Player grades: Edmonton Oilers fire but fall short, 4-2 to Avalanche in crucial Game 3 – Edmonton Journal

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Avalanche 4, Oilers 2

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Edmonton Oilers gave what they had on Saturday night, but once again it wasn’t enough to get the better of Colorado Avalanche.

It was a game with wild ebbs and flows, even before the first minute was over let alone the full 60. The first whistle of the game signified an Oilers goal. The second, a major penalty. From there, a back and forth affair with the Avalanche ultimately gaining the upper hand and skating away with a 4-2 win.

The Avalanche had a heavy advantage on the shot clock for the third straight game, this time 43-29 for a cumulative 130-90 through 3 games. By our count at the Cult of Hockey, the Avs held a 17-11 edge in Grade A shots and a 10-5 bulge in the best of those, the 5-alarm chances.

Player grades

#2 Duncan Keith, 5. A little lost at sea on the second Avs goal but hardly the major culprit on the play, though it was his careless icing off a clean possession that led to the d-zone faceoff in the first place. Otherwise fairly quiet. Played 19:33 including 4:27 on the PK. 0 shot attempts.

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#5 Cody Ceci, 5. Steady Eddy was beaten on just 1 Grade A shot against. Had a great look of his own off an RNH feed but his hard wrist shot just missed the short-side post. 18:28 including 4:19 on the PK.

#6 Kris Russell, 6. Came in as the 7th defender and did what he usually does in 10 solid minutes, over 4 of them on the PK. 4 hits, 2 blocked shots.

#10 Derek Ryan, 5. Best thing he did was sell out to stay onside on the McLeod rush that became the 2-2. Earned an assist for an early pass on the play. Also chipped in 3:39 on the penalty kill. 0 shot attempts, 2 giveaways, and a paltry 3/12=25% on the dot.

#13 Jesse Puljujarvi, 5. Played a solid game in a middle 6 role, chipping in on 2 Grade A shots while allowing nothing the other way. His wraparound try set up a dangerous rebound chance for Foegele who very nearly cashed.

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#18 Zach Hyman, 7. Made a terrific play along the wall to first win the puck, then chip a pass to McDavid who finished the play just 38 seconds in. Otherwise a standard hard-working night with 5 shot attempts, 3 of them on goal, 4 hits and a takeaway. Played 19:40 in all including 6½ minutes on special teams.

#22 Tyson Barrie, 6. His pairing with Kulak had the puck moving north for the most part. His best moment was a third-period blast through the double screen of Puljujarvi and Hyman that Pavel Francouz somehow got a piece of. Smoked Logan O’Connor with a nice hit. 7 shot attempts, 2 hits, 1 takeaway, 1 block.

#24 Brad Malone, 5. Surprise addition to the line-up was brought in for his physical play and penalty-killing. Provided both with 4 hits and 3:17 on the kill, nearly half of his total ice time of 6:40. Picked up 12 minutes in penalties in garbage time for a legit penalty and what appeared to be a somewhat bogus misconduct.

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#25 Darnell Nurse, 4. By far his best performance of a very tough series. Led the d-corps with 21:28 TOI including a whopping 5:42 on the PK, while his 8 hits were 3 more than any other player on either club. But his game will be most remembered by the own-goal that tied the score 1-1 late in the first, as Nurse tried to cut off a slot pass only to have it carom past a flailing Smith and just inside the short side post. Also took a penalty for a careless clearing pass which went over the glass.

#27 Brett Kulak, 7. Statistically the best of the Oil’s 7 defencemen, posting boxcars of 0-1-1, +1,  6 shot attempts, 4 hits, 1 takeaway, 1 block and strong possession metrics. His 15:34 of ice time included 4:24 on the PK. Making a strong bid for a contract extension right here in his home town of Edmonton.

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#29 Leon Draisaitl, 5. Continues to battle through physical issues which were not helped by the above incident involving Nathan MacKinnon. Jay Woodcroft called it a slewfoot; though I see no involvement of the feet, what’s going on with MacKinnon’s upper leg and hands is less clear. Judge for yourself. The ref did and saw no infraction. The upshot was that Draisaitl limped down the tunnel for a time and was decidedly less than fully effective thereafter. He did managed to draw both Colorado penalties, no mean feat on this night, but also took 1 of his own. 2 shots on net including a good one after a terrific rush, but wasn’t able to create much off the pass. 12/24=50% on the dot. Played 24:29.

#37 Warren Foegele, 5. Provided 9 minutes of solid grinding, with 1 (dangerous) shot, and 3 hits.

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#41 Mike Smith, 6. A very difficult game to grade. Saw plenty of rubber and dealt with most of it with a variety of Gumby-esque saves, occasionally even standing on his head (see: feature image up top). A tad unlucky on the first 2 Colorado goals, the first of which deflected off Nurse’s stick. It leaked through just inside his short-side post despite Smith’s best efforts to seal off the hole after having first committed to the cross-ice pass. The second bounced off McDavid’s skate and right to the goal scorer, Valeri Nichushkin, who was able to float a change-up against the grain and past the scrambling netminder. The game-winner on the other hand was a shot that needed to be stopped and instead found the five-hole right along the ice. Made a fabulous blocker save to rob Nichushkin on a 2-on-1 minutes later, but by then the damage was done. To his credit he was by far the biggest reason the PK went 5-for-5, turning aside all 16 shots he faced during the 11½ minutes the Oilers were shorthanded. His best save of those 16 might have been the an emergency recovery, two-pad stack style, after his own mishandle of the puck. 42 shots, 39 saves, .929 save percentage.

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#44 Zack Kassian, 5. Got the push to the McDavid line, with whom he played 6 of his 9 minutes on the night. Nearly jammed one home in the first. But was one of the defensive culprits on the 2-1 when he lost a battle just inside Edmonton’s zone after a lost faceoff. 2 shots, 5 hits.

#71 Ryan McLeod, 8. A terrific 2-way effort that saw him earn 17 minutes of ice time including 5:21 on the PK to lead all forwards. Had a great chance off a splendid rush early in the second where he was robbed by Francouz; seconds later chipped in on the Foegele jam play. Briefly gave the Oilers hope when he scored the 2-2 on another rink length dash in the third, though in truth his shot from outside home plate should likely have been stopped. Rewarded with some 6v5 ice time down the stretch. 3 shots on net with the Oilers controlling the flow of play during his minutes.

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#75 Evan Bouchard, 4. Was a dinged goal post away from being the hero, only to be caught out the other way seconds later on what became the winning goal. Bouchard took a bad angle to the puck and once J.T. Compher outbattled him for it, the veteran Av had a clear path to the net. Also beaten on the 2-1 goal when he couldn’t contain Nichushkin in the slot, screening his own goalie in the process. Allowed a partial breakaway by Rantanen after a mishandle just inside the o-zone. Some good moments too including 4 shots on net.

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#91 Evander Kane, 3. Put his team in a big hole when he was whistled for a 5-minute penalty for the above infraction vs. Nazem Kadri in the game’s first minute. Hard to disagree with that call given the video evidence; I thought he was fortunate to remain in the game (Kadri didn’t) and suspect he may not be available for the next one. 2 shots, 4 hits, but boxcars of 0-0-0, 5 PIM, -3 tell the tale of a difficult night.

#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 5. Oilers controlled shot attempts to the tune of 17-6 during his 12+ minutes at 5v5. Just 1 shot himself, and lost a couple of battles at key moments, notably to a stickless Mikko Rantanen in game’s final minute that resulted in Colorado’s last zone clearance. Took a thin penalty for holding MacKinnon’s stick.

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#97 Connor McDavid, 6. Got the game off to a great start with a nifty goal just 38 seconds in, but that was it for the production. Was on the ice for all 4 Avs goal, and while his most significant involvement was a spot of bad luck when a puck deflected off his skate and right across the slot to the goal scorer, this after first losing the d-zone face off. Nearly put the Oilers ahead in the third when he jumped on a deflected Barrie point shot, but Francouz got the better of him with a superb glove grab. Led the Oilers with 26:47 in ice time and 4 shots on goal, but for the second straight game struggled to find open ice .

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