Post Game: Game #9 Canucks 3 Oilers 2 (OT)

1ST PERIOD
EDM Hemsky 3 (Yakupov, Gagner) 18:38 PP

2nd PERIOD
EDM Smyth 1 (Lander) 8:08 SH
VAN Hansen (Schroeder, Higgins) 12:41

3RD PERIOD
VAN Bieksa 1 (Raymond, Hansen) 17:43

OT
VAN Tanev 1 (H.Sedin, D.Sedin) 4:30

Vancouver
Roberto Luongo 23/25

Edmonton
Devan Dubnyk 37/40

Game Notes:
- Another game, another lesson learned and another shot the gut that will hurt for awhile. On the bright side, they got a point out of it, but on the dark side, they let a point slip away. The Canucks were 2 1/2 minutes away from walk out of Rexall Place empty handed, but once again outguiled and outlasted the Oilers to walk away with two points. The Oilers lost Mark Fistric and Shawn Horcoff during this game, which helped lead to the demise of the Oilers. Two players they needed to take a regular shift in order to win. The Oilers just lost their mental will along the way. Vancouver owned the play for the third period, then the equalizer struck and it deflated the Oilers. Taylor Hall had a penalty shot in overtime which he shot right into Roberto Luongo's blocker. Shortly after that Chris Tanev buried a shot, top corner from the slot and that was all she wrote. The Oilers are what they are. A team that will be exciting on some night, break your hearts in others. Does that make them a playoff team? Time will tell, but the learning curve is steep. The Oilers just need to keep playing but its time for Ralph Krueger to make some adjustments. 4th game in a row they have failed to score more than two goals. Time to mix up the lines, especially the fabled top 6 could use a tweak. The most disappointing part of this game was the Oilers will was broken, like it has been so many times over the past 6 seasons.

Player Of The Game:
Ales Hemsky RW - Hemsky was flying tonight. Scored a beauty of a goal when Yakupov's fanned chip took a hard right turn bounce into no man's land and Hemsky beat both the goaltender and defensemen to the puck, made a dandy forehand-backhand move in full flight to make a difficult goal look easy. His line with Gagner and Yakupov was the lineup with the most giddyup tonight. When Horcoff left the game, the lines were a mixed up mess and continuity just wasn't going to remain throughout the game. This was the 2006 version of Ales Hemsky the Oilers saw tonight. It's been awhile, and it was good to have him back.

Goat Of The Game:
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins - No shots, no hits, no points, 1 blocked shots all in over 20 minutes of work. I dinged Jordan Eberle on Saturday afternoon for having a similar statline. The Oilers youngsters need to start doing more with their icetime. Being this unproductive is a detriment to the club and is a large reason this is the 4th straight game the Oilers have failed to score more than two goals. It's tough to win in the NHL by scoring two goals are less. Yes, its tough to score goals in the NHL, but when the kids are getting prime time, they have to produce, regardless of age or pressure. Oilers are 4-3-2 now, meddling in mediocrity.

Next Game - Wednesday February 6, 2013 8 PM MT vs. Stars @ Rexall Place on TSN.