The red headed depth wunderkind - also known as Connor Brown - is rapidly becoming one of my favorite players on the Oilers because he scores some of the most entertaining goals imaginable.
Anyway, as in round one many in the hockey world bet against the Oilers - and they are rapidly learning this is a bad bet.
The Oilers came to play in game one and it showed. They limited the GKs to a mere 17 shots on goal the entire game, that's it. The Oilers, meanwhile, were at 20 shots on goal before the first period was done. Vegas is also learning the same lesson that the Kings learned in round one - this is no longer the Oilers of the early 2020s where everything is focused around two superstars and there's no depth after that.
As I stated here, the Oilers have a top six now that I would say is arguably the best in the league - at least in the playoffs - and Nuge centering Evander Kane and Zach Hyman has been so good that Kris Knoblauch can now staple McDavid and Draisaitl together on the same line with the sly and slick Corey Perry to round them out. Imagine how deadly that first line would be if Perry were 10 years younger than he is.....
Even if they do succeed in containing the McDrai duo - which is hard enough as it is - you have to contain that newfound second line, all of whom are proven NHL players, and if you contain them, along comes the third line where Trent Frederic might deliver a bone crushing hit, steal the puck, and either go in and score himself or dish out to Connor Brown who goes in for the score.
You can't even take the fourth line lightly, as it's manned by two out of three top six forwards during the regular season plus a defensive player in Mattias Janmark that elevates his hands somehow in the postseason. If only he'd taken the shot himself instead of dishing to Connor Brown at the beginning of the game, we might've won 5-2 instead of just 4-2. Anyway, even if the forwards don't score you have four puck moving blueliners to contend with and a backup goaltender who is undefeated in the playoffs - a guy Vegas discarded at the beginning of their existence in exchange for this journeyman.
That's a great machine, and it's name is the Edmonton Oilers. How can you cheer for anyone else at this point?
I watched the game last night, though, and it was amazing to me how good the Oilers were defensively. From where I sat this was a solid 60 minute effort from up and down the lineup. They got scoring from 3 out of 4 lines, so while the GKs were so busy focusing on containing the McDrai duo, Zach Hyman scored the go-ahead goal and Connor Brown scored the insurance goal. Even with all their efforts containing that deadly first line, they still couldn't keep Leon Draisaitl off the scoresheet, while Mcdavid assisted on two of the four goals (Corey Perry's and Dr. Drai's).
The Oilers were so good defensively they went from only four minus players to a mere two - and one of those two - Jeff Skinner - wasn't even in the lineup. The other one is Darnell Nurse, who actually improved by two points to be only -1 from the end of the first round.
It's only one game, so we can't get hardcore excited just yet, but if the Oilers play like this the whole series they might just sweep the Golden Knights - or so the hope goes.
There's really only two things the Oilers could've done to make this a perfect game last night:
1) Score on the PP and 2) Contain Mark Stone better
I think Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Journal said it best when he said this here:
"This team isn’t simply defined by its skill anymore. It is Edmonton’s will that makes this a truly intimidating group. They start slowly, they dig holes, they have lapses and serve up the occasional blunder, but when all the money is on the table they’ve outscored their opponents 17-6 in the third period in these playoffs.Robert Tychkowski
That’s the sign of a team that’s ready to win."
Welcome to The Machine, Las Vegas. Good luck with that.