The Edmonton Oilers were on the back half of their play at home, when they welcomed the Seattle Kraken. After losing Draisaitl to an injury during the mammoth thrashing of the Hockey Club last Tuesday, the Oilers would find out that they would be without their captain Connor McDavid and both of their key guys for at least a week. For context, McDavid left the game against the Winnipeg Jets in the third period, after he sustained a lower-body injury.
Special teams ended up being a pivotal point of the game, with both the Kraken and the Oilers scoring two power play goals apiece and killing some penalties in the process. A hat trick was scored for the home team and the game ended up being decided by only one goal.
New-look Oilers lines
The Oilers had to ice very different looking lines out of circumstance.
Special teams the story against the Kraken
With the Oilers striking first on the man advantage to take the lead 14:30 into the first frame, the Kraken also responded 1:19 later with a power play goal of their own—special teams proving quite efficient in this one early on.
The power play would once again be favoured for the Oilers, as they scored another late in the second period, thanks to Nugent-Hopkins’ second of the game, which gave Edmonton a two-goal lead (the worst lead in hockey) heading into the final frame. Edmonton would add another special teams goal, with a shorthanded empty-netter late in the third period. Only 14 seconds later, would Seattle respond with their second power play goal of the game, making the game decided by just one goal.
Both teams ended up with almost identical stats on both the power play and the penalty kill, with the Kraken going two-for-three on the power play and three-for-five on the penalty kill. The Oilers, on the other hand, had their stats swapped. For the power play, that is a very good night for both teams.
Nugent-Hopkins continues to stay hot
Without McDavid and Draisaitl in the lineup, you would hope that another forward would step up and take the lead for the Oilers in the game. That’s exactly what Nugent-Hopkins did when he scored a goal early in the second period, and buried another late in the same frame, thanks to the power play. Nugent-Hopkins would add to his night after shooting a slider into the empty net and completing his hat trick.
With Nugent-Hopkins having a down year offensively, it wasn’t just the team looking for him to step up, but he needed to step up and become a critical player for the team again. With nine points in his last four games (four goals and five assists) it is starting to look like Nugent-Hopkins is finding his stride again and is definitely showing it with his play as of late.
Edmonton struggled to hold a lead
As I mentioned above, the Oilers were able to score first and held a couple of leads throughout the night, but Seattle would respond almost right away with goals of their own.
- Oilers: 1–0, Kraken: 1–1
- Oilers: 2–1, Kraken: 2–2
- Oilers: 3–2 and 4–2, Kraken: 4–3
- Oilers: 5–3, Kraken: 5–4
The Oilers were able to hold the lead of the game on four different occasions. Once in the first period, twice in the second and once in the third period. On three of those, the Kraken were able to respond fairly quickly, with goals to tie the game or make it a one-goal game.
If Edmonton continues to show signs of struggles in keeping or holding leads, the upcoming playoffs would be way harder for them to succeed in if that was the case.
What’s upcoming for the Oilers
For the second time in just over two weeks (18 days) the Oilers are set to face the deep Dallas Stars, once again in front of a home crowd. This is also going to be the Oilers’ fourth and final game of their homestead—and final game of the season series with Dallas—before crossing the border to face the Seattle Kraken. This game will also be the second time in three games (five days) that the Oilers have met the Kraken.
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