The Edmonton Oilers were once again able to end a losing run before it became a sustained streak.
Despite yet another closely-contested contest against the Vancouver Canucks, the Oilers were able to use a strong third period effort to earn a 4-2 victory. The win brought their record on the season to 12-3-3 and gave them the opportunity to re-establish their three-point lead atop the Pacific Division.
Edmonton also saw several season-opening runs extended on Saturday. Not only did the power play extend their goalscoring streak to 11 straight games, but Connor McDavid's season-opening assist streak is now 18 games. McDavid's continued season-opening run has also seen his point total reach 47 after 18 games, which puts him first among all Oilers skaters by 13 points.
With much of the positives out of the way, let's take a look at why this game was too razor-thin and which performances helped Edmonton secure the two points when all was said and done.
Too close for comfort. Again.
Every team has that head-to-head series where they are consistently forced into extremely close competition and end up getting embarrassed to some capacity.
This season, it seems that the Canucks are that opponent for the Oilers.
The first time around, the Oilers had to rally from a 5-2 deficit just to earn a point against the Canucks in the season-opener. Two days later, the Oilers had to hold off a furious comeback attempt just to earn their first win of the season.
This time, the Oilers had their foot on the pedal for almost the entire first period and got 12 scoring chances out of it. The problem? Those 12 opportunities yielded just one goal; ex-Ottawa Senators netminder Leevi Meriläinen had a strong opening frame to keep the Oilers from pulling away.
Another problem? The final two-and-a-half-minute stretch of the first period, when the Oilers slowed down, saw them concede three scoring chances and a last-second (literally) goal to Max Sasson.
The second period was no better; the Oilers could not regain any momentum and the Canucks got some close calls of their own. The two big talking points in this regard saw Edmonton concede a semi-two-on-one right off the bat and saw their early-period power play negated by an interference call on Leon Draisaitl.
While the Oilers eventually pulled away in the third, outscoring the Canucks 3-1 during that frame, it was once again a very uncomfortable contest for them.
Connor Murphy was the MVP of the second period
With the Canucks pushing big time during the second period, the Oilers needed players to step up to help keep Vancouver's offense at bay.
Defenseman Connor Murphy was that player. The aforementioned two-on-one opportunity was partially broken up by Murphy's stick, and he also helped his teammates fend off a mid-period flurry of opportunities for the Canucks. On top of that, Murphy bolstered his defensive output by recording a total of two blocks and a takeaway.
Without Murphy's efforts, the Canucks could easily have walked away with a point or two.
The Oilers need to be a lot more careful with their scoring chances
This isn't necessarily a point of criticism, but rather a warning.
Sometimes, when a team gets a high-quality goaltending performance, they'll try to power their way through the game and secure a result. The Oilers witnessed that first-hand to some capacity during the season-opener, but they've also been the beneficiaries of dominant goaltending.
But tonight, it was more the former that came into play. While the Oilers got the win when all was said and done, it could have been a far uglier game. Meriläinen did well enough to keep Vancouver within two goals for the duration of the game, and they were only down 3-2 with a few minutes left in the hockey game. As I hinted at above, part of the reason Edmonton was reeled in during this hockey game was because the Canucks' goaltending was able to withstand the consistent offensive zone possession and scoring chances that the Oilers were able to produce.
I'm not suggesting that the Oilers have to create fewer scoring chances. I'm just saying that they need to pick a lane. Either they need to start finding ways to consistently convert their high volume of scoring chances without getting goalie'd or they need to limit their attempts to only the highest-quality opportunities.
If that means swarming the net for potential rebounds (while creating the risk of constant deflections) or creating lanes for defensemen to shoot, then so be it. But the Oilers have to try something to either become more efficient on offense or turn sustained pressure into goals.
Down two forwards, Edmonton's depth stepped up
An illness forced Colton Dach to miss last night's game, while Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was forced out of the contest in the beginning of the second period.
While it seemed that the Oilers' offensive momentum slowed with both forwards out, the team's depth stepped up big-time to help the team secure the win. Jason Dickinson turned some early-third-period offensive pressure into the Oilers' second goal, with defenseman Ty Emberson and fellow depth-forward Mathieu Joseph providing assists. The momentum continued to ratchet up for the Oilers as a result of the goal, and they got the eventual game winner just three minutes later; Draisaitl scored on the power play off assists from McDavid and Evan Bouchard.
Quick note
This is more a shoutout than a point of criticism/praise.
Earlier in the day, the CFL's Edmonton Elks defeated the BC Lions by a 28-16 scoreline to get to their first Grey Cup in well over a decade. The BC Lions play their home games out of the city of Vancouver's BC Place.
With the Oilers' win over the Canucks in mind, Edmonton sports team went 2-0 against their Vancouver counterparts on Saturday.
Elks quarterback Cody Fajardo also made the short trip from Commonwealth Stadium to Rogers Place to celebrate the victory.
The schedule may have robbed Edmonton sports fans of a potential Oilers-Habs game on Grey Cup Day (the Elks will play the Montreal Alouettes in the Grey Cup on Sunday, November 15, while the Oilers will play a back-to-back in Philadelphia). But this will more than certainly suffice.
What's next?
The Oilers will continue their latest homestand when they contest the second of two contests against the New York Rangers. Edmonton won the first contest 4-1 behind a strong skating game and Dach's continued breakthrough; when the puck drops at 7:00 p.m. Alberta Time at Rogers Place, the Oilers will look to sweep the season series and reach 13 wins on the season.
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