The Edmonton Oilers were able to split another home-and-home series on Saturday night, doing so with a 6-2 win over the Utah Mammoth.
Here are my four points of analysis from the contest.
Far better start for the Oilers. Far better.
The last week's worth of games have not seen the Oilers put together the strongest of starts to individual contests.
That said, whatever the Oilers put together on Saturday was one of their best efforts to start a game so far this season. Only their dominant effort to open their second contest of the season against Vancouver can be seen to top Edmonton's early effort against the Mammoth.
Connor McDavid opened the scoring just 40 seconds into the game with a high-speed, breakaway goal; the Oilers would add an additional five shots on goal during the opening 10 minutes.
Add on a strong penalty kill (shoutout to Kasperi Kapanen for single-handedly burning 10 seconds of the Mammoth's mid-first-period power play), a power play goal from Zach Hyman in his season debut, and Mathieu Joseph's first goal of the season, and you have the recipe for a strong first period.
The Oilers won the middle of the ice and the boards
The Oilers might have lost the track match that was Thursday's contest against the Mammoth, but the reverse was true for Saturday's contest.
McDavid, Joseph, and Leon Draisaitl scored breakaway-style goals during the first period, and Joseph had another such chance early in the second period. Mammoth goaltender Karel Vejmelka had the answer that time after getting scored on the last two times the Oilers had a breakaway-style opportunity.
But even then, the high-speed play went for Edmonton by a wide margin, and it also allowed the Oilers to chase Vejmelka out of the net with six minutes left in the second. In his place was Hamilton, Ontario born Sebastian Cossa, who was acquired by the Mammoth in an offseason trade with the Detroit Red Wings.
While the Mammoth committed numbers to winning board battles on Saturday, it didn't exactly help their cause. Edmonton was still able to replicate what they did on Thursday in that regard and force the Mammoth to slow down their own high-speed game plan to accommodate.
Kasperi Kapanen with some nice two-way hockey
I already gave Kapanen a shoutout earlier in this analysis for his work on the first-period power play.
His second-period play earned him a solo section in my takeaways piece for this contest.
Kapanen has been a solid skater for the Oilers and has found a way to get involved on the penalty kill. Not only did he see action in that regard on Saturday, but he also scored one of the Oilers' two second-period goals that ultimately forced Vejmelka out of the contest.
With four points in eight games to start the year, three of which are goals, Kapanen looks set to be a productive depth forward this season. His performance could also be a big difference-maker when it comes to the high-scoring contests that Edmonton will need to win to truly assert themselves as a Cup contender.
Need to work on zone clearances?
It's not a pressing matter, but it's one that needs to be tended to nonetheless.
There were a couple instances during the second period where the Mammoth had either strung together some offensive possessions or were finding ways to get the puck back into the Oilers' zone before it could cross centre ice. That led to sustained pressure on goaltender Tristan Jarry, though we have to give him credit for his strong performance of late, getting within a period of securing the team's first shutout of the season.
It's not a point of concern at this time, especially given that the Oilers have been able to defend well enough and put 13 points of a possible 16 on the board. But if a perceived inability for the Oilers to get out of their own end starts to emerge, then this could become a talking point.
What's next?
The Oilers will go from a home-and-home against one of the league's top power play team to a home game of the league's best power play teams in the Minnesota Wild. Edmonton will get the benefit of some rest between games, with puck drop set for 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 20.
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