Toronto 6, Edmonton 3: Oilers Lose Game, Nugent-Hopkins
February 21, 2012
The Leafs took advantage of a series of defensive miscues, a disallowed Ryan Smyth goal and an empty net late in the game to run up a 6-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers.
Edmonton came out strong early, out-chancing the Maple Leafs in the first period and putting in a strong effort. Unfortunately, Toronto dominated the second, outscoring Edmonton 3-to-1, and a half-hearted comeback attempt in the third was easily turned aside.
Player Gradings
Here are the player grades for the Oilers, with 10 being a “perfect” game, 9 extraordinary, 8 great, 7 good, 6 above average, 5 average, 4 below average, 3 poor, 2 terrible and 1 deserving of almost instant demotion. Compiled by Jonathan Willis.
#4 Taylor Hall, 6. Seven shots at net, two points and a plus-1 rating, along with three blocked shots, tell the tale of an active layer who more often than not got the job done. It wasn’t an exceptional game for Hall, but he was one of the better Oilers out there.
#5 Ladislav Smid, 7. The Oilers’ best defenseman by a mile and the only one without at least one awful boneheaded gaffe.
#6 Ryan Whitney, 6. Whitney was asked to do a lot on a struggling blue line, and by and large he did it well. His skating still isn’t what it once was but his ability to make a pass under pressure was missed during his absence.
#10 Shawn Horcoff, 6. Quietly had a pretty good game that included three shots and three hits.
#13 Cam Barker, 1. Mind-numbing mistake after mind-numbing mistake. Barker was full value for his minus-3 tonight.
#14 Jordan Eberle, 7. Eberle picked up two goals, and has as often been the case this season he was the most dangerous Oiler offensively.
#20 Eric Belanger, 6. One of the few Oilers not bleeding chances against in the game against Toronto. Belanger got a lot of ice-time early, then saw it reduced later on, but was the center of one of two lines (Nugent-Hopkins and then Horcoff was the other) to see a lot of Phil Kessel.
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