Taken By Chance – Positives first are how I like to go – Kulak (61.56 SCF% // 100 HDCF%) and Desharnais (65.36 percent // 100 percent) didn’t see a high danger chance against. It’s good not to have to worry about those guys, but it’s bad when you’re worried about the guys in front of them. That would be Darnell Nurse (50.46 percent // 0 percent) and Cody Ceci (50.46 percent // 0 percent), who decided to cover the same man on a quick turnover leading to the second Brock Boeser goal. They were both too ready to transition up the ice with the forwards and let Boeser sit in behind them all alone, and then when needed to make the right choice in a split-second decision, one chooses the wrong path – that is super hard to coach out of somebody. Their own natural instincts need to be more in line with what Ekholm (44.58 percent // 37.22 percent) does, but that is some wishful thinking.

xG Breakdown

xGF% – Connor McDavid (58.33 percent) certainly was not the problem, but he had a rougher time tonight on home ice than I expected. Just like the shot shutout after game one I think McDavid will take tonight’s loss hard and come back with a wicked vengeance in game four. These numbers will be slightly skewed to appear more positive than they should because it’s actually cumulative quality. Taking five chances worth 0.2 is worth 1.0, right? Then, ten chances worth 0.1 each are also worth 1.0. What would you rather have, 10 chances with a lower expected goal value or five with higher values – you take the five looks, and you run. Tonight, the high percent ratios were inflated by a huge number of low-danger opportunities and not because of a run of great-quality looks. Numbers can be deceiving if you don’t know how to read them, it’s why we’re here to help.

Game Flow

Game Score

Shot Heatmap

In The Crease – It is time for the Edmonton Oilers to get a save. Sure, the defence is giving up looks a team in the final eight shouldn’t give up, but you also look around the league and see the teams winning doing so on the backs of quality goaltending and that is nowhere near what the Oilers are getting right now. Who do you turn to – Calvin Pickard? Jack Campbell? The Oilers would do best to put Skinner back in because the sample size from the season shows he’s the best option – the fact there is nobody else remotely capable of being a sure-fire replacement is on the general manager.

Flashalytic’s 3 Stars – 

1) Leon Draisaitl

2) Matthias Ekholm

3) Brett Kulak

(Stats compiled from Naturalstattrick.com // Game Score from Hockeystatcards.com // xG and Under Pressure charts from HockeyViz.com // Game Flow and Shot Heatmap from NaturalStatTrick.com)