<p>We&#8217;re almost there, folks. With Wednesday&#8217;s preseason game against the Kraken now in the books, the Oilers only have one more tune-up remaining on the schedule. It&#8217;s nearly time to play these games for real, and I couldn&#8217;t be happier about it. Even with the 6-2 loss in Seattle, I&#8217;m already looking at brighter days ahead.</p>
<p>The good news, even with Wednesday&#8217;s road loss, is that we&#8217;ve reached the point in the pre-season when the bulk of either team&#8217;s lineup is made up of NHL players. Yeah, there are still rookies here and there, but for the most part, we&#8217;ve got two teams doing what they can to knock off the rust before the season opens a week from now. Want to try something new on the power play? Here&#8217;s a chance to see how it goes. Want to test some line chemistry? Let&#8217;s boogie.</p>
<p>As much as the results don&#8217;t matter, and I will continue to protest the length of the pre-season until I can&#8217;t type on the Internet anymore, we&#8217;re late enough into this thing where you can at least pick out a handful of things to watch for. I wanted to see if any of our defensive hopefuls would do anything to stand out in a good or bad way. I wanted to see how Darnell Nurse looked in his first game action in over three months. How would Olivier Rodrigue handle the starting duties? So, even though the score didn&#8217;t matter, we&#8217;re close enough to October 9th when these storylines are starting to mean something.</p>
<p>The story from this seventh pre-season game wasn&#8217;t about the final score or the loss but rather the mistakes that put the Oilers in that position. From my side of the computer screen, I&#8217;d say the biggest issues were the goaltending and some rust-fuelled misses with execution. It was one of those nights when every mistake wound up in the net, and unfortunately for Rodrigue and the Oilers, the visiting side made more than its share of gaffs. On the flip side, the Kraken were opportunistic and capitalized on Edmonton&#8217;s errors, winning even though they were handily outplayed for big chunks of the night.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, nobody cared about the result. But with only one game left to get in some free at-bats, time is running out to clean up the details leading to these goals against. Are they all on the goaltender, or were there breakdowns in coverage that led to clean looks? Those questions don&#8217;t necessarily matter today, but we&#8217;re only a way away from when they will. You can&#8217;t win the Stanley Cup in the pre-season, but you certainly can get a head start on sharpening up the finer points.</p>
<h2><strong>OTHER THINGS WORTH MENTIONING</strong></h2>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">4 goals on 5 shots against for Rodrigue. I blame my own tweet. <a href="https://t.co/VXaMo6MNLq">https://t.co/VXaMo6MNLq</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Baggedmilk&#8230; LTIR someone, I wanna cheat (@jsbmbaggedmilk) <a href="https://twitter.com/jsbmbaggedmilk/status/1841684851533009049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 3, 2024</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<ul>
<li>Brandon Tanev opened the scoring (1-0) six minutes into the second period on a tip-in from the slot. Tanev timed his play perfectly on Ryker Evans&#8217; point shot, and there wasn&#8217;t much Rodrigue could do about it.</li>
<li>A touch pinch by Brett Kulak opened the door for the odd-man rush down low that saw Oliver Bjorkstrand find a wide-open Shane Wright standing in front of the net with all the time and space in the world to make and dangle the goalie. After no scoring for either side in the first period, the Oilers fell by a pair before the second period reached its halfway point.</li>
<li>Death, taxes, and Leon Draisaitl scoring power play goals from the right circle. Draisaitl made it a 2-1 game on the back of a beautiful passing play that left the Kraken PK squad lying all over the ice.</li>
<li>As quickly as Seattle grabbed a two-goal lead, the Oilers erased it after Travis Dermott banged home a rebound (2-2) right on the goal mouth. If you weren&#8217;t watching the Oilers+ feed for the game, Jack and Bob spent some time wondering whether Travis Dermott was working his way into a contract. Maybe I&#8217;m reading into it too much or maybe I&#8217;m not, but we&#8217;ll see if Dermott worked his way into a deal of some kind. Through parts of seven seasons, Dermott has played 329 games, collecting 16 goals and 46 assists for 62 points while averaging 16:03 TOI per game. If they&#8217;re looking for an extra guy with experience, he may fit that bill.</li>
<li>Amazingly, in the span of under two minutes later in the second period, the Kraken got two more goals from Brandon Montour (3-2) and Shane Wright (4-2) to reclaim their lead and the insurance.</li>
<li>Jaden Schwartz put the Kraken up by a field goal (5-2) with another well-executed deflection right in front of the goaltender. Schwartz tipped the puck home after getting the math right when he got his stick on Vince Dunn&#8217;s point shot. Another goal that wasn&#8217;t necessarily Rodrigue&#8217;s fault but certainly was his problem.</li>
<li>By the time Will Borgen scored to make it a 6-2 game, it looked like the Oilers were more so interested in riding out the clock than they were in stopping the bleeding and I can&#8217;t say I blame them. Everything was ending up in their net by the time the game was over, and it&#8217;s almost a shame that the NHL has rules against just running out the clock.</li>
<li><a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/oilers-defenceman-darnell-nurse-cleared-to-play-as-pre-season-winds-down">Darnell Nurse returned to the lineup</a> after sitting out the first six rehabbing an oblique/core injury, and I was looking for him to keep it simple to ease his way back into game shape. I don&#8217;t care about the -3 beside his name or that there were a few bobbles with the puck that he&#8217;ll want to clean up, he made it through the game and that&#8217;s good enough for me. I&#8217;m already worried enough about the Oilers&#8217; defence without having to worry about Darryl being too banged up to play. Regardless of your personal feelings on the player, the Oilers need him and they need him to play well.</li>
<li>Olivier Rodrigue got the start with Calvin Pickard, who was still banged up after a collision in the crease took him out of <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/edmonton-oilers-beat-seattle-kraken-5-4-but-lose-calvin-pickard-after-a-first-period-collision">Saturday&#8217;s game against Seattle</a>. The funny thing about goaltending is that you can be happy with it one period and dumbfounded the next. That&#8217;s kinda what happened with Rodrigue after he allowed four goals on five shots against, giving the Kraken a 4-2 lead heading into the third period that they were pretty lucky to have based on the play. Unfortunately, Rodrigue didn&#8217;t fare much better in the third. I&#8217;m not blaming Rodrigue for everything that went wrong necessarily, but I don&#8217;t know that it was the showing he&#8217;d want to have this close to go-time considering he is one Pickard injury away from being the backup.</li>
<li>Noah Philp&#8217;s night: One short, three hits, and 71.4% on the dot in 10:26 of TOI. Nitpick the -2 rating all you want — our goalie didn&#8217;t stop much — because all I see is a player who is going to <a href="https://publish.oilersnation.com/2024/10/02/noah-philp-ready-for-opening-night-roster/">steal someone&#8217;s job</a> in short order.</li>
<li>I wonder how much the team was expecting Josh Brown to come into camp and lock down the 3RD spot? In my humble opinion, I don&#8217;t think he&#8217;s earned it or is even the next guy up from being the guy who earned it. Does that make sense?</li>
<li>The power play went 1/5 on the night — an average night most of the time — but what was most interesting was how the team seemed to be workshopping some new ideas and plays. Who knows how many of them stick, but I personally love the idea of the league&#8217;s best power play adding even more pitches to their arsenal.</li>
<li>At least the Oilers won 50.9% of the faceoffs? Small victories, people. Take them when you can.</li>
</ul>
<h2><strong>ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365</strong></h2>
<div class="bam-inline-promotion" data-property-id="325" data-promotion-id="19111" data-context="web-content-promocard"></div>


We're almost there, folks. With Wednesday's preseason game against the Kraken now in the books, the Oilers only have one more tune-up remaining on the schedule. It's nearly time to play these games for real, and I couldn't be happier about it. Even with the 6-2 loss in Seattle, I'm already looking at brighter days ahead.

The good news, even with Wednesday's road loss, is that we've reached the point in the pre-season when the bulk of either team's lineup is made up of NHL players. Yeah, there are still rookies here and there, but for the most part, we've got two teams doing what they can to knock off the rust before the season opens a week from now. Want to try something new on the power play? Here's a chance to see how it goes. Want to test some line chemistry? Let's boogie.

As much as the results don't matter, and I will continue to protest the length of the pre-season until I can't type on the Internet anymore, we're late enough into this thing where you can at least pick out a handful of things to watch for. I wanted to see if any of our defensive hopefuls would do anything to stand out in a good or bad way. I wanted to see how Darnell Nurse looked in his first game action in over three months. How would Olivier Rodrigue handle the starting duties? So, even though the score didn't matter, we're close enough to October 9th when these storylines are starting to mean something.

The story from this seventh pre-season game wasn't about the final score or the loss but rather the mistakes that put the Oilers in that position. From my side of the computer screen, I'd say the biggest issues were the goaltending and some rust-fuelled misses with execution. It was one of those nights when every mistake wound up in the net, and unfortunately for Rodrigue and the Oilers, the visiting side made more than its share of gaffs. On the flip side, the Kraken were opportunistic and capitalized on Edmonton's errors, winning even though they were handily outplayed for big chunks of the night.

At the end of the day, nobody cared about the result. But with only one game left to get in some free at-bats, time is running out to clean up the details leading to these goals against. Are they all on the goaltender, or were there breakdowns in coverage that led to clean looks? Those questions don't necessarily matter today, but we're only a way away from when they will. You can't win the Stanley Cup in the pre-season, but you certainly can get a head start on sharpening up the finer points.
<h2><strong>OTHER THINGS WORTH MENTIONING</strong></h2>
https://twitter.com/jsbmbaggedmilk/status/1841684851533009049
<ul>
 	<li>Brandon Tanev opened the scoring (1-0) six minutes into the second period on a tip-in from the slot. Tanev timed his play perfectly on Ryker Evans' point shot, and there wasn't much Rodrigue could do about it.</li>
 	<li>A touch pinch by Brett Kulak opened the door for the odd-man rush down low that saw Oliver Bjorkstrand find a wide-open Shane Wright standing in front of the net with all the time and space in the world to make and dangle the goalie. After no scoring for either side in the first period, the Oilers fell by a pair before the second period reached its halfway point.</li>
 	<li>Death, taxes, and Leon Draisaitl scoring power play goals from the right circle. Draisaitl made it a 2-1 game on the back of a beautiful passing play that left the Kraken PK squad lying all over the ice.</li>
 	<li>As quickly as Seattle grabbed a two-goal lead, the Oilers erased it after Travis Dermott banged home a rebound (2-2) right on the goal mouth. If you weren't watching the Oilers+ feed for the game, Jack and Bob spent some time wondering whether Travis Dermott was working his way into a contract. Maybe I'm reading into it too much or maybe I'm not, but we'll see if Dermott worked his way into a deal of some kind. Through parts of seven seasons, Dermott has played 329 games, collecting 16 goals and 46 assists for 62 points while averaging 16:03 TOI per game. If they're looking for an extra guy with experience, he may fit that bill.</li>
 	<li>Amazingly, in the span of under two minutes later in the second period, the Kraken got two more goals from Brandon Montour (3-2) and Shane Wright (4-2) to reclaim their lead and the insurance.</li>
 	<li>Jaden Schwartz put the Kraken up by a field goal (5-2) with another well-executed deflection right in front of the goaltender. Schwartz tipped the puck home after getting the math right when he got his stick on Vince Dunn's point shot. Another goal that wasn't necessarily Rodrigue's fault but certainly was his problem.</li>
 	<li>By the time Will Borgen scored to make it a 6-2 game, it looked like the Oilers were more so interested in riding out the clock than they were in stopping the bleeding and I can't say I blame them. Everything was ending up in their net by the time the game was over, and it's almost a shame that the NHL has rules against just running out the clock.</li>
 	<li><a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/oilers-defenceman-darnell-nurse-cleared-to-play-as-pre-season-winds-down">Darnell Nurse returned to the lineup</a> after sitting out the first six rehabbing an oblique/core injury, and I was looking for him to keep it simple to ease his way back into game shape. I don't care about the -3 beside his name or that there were a few bobbles with the puck that he'll want to clean up, he made it through the game and that's good enough for me. I'm already worried enough about the Oilers' defence without having to worry about Darryl being too banged up to play. Regardless of your personal feelings on the player, the Oilers need him and they need him to play well.</li>
 	<li>Olivier Rodrigue got the start with Calvin Pickard, who was still banged up after a collision in the crease took him out of <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/edmonton-oilers-beat-seattle-kraken-5-4-but-lose-calvin-pickard-after-a-first-period-collision">Saturday's game against Seattle</a>. The funny thing about goaltending is that you can be happy with it one period and dumbfounded the next. That's kinda what happened with Rodrigue after he allowed four goals on five shots against, giving the Kraken a 4-2 lead heading into the third period that they were pretty lucky to have based on the play. Unfortunately, Rodrigue didn't fare much better in the third. I'm not blaming Rodrigue for everything that went wrong necessarily, but I don't know that it was the showing he'd want to have this close to go-time considering he is one Pickard injury away from being the backup.</li>
 	<li>Noah Philp's night: One short, three hits, and 71.4% on the dot in 10:26 of TOI. Nitpick the -2 rating all you want — our goalie didn't stop much — because all I see is a player who is going to <a href="https://publish.oilersnation.com/2024/10/02/noah-philp-ready-for-opening-night-roster/">steal someone's job</a> in short order.</li>
 	<li>I wonder how much the team was expecting Josh Brown to come into camp and lock down the 3RD spot? In my humble opinion, I don't think he's earned it or is even the next guy up from being the guy who earned it. Does that make sense?</li>
 	<li>The power play went 1/5 on the night — an average night most of the time — but what was most interesting was how the team seemed to be workshopping some new ideas and plays. Who knows how many of them stick, but I personally love the idea of the league's best power play adding even more pitches to their arsenal.</li>
 	<li>At least the Oilers won 50.9% of the faceoffs? Small victories, people. Take them when you can.</li>
</ul>
<h2><strong>ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365</strong></h2>
<div class="bam-inline-promotion" data-property-id="325" data-promotion-id="19111" data-context="web-content-promocard"></div>

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