Connor Brown thought he’d finally scored his first regular season goal for the Oilers, but unfortunately for him, fate had other ideas.
It’s been a tough time so far for Connor Brown, since he arrived in Edmonton. After looking good during preseason for the Oilers, he’s been extremely unproductive since the regular season began.
And by extremely unproductive, we mean Brown had just one point — an assist — through his first 18 games of the 2023-24 campaign. However, it looked like his luck had finally changed for the better on Sunday afternoon versus the Devils.
Less than five minutes into the game, the Toronto native appeared to have scored his first regular season goal for the Oilers after a mad scramble around the Devils net. His teammates wholeheartedly congratulated him and his smile was as wide as the North Saskatchewan river.
However, it turned out that the sporting gods still hadn’t finished having fun at Brown’s expense. Devils coach Lindy Ruff challenged the play for goalie interference and after a review, the goal was overturned.
In fairness it was the right call, as Evander Kane did indeed interfere with the Devils goalie. Without said interference, Brown wouldn’t have been able to poke the puck home.
Trying to keep a positive attitude
However, this doesn’t make it any less agonising for a player who just can’t catch a break at the moment. Speaking to the media postgame, Brown said:
"“You almost have to laugh, the way (it’s) going right now, but for me I’m contributing a lot with the penalty kill and other aspects. So (I’ll) just focus on what I’m doing well and just know that the bounces will come.”"
The winger was asked if he looked at the replay during the review, to get any sense of if it was a goal or not. He said:
"“They didn’t play it up on the jumbotron or anything, but a couple of guys on the benches were saying it could go either way. So it’s unfortunate, but we bounced straight back and it was a good solid win for us.”"
Arguably, the disallowed goal might not even be the moment in the game which best sums up Brown’s bad fortune so far this season. During the third period he got a two-minute penalty for tripping, even though Luke Hughes tumbled without actually being touched by him!
Again though, as Brown said, all he can do is laugh. Certainly it’s a better approach than some of the alternatives, during his worst ever stretch of productivity in nine+ NHL seasons.
Without trying to sound facetious, it must help when you’ve already reached your performance incentive for the season. Although performance is a tenuous description, given that the 2012 sixth round draft pick received a $3.225 million bonus after playing 10 games for the Oilers.
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A long-term goal drought
Of course, even with that type of money there’s still this thing called professional pride, something which Brown has plenty of. It must gnaw at him deep inside, that he’s struggling to produce more for the Oilers.
In fact, in respect of goals specifically, consider that Brown did not score any in his four appearances for the Capitals last season. Still on the subject of his bad luck, he had his season prematurely ended due to an ACL injury which required surgery.
Further, consider that Brown did not score a goal in his final 14 games for the Senators a season earlier. So at the time of posting he’s on a 37-game goalless drought, having last scored on March 24, 2022. (During the same 37-game stretch, he has just three assists.)
All Brown can do is continue to persevere and work hard, supported by his teammates, until he finally gets back on the goal trek and overall becomes more productive. Surely no one can continue to have this much bad luck indefinitely … can they?!