The Edmonton Oilers finally saw a familiar foe last night, as the Los Angeles Kings returned to the City of Champions for Hockey Night In Canada. The Oilers, despite having not won three games in a row all season, are still chasing the Pacific Division crown. It is both a testament to the resilience of the Oilers, and an indictment of the division, that that’s the case. Of all the Oilers teams of the last five seasons to do it, you certainly wouldn’t pick this edition first.
Edmonton even tempted fate with this one, by holding off on celebrating Leon Draisaitl’s 1000th NHL point until tonight. The Kings are probably already sick of Rogers Place, La Bamba, Fluxland, and even the melting snow and pine trees. Making them sit through the milestone ceremony of one of their chief tormentors was a bold decision.
“Even” actually became the theme of the night, as neither team held a lead at the end of the four different periods played in this game. The box score was also one Thanos would be proud of: Perfectly balanced, as all things should be. 1–1 after one, 2–2 after two, 3–3 through three regulation periods. Los Angeles held the shots-on-goal edge in this game, and not even that was really imbalanced. They finished leading the SOG column 30–24 after overtime. It took a shootout to finally determine the winner, and- tough luck- the Kings came out on top.
Oilers lose 4–3 in the shootout.
The “winning two, losing one” will continue until morale improves. Or until the Pacific is claimed by Edmonton which, in these stupid-silly times that we live in, would be the most apt thing to happen. Here’s the game story.
Oilers honour Draisaitl pregame, he shows his gratitude with two goals
The story of this night, very obviously, was Draisaitl. Nearly a full month after notching his 1000th point against Stuart Skinner and the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Oilers held the traditional pregame ceremony, complete with gold stick and video messages. Bowie, Draisaitl’s dog, also made an appearance! More pup content, please.
When the business end of things came around, though, Draisaitl’s focus was on that and that alone. As has been the case the past couple of games, his linemates Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen helped to combine for the first tally. The big hit by Podkolzin to separate man from puck leads to Kapanen swooping in, picking up the puck, and delivering a pass more beautiful than the River Valley:
The second goal was a classic, because who doesn’t love the classics? The feed from Evan Bouchard at the point found Draisaitl waiting in his office, in the right face-off circle. The result: a very predictable one, from one of the only signature shots that can rival an Alex Ovechkin one-timer.
Draisaitl has looked rejuvenated playing with both Podkolzin and Kapanen this week. There’s also evidence milling about that Kapanen’s return to Draisaitl’s and Podkolzin’s flank may have saved the “DraiSelke” campaign from derailment. All this is to say, it will be a while before anything happens to separate that line.
McDavid also gets a milestone: longest points streak of his career
Connor McDavid entered last night’s contest on a 17-game point streak, matching a career high. In that time, McDavid has registered an insane 18 goals and 23 assists (41 points total). He seems bound and determined to drag this team to a division title, come hell or high water, or LRT construction delays.
For a while, it seemed as if this was solely going to be Draisaitl’s night. McDavid might see this points streak end at 17 games, just like before. Then, out of the kindness of their hearts, the Kings gifted Edmonton a five-on-three power play halfway through the third period.
His release is so quick, it makes Anton Forsberg look completely silly here. Just a perfect quick flick, like lighting a match for the winter fireplace. That’s already McDavid’s 30th goal of the season. Remember back in October, when an empty-netter against Utah felt like sweet salvation for him? We’ve come a long way from another horrifically slow start.
New high-score achieved now for McDavid, as his points streak reaches a career-best 18 games. The way he’s played over the past month-plus, he may also not be done with this one yet. Especially with a certain special day in view.
The bottom-six is still a complete work in progress
At the very least, the Oilers can etch their top-six in stone. McDavid stays between Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, while Draisaitl, Podkolzin, and Kapanen are glued together. Those two lines are really playing well these past few games.
The bottom half of the forward lineup, however, still needs work. Trent Frederic isn’t going to fight every game, Adam Henrique has been struggling before he got injured. Matt Savoie and Isaac “Ike” Howard are still seeing sheltered minutes, and they were okay with Curtis Lazar and Jack Roslovic a couple games ago; not so much tonight, given they were out there for a goal against with abysmal defensive coverage. On a night where the other team’s depth showed up, the Oilers’ did not.
It remains to be seen whether or not a lineup shuffle with those bottom-six forwards is in the works. With Adam Henrique out and Andrew Mangiapane being scratched while awaiting a trade, healthy-scratching is a lot more difficult now. But the right combination hasn’t been settled on just yet. It needs to be soon, however, to keep the Oilers humming along.
Another Ingram game, another solid performance despite loss
To start off his Oilers tenure, Connor Ingram has been sufficiently sharp. Outside of one bad game versus the Boston Bruins, Ingram has exceeded a .900 save percentage in nearly every other game. The only time he didn’t, he fell one saved shot short of .900.
Ingram didn’t play terribly in this game, either. There were no straight-up distance shots that got past him, not even a thing from the slot area. Two of the three goals scored were tipped in close, which is the most difficult thing for a goalie to deal with.
The first goal, also known as Corey Perry’s Revenge, was Corey Perry being net-front on the power play. You would think the Oilers, having seen him score most of his 19 goals for them last season that way, would remember to cover him. Certainly, you can’t expect Ingram to be able to solo Perry in a net-front battle; it’s like taking on Goku in Dragon Ball.
The other two goals are a huge part of why the Kings ultimately won: they came from depth players making smart plays. The nifty on-the-fly tap-in from Lee, and a redirect from Alex Laferriere, made Ingram’s life in the crease miserable. The lack of defensive awareness on the Lee goal was appalling, to say the least.
In the end, Ingram finished with a perfectly round .900 save percentage. He did his part, and his part was enough to get the game to a shootout. Had a disallowed OT goal counted, his part would have helped the Oilers get the win.
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Player perspective
“They had their moments, and we had our moments tonight, too. That’s just the way it went, (but) I thought we had a pretty good effort tonight. That’s hockey.” -Kasperi Kapanen
Out on the road, to face Central foes (and celebrate a birthday)
The Oilers now take off for a couple of games, as they will be out in Chicago on Monday night. The next night, they’ll play the Nashville Predators again. Also of note: Tuesday night is McDavid’s 29th birthday. You think the league meant to do that, having McDavid celebrate his birthday at the honky-tonks after the game?
Edmonton has won the only meeting they’ve had so far this season with each team, which is a good sign. It’ll be a solid chance to get another pair of wins in the bank, and then try once more for the elusive Major League winning streak. Puck drop on Monday night is 6:30 PM Mountain Time.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
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