Player grades: Season ends with a whimper; Oilers’ playoff foe decided

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Oilers 1, Avalanche 5

In an NHL schedule consisting of 1312 contests, it came down to Games #1311 and 1312 to determine the final playoff match-ups.

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First, however, in Game #1310, Edmonton Oilers wrapped up their own season with a listless 5-1 loss at Colorado. Locked in second place in the Pacific and winding down a ridiculous closing stretch of games, the Oilers left their top 7 scorers in the press box. Having survived with no obvious injuries or problems, they then proceeded to watch the denouement of the 2 remaining games in Las Vegas and Los Angeles that would determine their first-round opponent.

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And for the longest time, it appeared as if each of those rivals wanted absolutely nothing to do with the Edmonton Oilers.

First it was the Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights, needing a home-ice win against lowly Anaheim to clinch third. Instead they gave up a trio of third period goals to lose meekly, 4-1.

That left the door open for the Kings to clinch third place with a single point against lowlier Chicago. They responded by blowing a 3-1 second-intermission lead within minutes to fall behind 4-3. For 12 minutes that score held, as the clock wound down below 2 minutes.

Then came a gift from above when the Blackhawks took a needless puck-over-glass penalty. LA quickly converted the 6-on-4 opportunity with a Viktor Arvidsson goal to secure the needed point, then added the game winner on an Adrian Kempe tally just 6 seconds into a lightning-quick overtime.

So, it’s Oilers-Kings in the first round for the third straight season, while the discombobulated Vegans head to Dallas. Names like Arvidsson and Kempe are surely enough to stir the blood of Oil fans, but there are plenty of other familiar faces — Doughty, Kopitar, Danault, Moore, Anderson — who will take to the ice wearing the black hats of the villains for the games that really count, starting next Monday Apr 22.

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As for Edmonton’s own finale, there’s not much to tell. The squad rested their best and brightest including their entire first-unit powerplay, dressing a man short to ensure all of their top men got a night off. All except Stu Skinner, that is, who surprisingly got the start against a hungry group of Avs icing their best line-up.

Suffice to say it was 4-0 by the midway point of the first, and the entire last 50 minutes was garbage time. Skinner was gone at the end of the first, hopefully with confidence intact, as Cal Pickard cleaned up the mess. Edmonton pushed back a little bit, Colorado called off the dogs to a large degree, and the scoreboard barely wavered the rest of the way.

Given it was decided within 10 minutes, the stats from this game are particularly meaningless, be they shots on goal (27-26 Avalanche) or the Cult of Hockey‘s own count of Grade A Shots (11-9 Oilers; running count).

Player grades

#2 Evan Bouchard. Did not play.

#5 Cody Ceci, 3. Wore an “A” and led the team with 24:07 including 4:13 on the penalty kill. Was under the gun early, on the ice for a goal against on 3 consecutive shifts and culpable on 2 of them. Contributions to Grade A Shots (GAS): Even Strength +0/-4; Special Teams +0/-2.

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#10 Derek Ryan, 6. Played a strong game with excellent shot and scoring chance shares that deserved far better than his dash-1 on the night. Among those beaten on the 5-1, but created plenty the other way that didn’t quite cash. 4 shots, 2 hits, 2 takeaways, 4/6=67% on faceoffs. GAS: ES +4/-1; ST 0.

#13 Mattias Janmark, 5. Did what he always does, eating up minutes in which nothing bad happened but not a whole lot of good did either. 0 shots, 2 takeaways, and 2½ clean minutes on the PK to lead the forwards. GAS: ES +0/0; ST 0.

#14 Mattias Ekholm. Did not play.

#18 Zach Hyman. Did not play.

#19 Adam Henrique, 4. Led the forward corps with 19:52 TOI. Had a couple of issues defensively, made one nice steal and stretch pass to send Perry in for a chance. GAS: ES +1/-2; ST 0.

#21 Adam Erne, 4. Played 8:40 on a line with fellow recall Gagner and a rotating group of centres. 0 shots, 1 hit, dash-2. GAS: ES +0/-1; ST 0.

#25 Darnell Nurse, 3. The top pairing of Nurse-Ceci was overwhelmed early, OK-ish later. Both achieved the major task, which was to finish the game in one piece. Among those beaten on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Colorado goals. GAS: ES +0/-4; ST +0/-1.

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#27 Brett Kulak, 4. He too wore an “A” but wasn’t at his best. Made a series of mistakes on the first Avs goal, and was beaten again on the 5th. Had all kinds of trouble on a second period shift that stretched past 140 seconds as he and the team failed repeatedly to clear the zone. GAS: +0/-2; ST 0.

#28 Connor Brown, 5. Allowed a pass on the 2-0, but contributed an excellent goalie screen on Edmonton’s lone tally. GAS: ES +1/-2; ST 0.

#29 Leon Draisaitl. Did not play.

#30 Calvin Pickard, 6. Played the last 40 minutes after logging the full 60 the night before, and did his part to stop the bleeding. Faced just 3 Grade A shots in his part of the game as the Avs made no serious attempt to run up the score. His best moment was a pair of sharp stops on the dangerous Mikko Rantanen early in the third. 14 shots, 13 saves, .929 save percentage.

#37 Warren Foegele, 8. A rare grade for boxcars of 0-0-0, -1, but Foegele was Edmonton’s best by some distance. Was all over the puck, creating a series of chances that he and his mates could not find a way to finish. Led Oilers forwards in shot attempts for the third straight game with 14, after 8 in Arizona and a remarkable 17 vs. San Jose. Similarly led in shots with 7 for a total of 20 over the 3 games. Made some nice passes as well. 2 takeaways and a bunch of won battles. GAS: +8/-1; ST +1/-0. 

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#39 Sam Carrick, 5. Played 16:42 and held his own with 1 shot, 1 block, 1 hit, 1 takeaway and 0 goals at either end of the sheet. Dominated the dot with 11/14=79%. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.

#51 Troy Stecher, 5. Sawed off his 16 minutes at 0-0. Did take a pair of early penalties, both of type “dubious”. Made a nice aerial stretch pass to enable to McLeod chance. GAS: +1/-0; ST 0.

#55 Dylan Holloway, 7. Another energetic performance. Scored Edmonton’s lone goal on a nifty deflection from the mid-slot. 3 shots on net. Led the team in hits for the third straight game, with 3. GAS: ES +1/-0; ST 0.

#71 Ryan McLeod, 6. His stat line of 0-0-0, -2 did no justice to a pretty good performance that saw Edmonton dominate possession, in part due to his own fine work on the faceoff dot (13/17=76%). Played 19:17 in all situations. Did his best to break out of a 14-game goalless drought, firing 3 shots on net and ringing 2 others off the ironworks. GAS: ES +3/-1; ST 0.

#73 Vincent Desharnais, 5. Played 18 minutes and mostly held his own, though he did lose a battle on the 5-1. GAS: ES +1/-1; ST 0.

#74 Stu Skinner, 4. Thrown to the wolves. Had no answers early, allowing 4 goals on the first 6 shots he faced, though the only one he was remotely at fault was Valeri Nichushkin’s second of the night when Skinner was down early leaving the top of the net for the Colorado sniper. He did settle down in the latter part of the frame and made a couple of fine stops before departing. But… 13 shots, 9 saves, .692 save percentage.

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#86 Philip Broberg, 7. Had that deer-in-the-headlights look early when a puck rolled off his stick and right in front of his own net, but settled down and played a solid game. Made some slick plays with the puck. His pairing with Stecher not only held the Avs off the scoresheet, neither was burned for a Grade A shot. At the other end Broberg earned the primary assist on the lone goal, scored on the powerplay, when he fired a low shot that was tipped home by Holloway. Now has a 6-game point streak, albeit in 2 different leagues. GAS: ES +0/-0; ST +1/-0.

#89 Sam Gagner, 4. Played with his fellow call-up Erne and didn’t get a lot done, getting outshot 7-2 and outscored 2-0 during 8 minutes of even-strength play. Got rocked by the game’s hardest hit in losing a battle that led to the 5-1. GAS: +0/-1; ST 0.

#90 Corey Perry, 5. The 38-year-old played his 5th game in 7 nights without a lot of gas in the tank, but had a couple of good moments. Screened Justus Annunen on a McLeod drive that drilled a post. Got behind the defence to take Henrique’s stretch pass, break in alone and test Annunen 5-hole. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.

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#91 Evander Kane. Did not play.

#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Did not play.

#97 Connor McDavid. Did not play.

Make it 198 Edmonton goals in the press box, 92 on the ice. Even if we include the 31 scored by Henrique, Carrick, Perry and Stecher with other clubs before their in-season acquisition, there wasn’t a lot of firepower out there, and it showed.

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