The Edmonton Oilers came into last night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets feeling good about themselves. They’d won two of their last three games, outscoring opponents 13–5 in the process. Their only loss came via Jesper Wallstedt domination, and both their wins were of the convincing variety.
Only problem is that both of their wins came against a reeling Seattle Kraken team that the Oilers have owned anyway over that franchise’s young history. In a season full of ups and downs, and win-one-lose-one stretches, there’s still some proving for the Oilers to do. The Jets offer an opportunity to do just that.
Wearing the cream-coloured alternate jerseys again, the Oilers continued to dominate play from the jump, just like they did two nights prior. Once more, they scored the first three goals of the game, and forced the opposing coach to burn his time-out. They also chased the opposing starting goalie, in this case local product Eric Comrie, less than halfway through the game.
After 23 minutes of play, it was 5–0 Edmonton, and from there, it was all about defence. They didn’t give the Jets much over the course of the game, while simultaneously putting the game out of reach. Added to the Seattle game two nights ago, the case can be made that the Oilers might legitimately have to make those cream alternates their main home jersey at this rate. There’s some definite good juju involved with those.
Oilers win 6–2. Here’s the game story.
The fast-starting, high-octane 2022–23 Oilers are back, buddy
On Thursday night, the Oilers began the game with three goals (plus a fourth waved off because it didn’t actually cross the goal line) in the opening 11:27 of game action. It seems the team took that as a challenge on two fronts. Get to 3–0 in less time from the opening face-off, and score a fourth goal that counts.
Merely three minutes in, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins drew first blood. He also did this last week in Seattle, albeit on the power play. Is he becoming “Mr. Saturday,” perhaps? Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman get the assists, and that line is probably getting super-glued together moving forward.
Seeing that line have all the fun made Leon Draisaitl envious (allegedly), and he decided to go out and get a goal of his own. Assist to Evan Bouchard, 2–0 less than five minutes into the contest.
Not to be outdone, his linemates chipped in as well. Matt Savoie scored his third goal in two games at the 7:24 mark, with Vasily Podkolzin and Mattias Ekholm assisting. Bouchard later added his own tally, which we’ll get to in a moment, and made it Hosts: 4, Visitors: zip.
That was quite a first period!
So, to recap, the Oilers made it 3–0 faster than they did two nights ago. They also sent the game to intermission up 4–0, which they didn’t do last game. And for the second tilt in a row, they made the opposing head coach (in this case, Scott Arniel) use his time-out in the first period, and forced the yank of the opposing netminder. Are we back?
This is how the Oilers should be playing. This is how you know the mojo has taken a turn for the better. When things are off, as they were in October and November, the Oilers start the game sleepier than some of the souls who have to ride a packed Monday morning rush-hour bus along Jasper Avenue. When things are on, you get two first periods with Edmonton producing a combined 7–2 shellacking.
As a bonus, David Tomášek chipped in some depth scoring in the third period, with Trent Frederic getting an assist. Add that to Curtis Lazar’s second-period goal, and the Mattias Janmark and Ty Emberson assists on it, and you have depth scoring. Brilliant stuff to see for the second straight game.
Special-teams becoming as sure as winter’s yearly arrival
The return of players such as Nugent-Hopkins and Curtis Lazar (whose goal tonight is shown below) has clearly had an impact on special-teams performance. Since the Kraken game in which both came back, the power play and penalty-kill have been lethal. Nuge personally announced his return with the aforementioned opening goal of that game.
There was only one man advantage for each team on this night, and both came in the first period. But the Oilers killed off the Jets’ chance, while Bouchard converted their lone opportunity. Unsurprisingly, Draisaitl and McDavid got the assists on what preceded Comrie’s night ending after 20.
The penalty kill has allowed just a single goal against in the past four games, and the power play has concurrently been dynamite in three of those as well. Earlier in the season, neither was a given. But with everybody getting back to full strength, the units are humming along like they were designed to.
Bet like a pro here with Bet99—Ontario’s go-to for elite odds and nonstop action. And outside Ontario, Canadians bet better here with Bet99—bringing top-tier odds and action from coast to coast.
Stu didn’t have to do too much work, but he got his work done
Stuart Skinner opposed Eric Comrie in this game, making for a satisfying, if hard-to-come-by, matchup of two Edmontonian goalies right here in the City of Champions. No local products will likely make it into the Canada nets for the Milan-Cortina Olympics, unfortunately. But having all-Edmonton NHL goalie battles is still very worthy of taking pride in. All this played out while talk of former Edmonton Oil Kings goalie Tristan Jarry being the target of Oilers brass lingered.
Over his last two starts, Skinner stopped 49 of 50 shots, bouncing back after the Dallas debacle. The pressing question was whether it was the start of a permanent turnaround, or merely a blip in the radar. Definitively, we can now say it is the signal of a turnaround. In fairness, his teammates did a superb job of not giving the Jets much in the way of opportunities. Winnipeg was held to just nine shots through 40 minutes of play. There was also a second-period Mark Scheifele tally wiped out due to offside.
At the end of the day though, despite nothing overly flashy, Skinner kept the Jets grounded through 40 minutes. And even while conceding two goals in stat-pad time, he stopped 19 of 21 for a .905 save percentage, making this his third consecutive “quality start” by the non-advanced definition of the term. In his last three games, Skinner is averaging one goal against, and has a save percentage of .958. Whatever he’s doing over the last week, he’s doing it right.
Feistiness abound towards the end of the game
With the game well out of reach in the third period, frustrations boiled over on two separate occasions. The first one resulted in four-on-four play coming out of the TV time-out. The second one happened in the dying seconds, as the clock was allowed to run out.
It’s worth noting these two teams match up again in the ‘Peg on December 29. There’s a sure chance memories aren’t short enough, to forget about all of this in just three weeks. Likely nothing much will actually happen, but if numbers were indeed taken, it should make for extra entertainment.
Player perspective
“We’re just on the same page, we’re more connected; it makes us look fast(er)” -Leon Draisaitl on the team’s recent defensive-zone play
Tuesday presents opportunity to fuel the momentum
How does a three-game winning streak sound? Do you remember when that last happened? Of course you don’t, because it hasn’t happened yet this season. Heck, this is just the second time this season that Edmonton has a) won consecutive games in regulation, and b) won three games in a four-game stretch. The season is two full months in already.
The Buffalo Sabres are next up on this homestand, and the pain of that “team loss” against them at KeyBank Center ought to still be fresh. Additionally, this is a Sabres team that is struggling to win road games. There should be a lot of incentive to run them out of the building like with Seattle and Winnipeg. If the Oilers can do so, that will be the biggest milestone marker in the quest to assert dominance.
Remember what they say about winning streaks. Let’s hope one is officially ongoing after Tuesday night. Puck drop at Rogers Place will be 7:00 PM local.
Follow The Oil Rig on social media!
One Comment