Edmonton Oilers Edge Wild 2-1 On McDavid Winner

The Edmonton Oilers had the second best team on the ice, tonight, on paper, at least. Their lineup has been decimated by injuries, including Matt Hendricks, who left early in the 1st Period. But this patch-work lineup did a lot of little things right, got great goaltending, and got the game winner from a generational talent on a breathtaking rush. Good stuff.

9 Things:

9. The Edmonton Oilers were really terrible on the road early in the year (7 wins in 32 games), it was only their home record that extended their post-season hopes for a while. But the Oilers have now won 4 of their last 5 on the road.

8. The Edmonton Oilers were slaughtered on the face-off dot tonight. I mean…it was ugly, 40-15. Wow. You do not often win, in this league, when you begin THAT many shifts without the puck. I don’t recommend doing THAT, very often.

7. The Edmonton Oilers Penalty Kill did the job tonight, despite missing two of their best, in Matt Hendricks (injured after just 3:11 TOI) and Anton Lander (healthy scratch). A nod to Iiro Pakarinen, who filled in admirably, and made two important defensive plays in the dying minutes.

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6. The Edmonton Oilers should not have only given up one goal with a 6-Man D-Unit like the one they iced tonight. 2 waiver claims, 2 AHL players, Andrej Sekera and Mark Fayne battled hard and got the job, although it wasn’t always pretty. Jordan Oesterle was quite strong transporting the puck.

5. For 2 and a half periods, it didn’t look as if Taylor Hall and Connor McDavid had an ounce of chemistry. But that give-and-go between McDavid and Hall in the 3rd was a thing of beauty, spoiled only by an excellent stick by the Wild defender at the goal mouth. I won’t proclaim those two a “bust” just yet.

4. Jordan Eberle gets his due as a good-to-elite goal scorer, but rarely do we get to applaud him for his defensive work. But on a night when the Edmonton Oilers D-Core desperately needed help from their forwards, Eberle came back deep on many plays, and moved the puck effectively at the hashes. Good, veteran effort.

3. Leon Draisaitl was the Edmonton Oilers best forward tonight, although he struggled mightily in the face-off circle. But he otherwise drove the play nearly every shift, be it with that terrific vision in the attacking zone, or when he drove aggressively to the net on a spectacular rush in the 3rd Period, a play on which he steered the puck just wide. Ended the night at 70% Corsi. It helped, mind you, that Jordan Eberle and Patrick Maroon were also very good on his flanks.

2. The winning goal was a true, 3-way play that stretched 180 feet, starting with Mark Letestu‘s face-off win in the D-zone, one of the few the Oilers won in their own end tonight. Letestu then took his man, while Zack Kassian dug out the loose puck and smartly head-manned it to a in-full-flight Connor McDavid. The Kid then blew right past the Wild defender, protected the puck as he cut to the net, and then fooled the Minnesota goaltender with a wrist shot. It was a thing of beauty.

1. The whole squad played really quite well, tonight, it was a team win. But the best player on that team was undoubtably Cam Talbot, with 29 saves. I was most impressed with how intuitive Talbot was in his crease. He seemed to always be square to the shooter, making a number of stops appear much easier than they actually were. This guy is hot. Talbot has only allowed 11 goals in his last 8 starts. 3 of those came in 1 game. I think the Edmonton Oilers have their #1 man.

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I’m impressed with how the Edmonton Oilers have pulled it together, down the stretch, here. At this point, I personally don’t care (much) about where the Oilers draft. But I DO care whether or not this group learns how to compete, battle, and not fold their hand when they face adversity. At this point in the season, I don’t know about you, but that’s what I’m watching for.

Back home to Rexall, Saturday, when we THINK Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will return.