Player grades: Young defenders play well, not enough teammates follow suit as Oilers fall to Kraken

Oilers 3, Kraken 4

Stop me if you’ve seen this movie before. Edmonton Oilers come out of the gate tentatively, give up an early goal, and are skating uphill for a while. They somehow get out of the first period within striking distance, but respond with an even worse middle frame. Only in the third, facing a deficit, do the Oilers bring their A game, pour it on, but run out of time and lose in regulation. Empty-netter optional.

Call it opportunity lost for the Edmonites on a night that their opponent was missing their top two scorers in Jaden Schwartz and Jordan Eberle along with their captain Mark Giordano. The visitors were of course down a few defencemen of their own, though in fairness it wasn’t the young replacements on the blueline who were the problem in this one. By night’s end a frustrated Dave Tippett had changed up all 4 line combos and all 3 defence pairings

The Oilers were outshot 34-32, though by our preliminary count at the Cult of Hockey they did hold a narrow 11-9 advantage in Grade A shots .

Player grades

#6 Kris Russell, 3. He’s done a lot of heavy lifting this last while, and on Friday it looked like those minutes may have caught up to him. His pairing with Barrie was burned on 3 of the 4 Seattle goals, with Russell being a step slow on Colin Blackwell’s breakaway goal and unable to prevent Alexander Wennberg’s shot on the ultimate game winner. The duo was split up in the third period with Russell moving to the right side on a surprisingly effective duo with Lagesson. Did have a solid game on the penalty kill, which was a perfect 4/4.

#10 Derek Ryan, 4. Strong on the penalty kill, mostly OK at even strength though he was among those beaten in the early build-up to the second Kraken goal. 7/14=50% on the dot but 0 shots on net and depressingly familiar boxcars of 0-0-0, -1.

#13 Jesse Puljujarvi, 6. Played a solid game with 2 dangerous shots on goal. Earned a secondary assist on Bouchard’s goal. Had a couple of good looks to tie it up but couldn’t get a bounce. Tipped one shot just wide, then was just beaten to a rebound off the backboards by netminder Philipp Grubauer that had JP raising his hands to the heavens.

#18 Zach Hyman, 4. Very quiet. 0 shots on goal, 0 hits. Did win a battle in the build-up to Draisaitl’s powerplay goal.

#22 Tyson Barrie, 3. Very little going on offensively or defensively, with 0 contributions to Grade A shots by the Oilers while being beaten on 4 in his own end of the ice. Primary among them was a poor reaction to Blackwell’s burst up the middle that resulted in the 3-2. Did have 6 shot attempts, 2 of them on goal.

#29 Leon Draisaitl, 7. Playing in his 500th career game, he was involved in all 3 Edmonton goals. Scored the first himself with his patented one-timer on the powerplay, screened Grubauer on Bouchard’s rocket, then earned a secondary assist on McDavid’s deflection that cut the deficit to 1 with 8 minutes left. Drew a penalty late in the third. Narrowly missed a one-timer on the subsequent 6-on-4, but miss it he did. A heavy load on the faceoff dot but with subpar results (13/31=42%). There were 75 faceoffs in this at-times-plodding affair, the most of any Oilers game all season by some distance, and the hosts won 55% of them.

#37 Warren Foegele, 5. He got rocked with a heavy hit in the early going, responded with just 1 official hit of his own all night long. Made a fine pass to McLeod for a terrific chance, and had a great look himself late in the third after emerging from the penalty box to find himself rushing up the ice with all 3 of McDavid, Draisaitl, and the puck on his stick. Probably made the right decision to fire away, couldn’t cash. But the penalty itself was a problem, coming as it did with 5 minutes left and his team trailing by 1. A marginal call perhaps, but at first glance it did look like a trip and “first glance” is all the ref gets. Now has gone 15 games without a goal.

#42 Brendan Perlini, 3. Got back into the line-up but did nothing with the opportunity, brief as it was (just 6:29 ice time). 0 shots on net, 1 hit, and -1 in which he was beaten by a cross-ice pass to the goal scorer. The Oilers have yet to lose 2 straight games all season long, but somehow have managed to lose the last 4 in a row in which Perlini was dressed. He may be running out of time.

#44 Zack Kassian, 2. Started the game on the third line and ended it on the fourth, and deservedly so after making critical mistakes on 2 Seattle goals. On the 2-1 he took a terrible route to Larsson allowing the defender to cut into the faceoff circle and fire unmolested. Then on the 3-2 he coughed up the puck with a backhand pass into the middle just outside his own blueline, leading to a breakaway the other way. Had another ugly sequence where he turned over the puck along the defensive boards, then failed to seal off the guy who had picked it off, who proceeded to sail right on down the boards to make a play on net. Did contribute to 1 chance at the good end, but had 0 shots of his own and just 1 hit in a game that the Oilers’ intensity and physicality was down a couple of quarts. Supposedly those attributes are Kassian’s stock in trade, but were nowhere in evidence in this one. Apparently Coach Tippett noticed because he got 2 shifts in the third period.

#56 Kailer Yamamoto, 3. Had a large contingent of family and friends for his first official NHL game in his home state, but was clearly pressing and had an ineffectual night. 0 shots on net and 0 contributions to Grade A shots. To make matters worse, he took 2 penalties.

#70 Colton Sceviour, 6. Another solid performance from the reliable vet. 12 minutes of ice time including 3:46 on the perfect penalty kill to lead all forwards. Even mustered a good scoring chance on the PK, something he’s done a few times of late. Got promoted to third line duty in the final frame. 3 shots, 2 hits, and 0 defensive mistakes.

#71 Ryan McLeod, 5. Managed 1 hard drive on net off a Foegele feed, but couldn’t bury it. Saw just 7½ minutes of action.

#74 Stuart Skinner, 4. Tough night for the rook who looked shaky from the outset. Allowed a goal in the game’s first minute when Yanni Gourde’s rocket off a well-played 3-on-2 rush went right through him. Beaten on the short side by Adam Larsson of all people on what we deemed a Grade B shot. Couldn’t quite keep up with Blackwell’s breakaway move. Then overplayed Alex Wennberg’s angled shot which caught the inside of his pad and deflected through and into the net for the eventual game-winner. Found his game in the third when he made a couple of fine stops to keep the Oilers in the game, but by then the damage was done. 34 shots, 30 saves, .882 save percentage.

#75 Evan Bouchard, 7. A second consecutive 1-goal, 1-assist night for the young rearguard who has passed Barrie for the team lead in blueline scoring (4-11-15) despite getting less than 20% as much time on the powerplay. His goal came on a slapshot that appeared to catch a piece of the post on its way in to the net. Then his outside shot was tipped home by McDavid to make things interesting down the stretch. Had excellent shot shares on the night. A little surprising to see him parked on the bench when the Oilers had a 6-on-4 powerplay for the final 90 seconds, especially on a night that Barrie was struggling. The Oilers powerplay might be sailing along, but the club has been far less successful in sixth-attacker situations.

#80 Markus Niemelainen, 6. Looked right at home in his second NHL game, providing a commanding physical presence on the back end. Indeed, he was credited with almost as many hits (7) as the rest of his team combined (9). He really rocked a couple of opponents along the way. Blocked 3 shots as well, including an excellent tip into the netting of a dangerous drive. Wasn’t quite able to get over to Larsson’s short-side shooting lane after the Seattle veteran walked around Kassian. 0 mistakes on Grade A looks at even strength, 1 while shorthanded. Played 13:39 including nearly 2 minutes on the PK.

#84 William Lagesson, 6. Quietly effective on the back end, paired with Bouchard for the first 2 periods and Russell in the third. The Oilers dominated possession on his watch, with a 19-5 advantage in shot attempts and an 11-2 bulge in shots on goal during his 15 minutes at even strength. Chipped in a further 2 minutes on the PK, paired with Niemelainen.

#86 Philip Broberg, 6. Became more prominent as the game progressed and really emerged in the final frame when he was paired with Bouchard, primarily in a group that included McDavid, Draisaitl, and Puljujarvi. They dominated play, with Broberg playing his part. Particularly impressive was one play where he seized possession inside his own line, sped up ice, gained the line, looked off McDavid and instead found Draisaitl with a lovely feed, setting up a very dangerous situation that barely failed. On the defensive side his worst/best moment came nearly simultaneously when he was walked by Joonas Donskoi, but recovered with a diving play to knock the puck away from danger. Showed a quick stick to thwart a wraparound. On a decent look at the other end he fired a rocket of a wrister over the crossbar.

#97 Connor McDavid, 7. Played a massive 25:53 to lead the Oilers, with 6 shot attempts, 2 hits, and 5/14=36% on the dot. Struggled to break through the defensive net that Seattle cast on him, though he did draw 2 penalties in the process. Wasn’t much feeling the magic on this night, even as he did produce a goal and an assist along the way. The goal was a nifty mid-air deflection that found its way through Grubauer and renewed hope in Oil fans’ hearts with 8 minutes left. But nothing quite clicked the rest of the way, including his weak pass into the slot that was intercepted in the dying seconds to snuff Edmonton’s last gasp.