pair of rookie games. In fact, you never want to read anything into a pair of rookie games.
But one goal in six periods probably isn’t what anyone had envisioned given the talented crop of prospects in Edmonton Oilers camp this year.
But through two games in rookie camp, mesh has been hard to find for the next generation of Oilers.
After a 1-0 overtime loss to their Calgary Flames counterparts last week, the Oilers kids were outshot 43-19 in a humbling 3-1 Saddledome defeat that would have been ugly if not for Oilers goalie Olivier Rodrigue.
“You never know how these rookie games play out,” said Bakersfield Condors coach Jay Woodcroft, who ran the Oilers bench in both games. “We ask them to give us their effort and their will, and I thought that was there.
“The polish of system play and the polish of ways to create offence wasn’t there, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be going forward. Some of these kids, you look at the numbers they’ve put up at every level, and you know it will happen.”
After waiting until OT to score in the first game, the Flames got right to it in this one. They scored after just 36 seconds of action and again at 6:31, but Rodrigue gave them nothing else.
If not for him, this one gets way out of hand by the halfway mark. The Flames controlled the entire second period, outshooting Edmonton 18-4 but somehow failing to expand on their 2-0 lead.
“Even if you give up a bad goal, you have to move on and be ready for the next one,” said Rodrigue.
“Because the next one is the most important.”
Edmonton finally broke its two-game goose egg on Evan Bouchard’s seeing-eye wrist shot from the point 1:45 into the third period, but the Flames sealed it with an empty netter.
“Definitely some stuff to work on,” said Bouchard. “I think we have to get back to the fundamentals. We were turning it over a lot and that’s where all of their chances came from.”
THE GOOD NEWS
Rodrigue fought back hard after the shaky start, which is exactly what you want to see in a goalie.
The second-round pick
(62nd overall) in 2018 not only showed the form to keep Calgary at bay for most of the night, but also the intestinal fortitude to shake off a couple of early goals and still manage to steal the show. With any kind of decent run support, he would have stolen the game.
“He stood firm,” said Woodcroft. “It’s never easy giving up the first goal on the first shot, so for him to mentally bounce back was a real positive. I thought he looked calm and collected. We gave up too many chances as a team for my liking, but he stood firm, which I was pretty proud of.”
BUCKLE UP
It only gets tougher from here as the players graduate to main camp.
“They whet their appetite with some new concepts, now it’s about going out and showing it against professional hockey players,” said Woodcroft.
“These two games were against their peer group. It’s only going to get more difficult and more ramped up as we move forward. So it will be interesting to see who starts to create a little separation.”
LEARNING CURVE
Edmonton’s blue chip defencemen, who were stalwarts in the 1-0 loss in Red Deer, struggled a bit on Tuesday.
Bouchard is always ahead of the curve in the offensive zone, but he struggled at times with Calgary’s pressure forecheck, as did Dmitri Samorukov.
“It’s good to get some games in,” said Bouchard. “You look forward to it all summer, getting back to the games. It’s not the way, personally, I wanted it to go as a whole, but it’s good to get these games in.”
GRINDING IT OUT
No goals for Tyler Benson in the two games, but he came one minor away from the Sean Brown hat-trick.
He took slashing and roughing minors and was at the centre of more than a couple of scrums in a hard night’s work.
“He’s a skilled player who stands in there and isn’t asking anyone else to clean up his mess,” said Woodcroft. “He stands in there and fights for his ice and tries to command his share of the rink. It’s not in his game to initiate that kind of stuff, but he’s going to stand in there if someone tries to take advantage of him. It’s nice to see that little bit of bite.”
NO YAMO
Still, no Kailer Yamamoto for the Oilers rookies as he waits for the doctors to give him the green light after off-season wrist surgery.