The Edmonton Oilers joined the Nashville Predators for some after-dinner festivities on Thanksgiving Night. Nashville wanted to keep the struggling team from ruining the day for the second year in a row.
They didn’t do a very good job at first, letting the Oilers walk away with the majority of the scoring chances early. The Predators attempted here and there to claw back, but for the majority of the night Edmonton was outplaying and out hustling them. Thanks to some more superhuman work from Pekka Rinne, the game was able to get to overtime, where Filip Forsberg, hero, ended it. Give thanks for that wicked release he has!
Random Observations
- Missed the first half of the game due to turkey related reasons. You can fill in your own observations, but from the gist I got from the radio and Twitter, Pekka Rinne was #the #Man. #TheMan.
- The Oilers pretty much outplayed the Predators for the entire game. Luckily, the aforementioned Man held them in all night. It’s games like that that show Rinne has been the team’s MVP this year. Sometimes you have to steal a game you shouldn’t be in.
- Welcome back, Mike Fisher! Fish didn’t see a ton of action on the ice, but did see over 12 minutes of playing time and won 64% of his faceoffs. No doubt his role will increase as he gets back up to game speed.
- Seth Jones did not have the greatest of nights. It may have been OK had he scored on that beautiful shot, but Paul Gaustad got in the way of Viktor Fasth. He also negated a power play at the very end of the game, but to be fair, the Preds probably had a better chance scoring 4v4 than 5v4.
- What is it with the extra hockey, all of a sudden?
- A penalty shot in overtime? Drama!
- The pipe denied Forsberg an overtime winner for the second game in a row. However, just as we were all lamenting how the Hockey Gods have a sick sense of humor sometimes, Forsberg clutched fate by the throat and destroyed it. “I’ve had enough of this nonsense,” he said. Game. Over.
- That also stopped a streak of games where the top line players didn’t score before it reached four.
- The Oilers still haven’t won a game against the Western Conference.
Everyone on the team needs to buy Pekka another Thanksgiving dinner for bailing them out tonight. It would have been over a long time ago had he not been in Vezina form like he’s been all season. Nashville has now won three games in a row, and is in sole possession of first in the Central, two points ahead of St. Louis. Celebrate with some more pie!
Boxscore – Game Summary – Event Summary – War-on-Ice – HockeyStats – Natural Stat Trick
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