Oilers hold off defending Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes

It's been an insanely fast-paced and storyline-filled week of hockey.

The Edmonton Oilers only added to that with their Thursday contest against the Carolina Hurricanes, which they ended up winning 6-5 in a shootout. The Oilers have to overcome three deficits just to get to that shootout; they rallied from 2-1, 4-2, and 5-4 disadvantages en route to the overtime point.

Head coach Mike Babcock might be right to say "we've got a ton of lessons here tonight" in reacting to the high-scoring win; this was the first occasion since the Vancouver Canucks series where the Oilers gave up at least five goals in a game. But the Oilers did what many teams wouldn't have been able to do after giving up even three goals to this Hurricanes side: pull off the victory.

You can read my own thoughts on the Oilers' win below.

Bend-but-not-break style of hockey going both ways

Though some key players were missing for their opponents, the Oilers did very well to keep pace with Carolina and withstand the Category 5 storm that typically defines the Hurricanes' style of play.

Let me extend that. The Oilers threw their own storm Carolina's way early on Thursday.

The opening minute-and-change of the game saw the Oilers fling a handful of chances towards the Hurricanes net. The Hurricanes did the same; that included a chance from ex-Winnipeg Jet Nikolaj Ehlers that was deflected on goal by Mattias Ekholm.

Later on in the period, the Oilers were able to keep the Hurricanes pinned in their own end for a significant amount of time. They were able to complete checks in the Hurricanes' end and they moved the puck well enough to keep Carolina from getting players off the ice.

For the Oilers, it all culminated in a quick conversion on the power play, with Leon Draisaitl scoring in his sixth consecutive game off a wrist shot from Evan Bouchard. Let's also give credit to Connor McDavid, who chipped the puck Bouchard's way off the faceoff win.

But Carolina still had their own hurricane-force tricks up their sleeves. They didn't require that much time on their first power play to level the score, and they created two goals off either a zone entry or a breakaway. That said, Edmonton generally didn't give up much more than that at a time, often finding a response to the Hurricanes' offensive pressure before they get held in their own end consistently.

Thursday wasn't a strong defensive outing for either the Oilers or the Hurricanes. But given that the Oilers effectively slowed down the Hurricanes' goalscoring for nearly 40 minutes and even then remained within striking distance, it's safe to say that Edmonton passed this test.

Zach Hyman had himself a game

While Zach Hyman has only scored once in his first four games of the season, he found himself in the right places at the right time throughout the contest.

During the Oilers' second power play of the contest, Hyman was able to get to the front of the net and act as an outlet of sorts to distract Hurricanes goaltender Brandon Bussi. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins ultimately converted the pass from McDavid for his first goal of the season in what also marked his season debut.

Besides that, Hyman was consistently stationing himself alongside the boards to recover broken chances and keep the Hurricanes from clearing the puck or getting it up to a defenseman. He also drew a mid-third-period power play off a cross-check from Sean Walker and was merely established possession from bringing the Oilers level late in the third.

Given Carolina's ability to put together punishing performance after punishing performance with relative ease, Hyman did well to help his team survive the contest and secure a valuable pair of points in the standings.

Top-notch effort on the special teams side of the game

The Oilers' three-for-five performance on the power play against the Hurricanes represented the second consecutive game in which the team scored at least three power play goals.

That's a huge change from a team that scored just three power play goals in their first eight games of the season. In comparison to that early form, the Oilers are now averaging three goals in such a situation; the fact that the extension of that streak came against a Hurricanes team that is known for a dominant defense and penalty kill only makes that even more impressive.

Should we just forget about the scoring chances?

Maybe this year's Oilers team isn't one that creates a lot of scoring chances. But it certainly is a potent one.

Three of their first 10 shots of the game (yes, it took the Oilers 41 minutes to get there) ended up in Carolina's net. Two shots later, the Oilers erased the Hurricanes' two-goal lead.

Unfortunately for Carolina and the other 30 teams in the NHL, that's only a five-minute snapshot of what has easily been the league's most dominant offense. In almost every major metric.

And with Thursday's game in mind, the Oilers have scored at least three goals in all but one of their opening 10 games. Over that span, they're averaging 4.6 goals per game, which would have them on pace for a whopping 386 goals scored.

What's next?

The Oilers will look to put together another undefeated week when they host the Toronto Maple Leafs and respective 2016 and 2026 top picks Auston Matthews and Gavin McKenna. Fun fact: when that match begins, Edmonton and Toronto will field a combined four first-overall draft selections.

Despite being played in Edmonton, the game will take place just before the Eastern Time's primetime window. Puck drop will be at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, which is equal to 5:00 p.m. Edmonton time.

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