The cliché that applies when a growing team like the Edmonton Oilers plays an established club like the streaking Columbus Blue Jackets, is apparent. “This is a great measuring stick for us,” the developing team always says. “Let’s find out where we are.”
Well, outscored 3-1 and outshot 35-22, the Oilers did indeed learn something about themselves Tuesday night in Columbus: they are nowhere near as good a team as the hottest in the National Hockey League today. The Blue Jackets maintained complete control for 60 minutes in reeling off their 16th straight victory.
It’s a winning streak that began on Nov. 29 versus the Tampa Bay Lightning and has been come to within one victory of tying the NHL’s all-time record of 17 straight, set by Mario Lemieux and the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins. Columbus will take a run at tying that mark when they travel to the Verizon Center to play the Washington Capitals on Thursday evening.
The hockey world will focus on D.C. Thursday, with the irony being that Washington is now in charge of protecting a record held by their heated rivals in Pittsburgh.
Columbus beat Edmonton on the strength of a clinical power play that went 2-for-4 to increase its cushion atop the NHL, while exploiting Edmonton’s weakest link in veteran Benoit Pouliot, who coughed up a puck early in the third period to give Columbus an insurmountable 3-1 lead.
This was a team effort, for sure — on both sides. But the weakest board always breaks first, and Pouliot — who couldn’t be having a worse season if he tried, making $4 million and contributing a paltry seven points as we near the halfway point of the campaign — was derelict on the penalty kill as William Karlsson made it 2-1 in the second period.
Then in the third, Pouliot blindly threw a puck up the middle. It was picked up and deposited by Nick Foligno behind goalie Cam Talbot before you could say “buy out,” as Pouliot’s nightmare of a season continues. His play is inexcusably poor, for a player with more than 500 NHL games under his belt.
When you’re going good, as Columbus clearly is, the luck always follows. So when Cam Atkinson’s centering pass first hit Kris Russell’s stick, then bounded into the Oilers’ goal off the leg of defence partner Andrej Sekera, it was a freebie, first-period goal for a league-leading power play that clearly doesn’t need the help.
Atkinson got credit for his 18th goal of the season, tying the Riverside, Connecticut native with Vladimir Tarasenko for sixth in the NHL while leading his own team. The 5-foot-8, 27-year-old had 27 goals two seasons ago but his unlikely emergence as a suddenly elite goal scorer runs parallel to the Blue Jackets becoming the NHL’s best team, a feat almost nobody saw coming.
Oscar Klefbom made it 1-1 in the middle period, playing the trailer on a rush with Jordan Eberle and Pat Maroon. He snapped off a hard shot that found its way through Sergei Bobrovsky, likely a rare moment of human error for the NHL’s best netminder. He was rock solid the rest of the evening, never giving anyone a hint of belief that this game was retrievable for Edmonton.
The Oilers, who are enjoying a fine season themselves, move on to Boston as their four-game roadie continues.
Meanwhile Columbus heads for Washington, where history awaits.
