Edmonton Oilers Stun Boston In O/T, Run Win Streak To 6

Every so often, a team need their goaltender to steal one for them. The bonus, for the Edmonton Oilers tonight, was that it was not their defacto #1 guy that delivered the larcency, but Cam Talbot.

Make the final 3-2 Oilers. They now sit…wait for it…in a playoff spot, in December!

9 Things:

9. The last time the Edmonton Oilers won in Boston, Curtis Joseph got the win and Connor McDavid was not even born yet.

8. Nikita Nikitin was not a disaster, in his first game back in the NHL. He earned an assist on the 1st goal, in a solid 1st Period. And while he had his moments, the rest of the way, he survived. Feint praise, perhaps, but…

7. Iiro Pakarinen showed me a few things tonight. While, again, Corsi was not his friend, I saw Pakarinen going to the hard places, and not taking any short-cuts. It’ll be a hard decision to farm him out, when Benoit Pouliot is back…which I hear is likely the Chicago game.

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6. The Edmonton Oilers sit 3rd in the Pacific division, and if the season ended today, they would make the playoffs (same 30 points as Arizona, Coyotes with a game in hand). A show of hands, please: Who thought this was possible after the Toronto game? OK…now how many of you REALLY thought that. Right. Thought so.

5. The Edmonton Oilers were schooled by the Bruins, early on, tonight. Matt Hendricks knew it, and engaged in a scrap that clearly woke his teammates up, just long enough to jump out to a 2-0 lead. It’s just another element that Hendricks brings to this team. I have a lot of time for this guy.

4. It was clear, tonight, how much Oscar Klefbom means to the Edmonton Oilers. In his absence, the Oilers end of the ice resembled a shooting gallery at times. Klefbom’s physical presence and swift transition game were clearly missed by his mates. Good thing it’s not considered a long-term injury.

3. Andrej Sekera also didn’t come out looking so good in the shot metrics tonight, but when your team out out-shot 49-24, that’s going to happen. Yet the veteran played hard minutes in his own zone, leading his team in TOI (23:21), and scored the winning goal in overtime. Again, we are starting to see why Peter Chiarelli went so hard after this guy.

2. The Hall-Draisaitl-Purcell line has been pacing the Edmonton Oilers through this run, in fact some nights they have flat-out carried the club on their young shoulders. But on Monday evening, line of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle and Jujhar Khaira rose to the occasion, and were difference makers for this club. Jordan Eberle was on his way out of town, according to some. Now? He has 7 goals, and added 2 more helpers on the night, the Oilers best skater. If this team can get BOTH lines going? Look. Out.

1. Cam Talbot. So who was the dim light in Boston that did not give Talbot 1st Star tonight? Talbot was nothing short of spectacular, holding his team in it early, when the Bruins came out blasting. He absolutely sustained them in the middle frame, when the Edmonton Oilers were out-shot 18-3. And then he offered a couple game-savers again in the 3rd, as his teammates hung on by their fingernails. Good for Talbot, who has had a rough start to life as an Oiler. But imagine what this means to the team’s ever-brightening playoff chances, if BOTH Talbot and Anders Nilsson get hot. That could be the secret sauce.

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When I started the season, I looked at tomorrow night’s game against the Rangers as a “scheduled loss”, a back-to-back situation with the very good Rangers in the latter half of that pair.

But now, coming back with your #1 guy (Nilsson will start for sure), and with the confidence of having just beat the Rangers less than a week ago?

Suddenly, I start to hesitate counting the Edmonton Oilers out of any game that they play.

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