Game Recap 60.0: Edmonton Oilers vs Boston Bruins (2/19/2020) - Oilers Nation | Canada News Media
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Game Recap 60.0: Edmonton Oilers vs Boston Bruins (2/19/2020) – Oilers Nation

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Meaningful games in February are stressful. Final Score: 2-1 Bruins in OT

I’m not going to lie to you guys, I was feeling mighty nervous about tonight’s game seeing as the Oilers are basically missing half of their lineup right now. I mean, they’re literally missing their first line from like two weeks ago, and things haven’t gotten much better ever since. Just yesterday, it was announced that Oscar Klefbom will be on the shelf for the next two or three weeks with a shoulder injury, and it was going to be very interesting to watch how the defensive group was going to be able to handle Boston’s relentless attack. Needless to say, everyone was going to have to be at their best from the crease on out if they were going to have any chance at beating one of the league’s hottest teams. Then again, Boston did just lose to the Detroit Red Wings this past weekend so maybe there was hope after all?

When you’re down six regulars that all play in key positions, you know you’re going to have an uphill battle when going up against the best team in the NHL, and that’s exactly what this game looked like in the early going. While the Oilers were able to hang in there (more or less) on the scoreboard, they definitely had a hard time ducking and countering the punches the Bruins were throwing their way. In the second period, the Oilers looked much more composed and able to manufacture a few offensive chances of their own, stifled only by the strong play of Tuukka Rask. I felt like if the Oilers were able to replicate the way they played in the middle frame in the third that they’d be in line for at least a point as they probably deserved a tie game with the way they played in the middle twenty.

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Heading into the third period down by a goal, the Oilers were obviously going to have to open things up a little bit to try and penetrate the Bruins’ stingy defensive work. Early in the final frame, the boys were grinding again and their hard work was rewarded with a powerplay chance that they would cash in on, tying the game on a huge goal from Sam Gagner. As the play progressed towards the final buzzer, both sides had their fair share of chances at both even strength and on the powerplay and it just seemed like this game was destined for overtime. When we finally got to the bonus period, it was anyone’s game and that whoever made the first mistake would end up losing. The bad news was that it was the Oilers that errored on a fine offensive opportunity which gave the Bruins the chance to turn things around and close it out.

While it definitely sucks to lose, you have to admit that it was impressive to see such a depleted Oilers lineup hang in there with the best team in the league. Big point for the boys.

The wrap.

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  • Sam Gagner tied the game up (1-1) with a huge powerplay goal in the opening minutes of the third period after parking himself in the high slot and getting his stick on Ethan Bear’s point shot as it made its way towards Rask.
  • Mike Smith was back between the pipes for his 31st start of the season and looking to keep the heater going that he’s been on since the calendar flipped to 2020. Once again, Smith was great between the pipes and provided a strong foundation for the Oilers that allowed them to get the game to OT and add a massive point to their totals. Smith finished the night with 32 saves and a .942 save%.
  • I thought Ethan Bear played a great game and looked very steady in his 19:00 minutes. Bear finished the night with an assist, two blocked shots, a takeaway, and two PIMs.
  • I liked the way the RNH-Draisaitl-Yamamoto line was, once again, able to generate chances on net in the face of a strong defensive push the other way. Not only was the trio able to gain entry to the zone but they were also getting greasy in the tough areas which was fun to watch.
  • Sticking with this line, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins played 29:23 and 28:05 respectively, which is a massive amount of ice time for a forward. Clearly, Dave Tippett was riding his horses tonight and he played the hell out of them.
  • Darnell Nurse played a monstrous 28:44 as he did his best to fill in for the injured Oscar Klefbom. Though there were definitely some hiccups, I though Nurse did an admirable job, finishing his night with four shots on goal, five hits, and five blocks.
  • A massive shout out goes to the penalty killers for the hero’s work they did when down a man tonight, killing off all seven penalties they took. The refs were calling absolutely everything in this one and the Oilers’ PK did an incredible job of not letting Boston run away with the game.
  • On the flip side, it would have been nice to see the PP produce more than the single goal but the one they did get was absolutely massive and secured a seemingly unlikely point.
  • It was impressive to see the Oilers go 62% in the faceoff circle against a veteran team like the Bruins. Yeah, you guys know I love faceoff wins.

  • Patrice Bergeron opened the scoring for the Bruins with a slick deke on Smith midway through the first period after his line absolutely stuffed the Oilers at their own blue line on a zone exit, turning the puck around quickly for the scoring chance. TBH it was some pretty shocking defending by our boys and all of a sudden, Bergeron found himself in all alone with time to spare.
  • David Pastrnak finished things off in OT after David Krejci found him with an area pass for a breakaway that Mike Smith didn’t really have much chance on. The unfortunate part was that the Oilers had a 2-on-1 the other way immediately before the goal but Kailer Yamamoto accidentally bobbled the puck and forfeited the chance. Tough break for the Oilers here.
  • The shots were 11-2 for the Bruins after the first period. That’s… uhh… not good. I know there was a significant improvement from there, but it was definitely not the start they wanted.
  • Know what else isn’t good? Taking seven penalties against a very dangerous Bruins team that ranks second to only the Oilers in terms of powerplay success is not a great strategy and the guys were lucky they didn’t get burned for it.
  • I’m not going to make a big deal of this because the guy had a whale of a game, but I’d much rather see Ethan Bear occupying Klefbom’s spot on the powerplay than Darnell Nurse. Ol’ Darryl had a really tough time handling the puck and it nearly cost them, especially on the Oilers’ fifth PP in the third period when the Bruins ended up with an unnecessary breakaway that would have been the game winner had Smith not come up with a huge stop.
  • With the roster as depleted as it is right now, it would have been really nice if Zack Kassian was available to play and provide some energy in a way that only he can. Thinking about it just annoyed me seeing as he’s out because of a needless suspension for kicking Erik Cernak.
  • Tonight was game five without Connor McDavid in the lineup and I hated it just as much as the first game. Get well soon, Connor.

1ST PERIOD

TIME TEAM DETAILS SCORE
08:28 Boston Patrice Bergeron (27) ASST: Brad Marchand (52), David Pastrnak (41) 1-0

2ND PERIOD

TIME TEAM DETAILS SCORE
No Scoring

3RD PERIOD

TIME TEAM DETAILS SCORE
03:42 Edmonton PPG – Sam Gagner (5) ASST: Ethan Bear (14), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (30) 1-1
TIME TEAM DETAILS SCORE
01:14 Boston David Pastrnak (43) ASST: David Krejci (27), Torey Krug (32) 2-1

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Soccer legend Christine Sinclair says goodbye in Vancouver |

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Christine Sinclair scored one final goal at B.C. Place, helping the Portland Thorns to a 6-0 victory over the Whitecaps Girls Elite team. The soccer legend has announced she’ll retire from professional soccer at the end of the National Women’s Soccer League season. (Oct. 16, 2024)

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A German in charge of England? Nationality matters less than it used to in international soccer

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The question was inevitable.

At his first news conference as England’s newly appointed head coach, Thomas Tuchel – a German – was asked on Wednesday what message he had for fans who would have preferred an Englishman in charge of their beloved national team.

“I’m sorry, I just have a German passport,” he said, laughing, and went on to profess his love for English football and the country itself. “I will do everything to show respect to this role and to this country.”

The soccer rivalry between England and Germany runs deep and it’s likely Tuchel’s passport will be used against him if he doesn’t deliver results for a nation that hasn’t lifted a men’s trophy since 1966. But his appointment as England’s third foreign coach shows that, increasingly, even the top countries in the sport are abandoning the long-held belief that the national team must be led by one of their own.

Four of the top nine teams in the FIFA world rankings now have foreign coaches. Even in Germany, a four-time World Cup winner which has never had a foreign coach, candidates such as Dutchman Louis van Gaal and Austrian Oliver Glasner were considered serious contenders for the top job before the country’s soccer federation last year settled on Julian Nagelsmann, who is German.

“The coaching methods are universal and there for everyone to apply,” said German soccer researcher and author Christoph Wagner, whose recent book “Crossing the Line?” historically addresses Anglo-German rivalry. “It’s more the personality that counts and not the nationality. You could be a great coach, and work with a group of players who aren’t perceptive enough to get your methods.”

Not everyone agrees.

English soccer author and journalist Jonathan Wilson said it was “an admission of failure” for a major soccer nation to have a coach from a different country.

“Personally, I think it should be the best of one country versus the best of another country, and that would probably extend to coaches as well as players,” said Wilson, whose books include “Inverting The Pyramid: The History of Football Tactics.”

“To say we can’t find anyone in our country who is good enough to coach our players,” he said, “I think there is something slightly embarrassing, slightly distasteful about that.”

That sentiment was echoed by British tabloid The Daily Mail, which reported on Tuchel’s appointment with the provocative headline “A Dark Day for England.”

While foreign coaches are often found in smaller countries and those further down the world rankings, they are still a rarity among the traditional powers of the game. Italy, another four-time world champion, has only had Italians in charge. All of Spain’s coaches in its modern-day history have been Spanish nationals. Five-time World Cup winner Brazil has had only Brazilians in charge since 1965, and two-time world champion France only Frenchmen since 1975.

And it remains the case that every World Cup-winning team, since the first tournament in 1930, has been coached by a native of that country. The situation is similar for the women’s World Cup, which has never been won by a team with a foreign coach, though Jill Ellis, who led the U.S. to two trophies, is a naturalized U.S. citizen born in England.

Some coaches have made a career out of jumping from one national team to the next. Lars Lagerbäck, 76, coached his native Sweden between 2000-09 and went on to lead the national teams of Nigeria, Iceland and Norway.

“I couldn’t say I felt any big difference,” Lagerbäck told The Associated Press. “I felt they were my teams and the people’s teams.”

For Lagerbäck, the obvious disadvantages of coaching a foreign country were any language difficulties and having to adapt to a new culture, which he particularly felt during his brief time with Nigeria in 2010 when he led the African country at the World Cup.

Otherwise, he said, “it depends on the results” — and Lagerbäck is remembered with fondness in Iceland, especially, after leading the country to Euro 2016 for its first ever international tournament, where it knocked out England in the round of 16.

Lagerbäck pointed to the strong education and sheer number of coaches available in soccer powers like Spain and Italy to explain why they haven’t needed to turn to an overseas coach. At this year’s European Championship, five of the coaches were from Italy and the winning coach was Luis de la Fuente, who was promoted to Spain’s senior team after being in charge of the youth teams.

Portugal for the first time looked outside its own borders or Brazil, with which it has historical ties, when it appointed Spaniard Roberto Martinez as national team coach last year. Also last year, Brazil tried — and ultimately failed — to court Real Madrid’s Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti, with Brazilian soccer federation president Ednaldo Rodrigues saying: “It doesn’t matter if it’s a foreigner or a Brazilian, there’s no prejudice about the nationality.”

The United States has had a long list of foreign coaches before Mauricio Pochettino, the Argentine former Chelsea manager who took over as the men’s head coach this year.

The English Football Association certainly had no qualms making Tuchel the national team’s third foreign-born coach, after Swede Sven-Goran Eriksson (2001-06) and Italian Fabio Capello (2008-12), simply believing he was the best available coach on the market.

Unlike Eriksson and Capello, Tuchel at least had previous experience of working in English soccer — he won the Champions League in an 18-month spell with Chelsea — and he also speaks better English.

That won’t satisfy all the nay-sayers, though.

“Hopefully I can convince them and show them and prove to them that I’m proud to be the English manager,” Tuchel said.

___

AP Sports Writer Jerome Pugmire in Paris contributed to this story.

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Maple Leafs winger Bobby McMann finding game after opening-night scratch

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TORONTO – Bobby McMann watched from the press box on opening night.

Just over a week later, the Maple Leafs winger took a twirl as the first star.

McMann went from healthy scratch to unlikely offensive focal point in just eight days, putting up two goals in Toronto’s 6-2 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday.

The odd man out at the Bell Centre against the Montreal Canadiens, he’s slowly earning the trust of first-year head coach Craig Berube.

“There’s a lot of good players on this team,” McMann said of his reaction to sitting out Game 1. “Maybe some guys fit better in certain scenarios than others … just knowing that my opportunity would come.”

The Wainwright, Alta., product skated on the second line with William Nylander and Max Domi against Los Angeles, finishing with those two goals, three hits and a plus-3 rating in just over 14 minutes of work.

“He’s been unbelievable,” said Nylander, who’s tied with McMann for the team lead with three goals. “It’s great when a player like that comes in.”

The 28-year-old burst onto the scene last February when he went from projected scratch to hat-trick hero in a single day after then-captain John Tavares fell ill.

McMann would finish 2023-24 with 15 goals and 24 points in 56 games before a knee injury ruled him out of Toronto’s first-round playoff loss to the Boston Bruins.

“Any time you have success, it helps the confidence,” he said. “But I always trust the abilities and trust that they’re there whether things are going in or (I’m not) getting points. Just trying to play my game and trust that doing the little things right will pay off.”

McMann was among the Leafs’ best players against the Kings — and not just because of what he did on the scoresheet. The forward got into a scuffle with Phillip Danault in the second period before crushing Mikey Anderson with a clean hit in the third.

“He’s a power forward,” Berube said. “That’s how he should think the game, night in and night out, as being a power forward with his skating and his size. He doesn’t have to complicate the game.”

Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz knew nothing about McMann before joining Toronto in free agency over the summer.

“Great two-way player,” said the netminder. “Extremely physical and moves really well, has a good shot. He’s a key player for us in our depth. I was really happy for him to get those two goals.

“Works his butt off.”

ON TARGET

Leafs captain Auston Matthews, who scored 69 times last season, ripped his first goal of 2024-25 after going without a point through the first three games.

“It’s not going to go in every night,” said Matthews, who added two assists against the Kings. “It’s good to see one fall … a little bit of the weight lifted off your shoulders.”

WAKE-UP CALL

Berube was animated on the bench during a third-period timeout after the Kings cut a 5-0 deficit to 5-2.

“Taking care of the puck, being harder in our zone,” Matthews said of the message. “There were times in the game, early in the second, in the third period, where the momentum shifted and we needed to grab it back.”

PATCHES SITS

Toronto winger Max Pacioretty was a healthy scratch after dressing the first three games.

“There’s no message,” Berube said of the 35-year-old’s omission. “We have extra players and not everybody can play every night. That’s the bottom line. He’s been fine when he’s played, but I’ve got to make decisions as a coach, and I’m going to make those decisions — what I think is best for the team.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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