Edmonton Oilers Tame Wild 2-1
By Kurt Leavins
When was the last time that the Edmonton Oilers had a goalie steal a game for them?
It happened Tuesday night, in Minnesota, as Ben Scrivens was marvelous. But to be fair, the Oilers 1st Line produced, and the entire team, over-matched as they were, put in a gritty, gutsy effort. 9 Things:
9. Martin Marincin was not perfect on the night, but he made a number of key plays with his stick that disrupted the Wild’s flow just long enough. And in the final shift, Todd Nelson put a tremendous amount of faith and confidence in his young rearguard, and Marincin paid him back in spades. Here is yet another player Nelson is turning around? Maybe.
8. I mentioned grittiness in my opening paragraph. The Edmonton Oilers registered 24 blocked shots on the night. There’s no doubt the Wild out-played the Oilers, and the out-played team usually DOES block more shots. But the blocked-shot stat is also indicative of how hard the club battled through adversity. Impressive, after last Friday’s mild effort against Minnesota.
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7. Neither Luke Gazdic nor Matt Fraser saw any meaningful ice-time in the 3rd Period. I don’t question the coach’s decision. But at this stage of the season, does it not make good, common sense to ice a team of players and see them in all situations? How better to determine if they are likely to contribute in the next few years?
6. Two key back-checks on the night saved goals: Matt Hendricks busted his hump to get all the way back at the 6 minute mark of the 2nd Period, and broke up an odd-man rush. Later, Benoit Pouliot jumped on the ice for Luke Gazdic (who had broken his stick), and followed his man right to the goal mouth. Both…big, big plays.
5. The Start. The Minnesota Wild were the best team on the ice for 40 minutes. But for the first 20, the Edmonton Oilers played a text-book road game. It was the start that gave them a chance to overcome the odds. Who deserves credit for that? Well, to be fair, you can spread it around a bit, but I have always
believed the coach is at the top of that list.
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4. At the risk of being like a broken record, it’s a little amazing how much Todd Nelson is squeezing out of this lineup. No Taylor Hall, no Nail Yakupov, no David Perron (trade), no Nikitin, no Lander, no Fasth, etc., etc. And I just love the mentality with which this team is now playing, on most nights. They were similarly competitive against Anaheim on Saturday.
3. Benoit Pouliot’s 2nd goal was huge. To answer right back, like they did after the Wild goal, quickly hushed a Minnesota crowd that had just come to life, and gave the Edmonton Oilers bench life. It would have been easy for this team, nicked up and over-matched on paper, to fold. But they did quite the opposite. Jordan Eberle had an iffy game defensively, but was very good with the puck.
2. Over the last two games, the Edmonton Oilers 1st Line of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle and Benoit Pouliot were point-less, and in one of those games, shot-less. Especially when your lineup is as depleted as this one is, you NEED your top unit to produce. They did their jobs tonight. Good on them. The Oilers would have lost without them.
1. Ben Scrivens was simply spectacular. It was certainly the best performance by an Edmonton Oilers goaltender this season. Would it have been nice to have this in the first week of the season? Sure. But a great performance is a great performance. Scrivens looks especially calm in his crease, relative to his not uncommon high-event game. That breakaway save, after the failed Eberle dump-in, was the turning point of the game.
Does a win like this not really matter, at this point in the year? Don’t you believe it. I am seeing players that want jobs, and a coach that wants a job. It’s funny, how Dallas Eakins (quite rightly) preached the value of competition back in training camp…but we did not see enough of it.
Now, now…we’re seeing compete. Eakins was right. It is a critical ingredient for any team in this league that (eventually) wants to win. How does one coach find that, when another cannot? Who knows.
A nice, long rest before The Blues on Saturday. And a couple more days past that, the trading deadline.