The bags were packed after the Edmonton Oilers’ comeback 5–4 overtime victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday night, as the team prepared to embark on a marathon seven-game Eastern Conference road trip.
That road trip began in earnest in Philadelphia, as the Oilers took on the Philadelphia Flyers at the now-Xfinity Mobile Arena. Edmonton hoped for better results here than their past seven trips to what used to go by Wells Fargo Center. All but one of those games ended in Flyer wins over Edmonton.
As opposed to the wild high-scoring affair from Monday night, this game hearkened back to the playing days of Flyers Head Coach Rick Tocchet: low-scoring, physical, nothing coming easy. Unlike previous times this season, however, the Oilers didn’t let the heavy grind get them down.
Despite only one goal scored in regulation, again from the defence, Edmonton pulled out another OT win. Jack Roslovic got the winner again, but full credit to Oilers Video Coach Noah Segall for detecting an Owen Tippett offside that negated a Flyers’ potential game-winner in the final minute of regulation.
Oilers win 2–1 in OT; not for the faint of heart at the end there. Here’s the game story.
The Oilers gave up nothing at 5v5 most of the evening
A key component to the Oilers game in this one had to be limiting chances against. They were soundly outplayed by the Colorado Avalanche in this regard last Saturday. Against Columbus, they spotted their opponents four more. A myriad of reasons exist for the lack of good defence, but the lack of good defence was best exemplified by this still from Gavin Brindley making it 3–0 Colorado, where three Oilers were in a line, none of them recognizing Brindley:
Whatever message was preached to them since Monday night seems to have gotten through. Edmonton limited Philly to just 11 shots through two periods, and one goal as a result. For that goal to be scored, the Flyers needed Jake Walman to be in the penalty box, and needed Matvei Michkov to wire home a laser of a shot that Tocchet might have considered to be too much offence.
The Flyers did appear to get a last-minute tally at evens late in the game. That goal will be shown below, and that was a microcosm of the Oilers’ defensive game finally wearing down in the third period. It was determined though, that Tippett was offside, and Segall was able to spot that, and challenge. No harm done ultimately.
The Oilers will want to play a full 60 minutes next time, and find a way to not fall apart late in the game. That’s been an issue far too many times in the season already. Tonight, they survived, and came away with two points, and that’s all that matters.
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No forward goals in regulation? Roslovic wins it anyway in OT
After one majestic third period against Columbus where Connor McDavid took over (and Walman got a fortuitous bounce), the Oilers went right back to being allergic to scoring in regulation. The only puck they managed to put past Flyers Goaltender Dan Vladar through 60 minutes was by a defenceman. Evan Bouchard got his third goal of the season in true Evan Bouchard fashion. This kind of Bouchard shot has not been seen often so far this season. If he can power home more of these, that will be the biggest indicator his game is finally turning around.
Now, to be fair to the forwards, this wasn’t for a lack of trying. By the end of regulation, Edmonton had put 30 shots onto Vladar; Vladar just simply upped his game in this one. This was setting up to be a classic case of the Oilers getting “goalied” once again.
Fortunately, by getting the game to overtime, they unlocked “Super Roslovic” mode. It’s basically like Super Mario with the magic star, only Roslovic is leveled up by a large block of open ice. The beauty of three-on-three OT!
Great pull by play-by-play guy Jack Michaels who might, like this observer, remember the last time an Oiler had overtime winners in consecutive games. That would be Andrew Cogliano in 2007–08, when he scored an OT GWG three games in a row. That Oilers team, many forget, fell just short of the playoffs that year. If they had beaten Calgary in Game 81 instead of lost to them, Cogliano’s feat probably has him rendered as a major folk hero in Edmonton, though he’s already fondly thought of.
The Stu might be starting to heat up as the road trip begins
Stuart Skinner woke up last Saturday morning sitting at an .899 save percentage, having gone to bed at .900 on the dot a week prior. Through the first 15 games of the season, Skinner was barely even in the top five of this team’s problems. Since then, he’d had two ugly outings, and it can be argued he didn’t deserve a win against the Jackets, although he made a key stop in overtime to keep the game tied.
Having a good game on this night was critical to help this team begin the road trip off right. And have a good game, Skinner did. The Oilers came out slow overall in the first 10 minutes of the game. The score stayed at 0–0 as Skinner was able to make a couple of pretty tough saves early on.
Only two pucks beat him tonight, and only partially on the Matvei Michkov goal can he be assigned fault. The one that didn’t count, he probably did not see, on account of half of the entire city of Philadelphia was in front of him.
Without that goal in the picture, his night was stellar. 20 saves, a .952 save percentage, a second straight win, and some much-needed positive momentum. The Oilers will need him to be dialled in on this lengthy road trip.
Player perspective
“Yeah, (I) like the city of Philly; obviously it was my first game with the team (here) last year, so pretty special last year, and it was good tonight; it was a good game all around.” -Matt Savoie, rising Flyers tormentor
On to Columbus for the rematch of Monday night
This observer would like to gripe about the scheduling. Not a long soapbox rant, but no team should play both of their games per season against a team from the other conference in the same week. It shouldn’t even happen in the same month, but okay, whatever, scheduling glitches happen.
The Oilers and Blue Jackets will both likely look different in March than they do in mid-November. There’s an aspect of comparison and measuring how far teams have come, that gets lost when the same two teams play each other again three nights later.
Nevertheless, the Oilers head over to Columbus tomorrow night. Same start time, only difference is this game will (finally) be a regional telecast again after three straight national broadcasts.
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