The Edmonton Oilers were able to oust the Sharks last night in San Jose in a narrow 3–2 win. Goals from Connor Brown, Viktor Arvidsson, and Jeff Skinner, as well as an impressive performance from Calvin Pickard lifted the Oilers to victory.
While they still are without the electricity that Connor McDavid brings to the ice, and I for one find the difference in enthusiasm palpable, they held their own and played a solid 60 minutes.
Draisaitl leaves the game
Horrendous news in the injury department unfortunately as Leon Draisaitl left the game half-way through the second and did not return. It was very hard to pin down when the injury occurred as there was more than one instance where Draisaitl appeared to hit the deck harder than the doctors recommend and therefore difficult to determine what the injury may be. Since there was no glaring injury the hope is that it won’t be overly serious but you never know for sure.
This would be the latest in a long string of injuries, and the second in this streak to plague Draisaitl who also missed four games recently. Connor McDavid, Mattias Ekholm, and Stuart Skinner are also out with minor injuries. Amidst a battle for second place in the division, a battle to determine home ice advantage in a repeat playoff series against the Kings (who are incidentally 28–4–4 at home), the absence of their star players is the last thing the Oilers need.
Pickard stands tall
With Stuart Skinner is out with injury, Calvin Pickard has started each of the last four games. Though he had a very tough outing in Seattle and was pulled in favour of Olivier Rodrigue, of whom we would like to see more, he played very well against Calgary and Las Vegas. Neither of those were better than his performance last night though.
Pickard faced both quality and quantity last night, and the only goals he surrendered would be hard to lay on his shoulders. Pickard ended the night with 27 saves on 29 shots, a .931 Sv%.
In terms of quality, there were some that I have no idea how he kept out, especially at the end of the game when San Jose had pulled their goalie and it looked certain that they would tie the game; Skinner was somehow able to make the save despite being mostly out of position and off his feet.
The resurgence of Arvidsson and Skinner
The pair of freshman Oilers have shown some life recently despite being in the tail end of a disappointing season. The Oilers need them now more than ever while their stars are missing.
Arvidsson has now lit the lamp for the third game in a row and has five goals in his last nine games.
Jeff Skinner has put up five points in his last seven games and is very quietly putting together an acceptable season. Not even remotely close to what we were expecting before this season, but he does have 15 goals.
Oilers did not stoop
It is very often the case that when a great team plays a very poor team they will pretend for a night that they have never seen a hockey puck before. It’s almost human nature to take it easy when you are expecting an easy game, even though your coach, teammates, and brain are telling you it’s not a good idea.
The conditions were right for the Oilers to phone this one in as they were playing the very worst team in the league. Combined with the fact that they were missing some of their best players for all or half of the game and that, despite San Jose being the hockey equivalent of the last sip of a room temperature beer, they have some extremely talented young players who can easily surprise a complacent team.
The Oilers didn’t relent though, while not an energetic or eye-popping performance, it was solid hockey and they start their tour of California with two points they couldn’t afford to lose.
Edmonton will play an enormous game in Los Angeles on Saturday and then Anaheim on Monday before coming home.
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