Edmonton Oilers Clip Hawks 5-2
By Kurt Leavins
Suddenly, the Edmonton Oilers are a really fun team to watch again.
What a difference a coach makes!
9 Things:
9. Anton Lander had the best game of his NHL career. Few have been more suspect of Lander’s true potential as a regular NHL-er than me. I’ll swallow my pride and be thrilled if indeed I am wrong. Tenacity made up for his foot-speed and he was far more confident with the puck. This is just one game, folks, but for Lander this was a good one. Good for him.
8. Ben Scrivens is the Edmonton Oilers #1 goaltender. There are lots of Scrivens detractors, mostly I suspect because of his style. He is a Tony Esposito-esque goalie, unorthodox but a battler. As a figure skater, Scrivens would just get by on required elements, but win the competition on the strength of artistic merit. Me? I don’t care if he stops the puck with his butt.
7. Oscar Klefbom was a world-beater against the Islanders, looked like an AHL-er against Detroit, and then terrific again versus Chicago. This is what life is like with rookie defencemen. Patience is so important. The Oilers need to have the guts to play Klefbom, game-in and game-out, and be “ok” with those head-shakers. It’ll get better. Tonight, you saw “the future”. 17 minutes, +1.
6. Rob Klinkhammer. The guy had 10 hits on the night. 10!! When was the last time any Oiler did that? This is still a relatively small sample, but so far, the presence of Klinkhammer on a line with Boyd Gordon and Matt Hendricks is the best 4th line the Oilers have had in a decade. And to think we were all excited about the 1st Round draft pick in the Perron trade.
5. Craig MacTavish. The GM was roundly criticized for the last few player deals he engineered, and really…who can blame the fans, considering how this season had been going. But does the General Manager look smart now, for bringing in Todd Nelson, Klinkhammer and Friday night’s 1st Star, a re-born Derek Roy? Hmm. Maybe he DOES know what he’s doing?
4. Benoit Pouliot. I wrote after the Detroit loss, which was square on the back of Pouliot and his mind-boggling double-minor late, that he needed to be one of the Oilers better players against Chicago. He was, opened the scoring, in fact. Legions of fans wanted him benched. Sorry, but you don’t DO that to a veteran on a first offence. Friday’s bounce-back was Exhibit “A”.
3. The push-back. When Chicago scored the first goal, I waited for the “slump & fade”. They didn’t. When the Hawks tied it at 2, I waited for the Oilers to fold. They didn’t. When it was 4-2, I thought “Will they find a way to let this slip away?”, but again…they didn’t. It was a rare night when the Oilers looked determined for 60 minutes. Y’know…how winning teams look.
2. Nail Yakupov. I thought the kid hit rock bottom in the Detroit game. He was awful, and I wrote in my mid-season player grades that Job #1 for Todd Nelson had to be sorting out this player. Then, Yakupov turns around and plays his best game in about 2 years. His fore-check on the Pouliot goal was a sign of things to come. Holding onto the puck & scoring instead of deferring to Taylor Hall on the 2-on-0 was the cherry on top.
1. Todd Nelson. It’s early. But there are signs that this coach is turning this tire-fire of a team around. Un-mistakable signs. The fore-check? His doing. The new Power Play? His doing. The aggressiveness? The Oilers did not just wake up one morning and decide to be more competitive. I’m starting to come to the conclusion that Dallas Eakins over-coached this bunch, and that Nelson is letting the horses run…and you see the results. He may be earning a new contract.
So…the Black Hawks WERE playing the second road game in as many nights. The Oilers also caught the Sharks on back-to-back nights. Don’t get me wrong, the win was fun, but the team needs to sustain this for a lot longer before anyone should be convinced of anything.
But it sure does feel good…doesn’t it??