{"id":554496,"date":"2026-03-23T03:17:32","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/554496\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T03:17:32","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T03:17:32","slug":"oilers-lose-on-special-teams-josh-samanskis-first-nhl-goal-and-ty-embersons-return-to-the-lineup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/554496\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers lose on special teams, Josh Samanski\u2019s first NHL goal, and Ty Emberson\u2019s return to the lineup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oilers lose on special teams, Josh Samanski\u2019s first NHL goal, and Ty Emberson\u2019s return to the lineup<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I\u2019m talking out of school when I say that the Oilers were far from their best with the Panthers in town on Thursday<\/a>. Despite being built up as a Stanley Cup rematch, Edmonton was mightily outworked by a shorthanded Florida club that wound up controlling the night from start to finish. Sunday\u2019s homestand finale<\/a> wasn\u2019t going to get any easier. With the Tampa Bay Lightning in town, the Oilers would need to come up with a complete 60-minute effort or risk a second straight loss to the Sunshine State. Of course, the bad news is that this didn\u2019t happen. Instead, we got some flashes of promise, a few unlucky rings off the post, and a whole bunch of mistakes winding up in the net. Final score: 5-2 Lightning<\/a>SPECIAL TEAMS MAKE THE DIFFERENCEIn a game filled with back-and-forth chances at even strength, is it any surprise that the special teams factored into the final score? I didn\u2019t think so either. Unfortunately, the Oilers<\/a> came out on the wrong side of the battle, losing both sides of the special teams race in a rather disappointing fashion. While Edmonton\u2019s power play is usually nails for them at times when they need it most, the man advantage hasn\u2019t been the same since Leon Draisaitl has been out of the lineup. The same story played out on Sunday against the Lightning<\/a>. Only this time, the power play not only went goalless despite more than a few opportunities, including a lengthy 5-on-3, but it also gave up what ended up being Nikita Kucherov\u2019s first shortie of his career.At the other end of the rink, the penalty kill got tagged for a goal on three shorthanded situations. Jake Guentzel was given all kinds of time and space down near the crease, and when a guy that good has enough room to set up a tent, you know the puck is probably going to wind up in the net. It doesn\u2019t take a big math guy to figure out that going dash-two on special teams is probably going to ruin your night, and that\u2019s exactly what happened. Tampa Bay<\/a> was able to cash in on their opportunities, while the Oilers looked like they were always a quarter turn off of finding the magic. Either way, it\u2019s hard to look at the boxscore from last night\u2019s loss and not start with the letdown on special teams a big part of the story.JOSH SAMANSKI\u2019S FIRST NHL GOALIf you thought for a second that I wasn\u2019t about to include Josh Samanski<\/a>\u2018s first NHL goal in my wrap-up after I predicted he would score it in yesterday\u2019s GDB<\/a>, then you don\u2019t know me at all. I rarely get these NSOGDP predictions right, and after listening to Gregor brag about his hits in the game prediction for the last 13 years, there was no way I wasn\u2019t going to include my first. If you don\u2019t know, the Not-So-Obvious Game Day Prediction is where we take swings at something random that might happen that night, and my record over the last 13 years is, to say the least, a little bit tragic. This was big for me. This was the first step in stealing Gregor\u2019s sorcerous powers.<\/p>\n

More importantly, you have to love seeing Samanski get rewarded with his first NHL goal. It\u2019s one of those milestones I\u2019ll never get tired of seeing. Sure, you could argue that his first was as about as greasy as it gets, an own goal that took a friendly bounce off the defenceman\u2019s stick, but even the ugly ones are beautiful with a little space. With 14 NHL games under his belt, you know Samanski was probably dying to get something over the line. Gord knows he\u2019s had plenty of chances to crack and find the scoresheet, and it\u2019s almost funny that what finally went in for him was a scrambled play from the boards. Either way, I\u2019m sure years from now Samanski will tell his grandkids that he went coast-to-coast and buried something under the bar, but in the meantime, I\u2019m giving him props for his first NHL goal and offering any sacrifices necessary to ensure that there are plenty more to come.<\/p>\n

WELCOME BACK, TY EMBERSONAfter missing just under two weeks with an undisclosed injury, Ty Emberson was back in the lineup<\/a> for the first time since leaving mid-game against the Colorado Avalanche<\/a>. From my side of the TV screen, getting him back on the third pair is a quietly big win for the Oilers\u2019 d-group. By no means is Emberson a flashy player, but he\u2019s been quietly turning in just under 16 minutes per night while getting the majority of his starts in the defensive end. Despite having a rotation cast of players swapping in beside him, my take on Emberson is that he\u2019s been getting better as the season<\/a> wears on, and that he\u2019s a clear upgrade for that sixth spot than Spencer Stastney right now.<\/p>\n

Despite playing a defensive low of 13:18, Emberson was one of two defenders to finish with a positive plus-minus. I know we don\u2019t care about that stat much anymore, but I do think it\u2019s notable on a night when five pucks wound up in the net. Outside of keeping his house clean, Emberson also put one shot on net, had two hits, and gave the puck away twice. That\u2019s a decent night\u2019s work, no? Not that I\u2019m saying he\u2019s the perfect person for that position or that he was so outstanding that we should be mapping out statue plans, but I do think that he\u2019s the kind of steady d-man that tends to help more than he hurts, and it goes without saying that this team needs more guys like that right now. All I know for sure is that I\u2019m happy to have him back in the lineup. Now to hope he can stay healthy.<\/p>\n

The Nation Playoff Draft Party \u2014 Team Sign-Up Now Open\"\"<\/a>Edmonton hockey fans \u2014 think you and your crew know playoff hockey? Prove it at the\u00a0Nation Playoff Draft Party\u00a0on\u00a0Friday, April 17th at the River Cree Resort & Casino.\u00a0Build your playoff roster, compete against other teams throughout the postseason, and battle for\u00a0$2,500 cash and Nation bragging rights.\u00a0Team entry is\u00a0$1,000 for groups of 8, which includes dinner and your first bevy. The night will be hosted by\u00a0Ryder & Lisa from The Sauce\u00a0and\u00a0Tyler & Liam from ON Everyday, so expect plenty of energy, competition, and chirps.\u00a0Spots are limited \u2014 sign your team up now at\u00a0nationgear.ca<\/a>.\u00a0All proceeds from the event support\u00a0KidSport Edmonton, helping ensure local kids can stay in the game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oilers lose on special teams, Josh Samanski\u2019s first NHL goal, and Ty Emberson\u2019s return to the lineup I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-554496","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}