In a Western Canadian showdown between the Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets, both teams were looking to get back on track despite being destined for the playoffs. The Oilers were coming off a horrible weekend in Ontario, losing to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators in a back-to-back while the Jets came into the game on a three-game losing streak, dropping decisions to the New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, and Washington Capitals in the past week. After a tough weekend for both starters, Stuart Skinner and Connor Hellebuyck were back between the pipes for their respective squads.
Winnipeg opens the scoring
Kyle Connor winds in and takes what originally looks like a harmless shot. The release is deflected by Cody Ceci, getting the puck to start flipping before it goes through Adam Lowry’s and Darnell Nurse’s skates. Bob Stauffer and Cam Moon seemed to think it deflected off a skate here (based on the radio feed) but it’s tough to see on the replay. As a result, it goes directly off the toe of Skinner’s skate and squirts out to the back door. Skinner immediately sense the urgency with Mason Appleton there, but counter rotates which takes him further away from the rebound than he needs to be and doesn’t give him the best chance possible at the save.
Draisaitl ties it
Connor McDavid finds Warren Foegele who attacks the Jets in the slot with a two-on-two. He draws both Jets defenders to him, and his pass to Leon Draisaitl looks like a fake shot, causing Hellebuyck to bite. This leaves him sprawling to Draisaitl, and completely out of position by the time Draisaitl drags the puck across.
Brown with his third of the season
Mattias Ekholm makes a great pass to turn the three-on-two to an open ice two-on-one in the slot. Connor Brown of all people creates a great look for himself by moving into the hashmarks, pulling the puck behind the defenseman’s legs, then shooting against the grain bar down with two layers of traffic. The shot is by Hellebuyck before he starts to react on what is just an elite finish.
A power play goal for Edmonton
McDavid goes end to end on the powerplay before sending a perfect pass across the crease to a wide open Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The four Jets defenders and Hellebuyck got caught puck watching a bit on the play. Hellebuyck is in reverse VH which isn’t an issue in itself, but his scan of the ice only looks at the shortside, so he identifies Zach Hyman in the high slot and starts to square to the middle before realzing the pass is actually going to the back door. At this point, he’s late completing his rotation and getting over, leading to a reach with his blocker that Nugent-Hopkins is able to chip over.
Winnipeg trying to fight back
Puck gets sent across the top to Brendan Dillon. There’s a lot of traffic, but it seems like Skinner did a good job navigating it and had a good read on the initial shot and was going to make the save, despite looking to be a little out of position on the release. The problem comes when Vinny Desharnais tries to block the shot, resulting in a tip without a sightline into the short side of the net, off the post and in where Skinner had no chance. Blocking shots is great, but only if you actually block them. Otherwise, box out and let goalies make seaves.
The Jets tie the game
As Lars Ehlers turns the corner at the point, Ceci is correctly trading off with Adam Henrique and Draisaitl in the zone coverage, but Nurse inexplicably vacates Sean Monahan at the net front. Between Draisaitl and Monahan there’s some traffic, but Skinner looks around it and is all over the initial shot. However with Monahan now freed up, he’s able to make a perfect tip from mid height, which is arguably the toughest play a goalie can face.
Hyman’s 200th career goal
Evan Bouchard makes his second great defensive play in overtime to spring Nugent-Hopkins for the rush. He leaves the puck for Hyman and creates some space by getting the Jets’ defenders to run into each other. This allows Hyman to cut inside on Schiefele before getting a backhand off on Hellebuyck. There’s nothing inherently dangerous about the shot other than backhands being tougher to read, but Hellebuyck is deep in his net, moving slightly to his right and can’t get a stick on it resulting in the rebound. At this point, Hyman gets to the puck first as Hellebuyck makes a partial dive for it, leaving the whole top of the net open for the overtime winner.
Summary
Both goalies were good in this game despite the seven total goals scored. Whether the first goal was bad or not depends on if there was a net front tip, but Skinner was able to bounce back from some unlucky tips in front of him to make some big stops down the stretch. Hellebuyck is in all likelihood going to win the Vezina this year, but has some relative weaknesses with lateral play that the Oilers were able to exploit.
