Heading into their Wednesday night matchup, Edmonton Oilers and Minnesota Wild were tied 1–1 in their season series. Minnesota had Edmonton’s number in November with a convincing 5–3 victory while Oilers redeemed themselves three weeks later with a 7–1 thumping of the Wild. With near identical records, including in the last 10, both teams were looking to take the victory in this rubber match to chase down their respective division leaders.
Facing a depleted Wild team who were missing a number of stars like Kirill Kaprizov, Brock Faber, and Jonas Brodin, the Oilers needed all three periods and all hands on deck to walk away with a 5–3 win after playing from behind in the first 40 minutes. What were our takeaways in this one? Let’s dive in below.
Do the Oilers still lack discipline?
In their last three games, Edmonton played like a well-disciplined machine, only giving up one penalty in each of those contests. Following their fast start in this one, Oilers would go on to give up three penalties—in the first period alone.
While their penalty kill has significantly improved since the early season special teams slump, the best way to deal with penalties is to not take them in the first place and the Oilers penalty kill was certainly tested in this one. Oilers seemed to initially stump Wild’s efforts early in their first man advantage before Minnesota found their rhythm and scored two power play goals across the three opportunities in the first 20 minutes.
Minnesota is one of the better teams in the league this season and despite a streak of injuries to their roster, they are dangerous as ever. Giving power play opportunities to a team like that is never a good idea and the Oilers will need to keep this in mind against their next opponent, the Colorado Avalanche.
Second period saved by Pickard
After tying the game with back-to-back goals in the latter part of the first period, Edmonton got off to a brutal start in the second period. Oilers gave up one of the cleanest opportunities to the Wild with a bad line change, when Calvin Pickard was forced to make an incredible save on a two-on-none Wild opportunity.
Minnesota would go on to score later in the period before Edmonton equalized but let’s not kid ourselves: if it wasn’t for the play of Pickard in the second period (or pretty much throughout the game), the outcome could have, and would likely have, been much, much different. He was arguably Edmonton’s best player all night.
The lethal duo of McDavid and Draisaitl
Is there a duo in the league better than Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl? Kris Knoblauch did not hesitate to go to the big guns early on in this one and it surely paid off. Down two goals in the first period, these two would combine their skills to help produce both a Zach Hyman even strength tally and a McDavid power play goal in less than two minutes.
McDavid would go on to score another goal to put the game away in the third period, giving him his third point of the night and his 1044th point as an Oiler, passing Jari Kurri on the Oilers’ all-time point list. Only one man stands in his way for the Oilers’ all-time point lead: Wayne Gretzky and his 1669 points.
Secondary scoring is present
While their top guns were responsible for three of the goals in this one, Edmonton’s secondary scoring was on point. The line of Vasily Podkolzin, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Viktor Arvidsson had an impressive showing, contributing the other two goals including Podkolzin’s game winner early in the third period. This line’s offensive production was made possible by their dominant offensive zone play, led by Podkolzin’s consistently strong play with the puck and on the boards.
Podkolzin has arguably been the best offseason addition to the Oilers’ roster and his play continues to support this. If the Podkolzin, Nugent-Hopkins, and Arvidsson line’s performance tonight is any indicator, the Oilers seem to be in good hands with these three should Knoblauch decide to keep rolling out the Draisaitl-McDavid line combination more often.
What’s next for the Oilers?
Oilers’ celebration will be short lived as they shift their attention to the Colorado Avalanche as part of the back-to-back games against Central Division opponents. Oilers will be looking to continue in their winning ways as they keep up their chase of the Vegas Golden Knights in the division standings.
McDavid and Co. will then complete their road trip in Vancouver on Saturday night as part of the 25th anniversary of the Hockey Day in Canada.
Photo by Bailey Hillesheim/Icon Sportswire
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