All good things must come to an end.
On Thursday evening, the Edmonton Oilers hosted the Tampa Bay Lightning, falling 7-4 to the visitors. This ends an eight-game winning streak, and a win would have matched a franchise record winning streak. Edmonton’s record now sits at 13-13-1.
Heading into the third period, the Oilers were up 3-2, but despite putting over 50 shots on Andrei Vasilevskiy, their long streak came to an end.
Let’s take a look at the Oilersnation’s Player of the Game, as well as things worth mentioning.
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Oilersnation’s Player of the Game: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
A few games ago, the longest-serving Oiler had four assists and could’ve been named Player of the Game.
However, he was by far the best Oiler on the ice on Thursday, scoring a goal late in the game that made it 5-4, before Tampa eventually scored two empty net goals.
Nugent-Hopkins also picked up two assists, one on the penalty kill and one on Edmonton’s third goal of the game. As it stands, Nuge has seven goals and 28 points in Edmonton’s 27 games.
Keep Nuge forever.
Things worth mentioning:
Evan Bouchard now has a 13-game point streak, which is tied for the highest ongoing streak with Nathan MacKinnon. He picked up one of these assists by shooting the puck off Zach Hyman and the other on Nugent-Hopkins’s goal. His point streak is the second longest in Oilers’ history for a defenceman, sitting behind current defence coach Paul Coffey’s 28 straight games. He has eight goals and 33 points in 27 games.
Zach Hyman “scored” by literally standing next to the net and getting hit with a Bouchbomb. Either way, it’s his 17th of the season, which leads the Oilers by far (Evander Kane and Leon Draisaitl have 12). In terms of league scoring, he is tied for fourth.
Connor McDavid had a rough to his season, but he remembered he’s the best player to ever step on the ice, and he picked up a goal and an assist on Thursday. At one point, he ranked around 91st in the scoring race, but his 40 points on the year is fourth in the league. It’ll be a long way to pass Nikita Kucherov, J.T. Miller, and Nathan MacKinnon, but McDavid can do what he wants.
Stuart Skinner had a rough game, allowing five goals on 22 shots for a .773 save percentage. Since November 11, he has a .905 save percentage and a 10-3-0 record. It seems like he’ll have two good games, and then a game where he struggles. Still, he’s been stable for the team this past month.
The Oilers will be back in action on Saturday, as they’ll host the Florida Panthers on Hockey Night in Canada at 8:00 PM MST. As you may recall, the game in Florida was quite chippy, so we’ll see if there is any carry over to this game.
Edmonton still has 27 points on the year, and sit just two points behind the St. Louis Blue with two games in hand. The Arizona Coyotes are also ahead of the Oilers by a point with a game in hand.
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