Chicago Blackhawks hand hockey lesson to Edmonton Oilers
The Edmonton Oilers continued their slide toward the bottom of the NHL standings with a 5-0 loss at the hands of the defending Stanley Cup champions, the Chicago Blackhawks in Edmonton on Wednesday 17
November.
How it happened
It was a lesson on how to play hockey from the very first puck drop. The Blackhawks dominated the Oilers from start to finish, outshooting Edmonton 47-18 on the night.
It was the Blackhawks 22-year-old captain Jonathan Toews who led the way by scoring the Blackhawks first three goals of the game. Toews scored two in the latter half of the first period, and his third
in the opening moments of the second. The three goals were Toews' sixth, seventh, and eighth of the season.
Patrick Sharp added a fourth goal for the Hawks in the second period with his team leading 11th of the season. Sharp's goal was also scored while down a man and was his second shorthanded goal of the season
and 15th of his career.
Bryan Bickell finished off the scoring for the Blackhawks with his fourth of the year with the only goal of the third period.
What they're saying
Going into the game the Oilers had won only four games and half of those wins had come against the Blackhawks – a fact that the Blackhawks would have been well aware of going into the game.
"We weren't going to go out there and try to do everything and take on the world in the first period, but we definitely remember those two games," Toews, who was voted the game's first star, said to reporters
after the game.
Toews' second goal of the game came on the power play and got by Nikolai Khabibulin from a strange deflection off an Edmonton defender's skate after Toews had attempted to play the puck in front of the
net. Coming late in the period, the bad bounce seemed to sink the Oilers.
"It was tough when something like that 2-0 goals happens," Edmonton rookie Taylor Hall said. "It's just a bad break and it's not the first time it's happened. At the same time, we have to recover from
those kind of goals better."
The Blackhawks now get set to head south down Canadian Highway 2 as they head into Calgary to take on the Flames on Friday 19 November.
The Oilers get set to host the visiting Phoenix Coyotes on Friday night. The Oilers and Blackhawks don't meet each other again until February.
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