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Edmonton Oilers Sniff Playoffs, After 4-2 Win Over Sabres

By Kurt Leavins |

It seems improbable, after the heat this franchise faced following the Toronto loss, to be able to say that the Edmonton Oilers would be closing in on a playoff spot, 2 weeks later.

Yet here we are, toward the middle of December, and this team is knocking at the door in the Pacific Division, thanks to a complete effort and a 4-2 win over the Buffalo Sabres.

9 Things:

9. Having now seen both Connor McDavid and Jack Eichel live and in person, I can say with a fair degree of confidence: While Eichel is indeed a very good young hockey player, he simply does not possess the same generational talent. I saw things in McDavid that I haven’t in anyone else do in 20 years. The “Connor Is Better” chants started at the 10:30 mark of the 3rd, & continued far into the parking lot afterward.

8. When you look at the possession stats from the game, they reflect what the eye saw: The Edmonton Oilers controlled most of the game. Sure, Buffalo pushed late, and had some PP time, but as someone long before me described it…that was “garbage time”. I saw the Oilers stay with their game, and were rewarded for doing that.

7. The National Hockey League can sure screw up a good product, can’t it? That long and drawn-out, 10 minute stoppage while they reviewed the Luke Gazdic goal, seemingly over and over again, just sucked the life out of the entire building. People got up & left their seats, in what was at the time a 3-2 game. Fix this, please.

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6. I find that Corsi is a poor way to consistently judge and grade defencemen. Case in point, tonight, was Darnell Nurse. The young man played very well, despite the fancy stats,and was extremely physical…his 6 hits lead the team. I find that Nurse plays better when there’s a burr in his saddle, as there was tonight.

5. Unlike the Dallas game, which it is fair to say that he stole for the Edmonton Oilers, Anders Nilsson tonight made a significant contribution to a total team effort. That first goal he might have had, but I primarily judge goaltenders by how they perform when the game is on the line. He had 16 saves in the 3rd Period. What a roll he is on lately.

4. Anton Lander picked up an assist tonight, just missed a goal on a great feed from Lauri Korpikoski on a 2-on-1, was on the positive side of the shot metrics, and was 70% in the face-off circle…including two wins in the dying moments, after Ryan O’Reilly had taken Mark Letestu to the woodshed on 3 consecutive draws in the Edmonton Oilers zone. That’s the best I’ve seen Lander in a while.

3. Evander Kane is a real cheap-shot artist, and is seldom willing to back it up. Great example tonight, when he ran Andrej Sekera, then ran. But I loved the two-fold response, first from Darnell Nurse, who challenged him for the length of the ice but did not allow Kane to goad him into taking a penalty. Then, Taylor Hall gave Kane a good poke in the nose, just to say “Hey, we’ve got his back”. Don’t think for a minute that the sequence I just described will not make a real difference, in terms of bringing this collection of players together as a team.

2. Two players who have really been caught in the cross-hairs this season for Edmonton Oilers fans and media had very good performances tonight. Jordan Eberle was a consistent threat all evening, and scored a nice goal on a gritty set-up by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. This line, along with Jujhar Khaira, was very effective and won most of their shifts. We heard tonight that Nail Yakupov probably won’t be back before Christmas, so this “2nd Line” needs more nights like this one for the Edmonton Oilers to stay on pace.

1. For a majority of their shifts tonight, the Buffalo Sabres simply could not contain Taylor Hall, Leon Draisaitl and Teddy Purcell. They were spectacular. Hall is playing the best, complete-game hockey of his career. Draisaitl could have had 3 assists tonight, and snagged a number of take-aways in the offensive zone. And Teddy Purcell is proving that is as advertised: A good complementary player. Put Purcell with good players, and he can think with them and succeed. Purcell quite unfairly gets criticized by what I call “The Senior Hockey Crowd”, who think hockey is nothing but dump, chase and hit. I was pleased to see him awarded 3rd star tonight, for an excellent game.

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The 4-2 Edmonton Oilers win, coupled with a loss by Arizona, vaults the Oilers past the Calgary Flames in the Pacific Division (that feels good, huh?!), and within 3 points of the Coyotes for a playoff spot.

Last year at this time, the Dallas Eakins-Craig McTavish Oilers were something like 16 or 18 points back. The Todd McLellan-Peter Chiarelli Oilers are much improved from what we suffered through in 2014.

The San Jose Sharks are up next, Wednesday. And Todd McLellan is lying to us all when he says he doesn’t circle that game with a darker pen than all the rest.

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