EDMONTON — Ken Hitchcock has made a career out of buttering up the Edmonton Oilers. His Dallas Stars teams would roll through town in the 90’s and beat Edmonton for fun every spring, then afterward, Hitchcock would leave you believing that first round series was the Stars’ toughest against the baddest opponent they would see all spring.
So when he went into full tribute mode after Thursday morning’s skate at Rogers Place, those of us who were around in the Todd Marchant days could only smile.
“They look like Boston,” he said of the Oilers, a team his St. Louis Blues had beaten 15 times in their previous 17 meetings. “They play like the Bruins with that puck-possession game, so it’s going to be tough for us.”
There was one difference, however.
Nine hours later, as the Blues loaded their equipment and filed on to their bus, there was one thing missing. Two, actually.
The fortified Oilers met their stiffest test of the young season Thursday night, and passed it with commendations. They beat St. Louis 3-1 in a grind ‘em out, big-body, may-the-strongest-will win hockey game.
It was the brand of tilt that Milan Lucic, when he used to come to town as a Boston Bruin or a Los Angeles King, always identified as guaranteed-win night.
“You kind of knew,” he nodded, wearing the Harley Davidson motorcycle helmet awarded to the Man of the Match by the Oilers players. “You just had to get involved physically and you could break the [Oilers’] will. That’s one thing we’ve been talking about here: We bend, but we don’t break.
“Those are a couple of things that are moving in the right direction.”
I know. You’ve heard it before.
The longest rebuild in National Hockey League history has turned a corner. It’s right up there with, “So, three priests walk into a bar…”
However, the acknowledgement is now coming from opposing coaches and out of opposing dressing rooms. Like this review, from Blues goalie Jake Allen:
“They are not the Oilers of the last few years, I’ll tell you that. They are a good hockey club and obviously made some good additions to their team.”
Speaking of additions, we’d be remiss not to acknowledge a fine effort by Nail Yakupov, the former No. 1 overall pick traded by Edmonton for a tad more than a bag of pucks.
Yakupov opened the scoring from right in front of Oilers goalie Cam Talbot, and then with the score 2-1 Edmonton, had Talbot beat on a short breakaway but hit the post. He played a modest 12:29 but was impactful, despite just one shot on goal.
Yakupov had the stride of a player trying to shove it to his old team. “More, I was trying to stay focused on my team,” he corrected. “Play the right way as a teammate. It’s all about this [Blues] team now. We have a plan. Obviously I was nervous, but after a couple of shifts everything went away.”
Yakupov has two goals now. Thirteen more and the third-round pick that the Blues surrendered for him turns into a second-rounder. Meanwhile, his old team is just fine without him, the definition of a trade that worked well for both organizations.
Edmonton, now 4-1, is the first team in the NHL to four wins. Last season it took this outfit 11 games to win its fourth.
By this time a year ago, they’d already lost twice to St. Louis, outscored 7-3 in a pair of games that contained not a doubtful moment where a Blues victory was concerned. A year later, Yakupov opened the scoring and the Oilers scored the next three, the latter two sculpted by a nice McDavid pass to Lucic, and a McDavid empty-netter.
“Everyone knows that McDavid is the fastest player in the league,” said Allen, who faced 23 shots, several of a high pedigree. “He is going to go wide every single time and look for one of his linemates. He did that and that’s why he is a special player.”
It is only one game, but the Bruin-ization of this Oilers roster by general manager Peter Chiarelli truly makes the staying power of a win like this one appear genuine. They won’t win every night, of course. But Edmonton isn’t certain to lose every time a big, physical team like L.A., Anaheim or St. Louis comes to town either, as they have for years now.
“It’s not about going out and getting big hits. It’s not about that,” six-foot-three winger Patrick Maroon said. “It’s about protecting pucks in the offensive zone. Using your size. Going to the front of the net. Making their D work and wearing them down.”
“For us to be successful, that’s the way we’ve got to play,” added Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “There are big teams, and there are fast teams. I think we have a good mix of being both. We know we can go out there and play against these bigger teams. We can handle all kinds of situations now.”
Down the hall, outside the visitors’ room, Hitchcock even sounded more convincing.
“They are big, they are strong, they have a lot of good players,” he said.
And he left town with his team— with zero points, for a change.
