Taylor Hall sat in the dressing room in Edmonton, explaining away a late, disheartening loss to the sound of hockey bags being zippered and sticks being packed. A lead blown, a point dropped, the playoffs a fading light in the distance — and it’s only Jan. 13.
It was, in the end, just another day in Edmonton for Hall, who did nothing but lose in this city through the first six years of his National Hockey League career.
The only difference? Hall doesn’t play for the Oilers anymore.
In his first game back in the Alberta capital after being dealt to New Jersey in a summertime deal for Swede Adam Larsson, Hall fired in the go-ahead goal off the body of teammate Steven Santini, who was credited with his first NHL goal at 19:09 of the second period. But as happened so many times when Hall was an Oiler, the opposition ramped up its game, scored to send the game to overtime, then rode off into the sunset on the strength of Leon Draisaitl’s overtime winner.
Final score: Edmonton 3, New Jersey 2.
“Anytime you have a lead in the third period, you’ve got to lock that up and find a way to [finish it],” Hall explained. “There’s a way to sit on leads. There’s a smart way, and we didn’t do that.
“It’s definitely tough to take.”
That last sentence — those fateful five words we’ve heard Hall utter ever since the No. 1 overall draft in 2010 became the face of a failed Oilers rebuild — aptly sums up Hall’s time here in Edmonton.
“It’s definitely tough to take.”
But it must be said, that misery was no fault of his own. Hall did his part, becoming, over the past four seasons, the third highest points-per-game left winger in the entire NHL, behind only Jamie Benn and Alex Ovechkin. And he was a force again on Thursday, with two shots, an assist, and a vicious swipe that cut former junior teammate Zack Kassian open and landed Hall a double minor.
History will show that it was incompetent Oilers management that failed Hall far more than the other way around, surrounding him with as flawed a roster as it takes to miss the playoffs for an NHL record 10 straight seasons, as Edmonton has.
To his credit, during his years as an Oiler, Hall never openly complained about the laughing stock the team became under then-GM Craig MacTavish’s watch. He sucked it up, explained away loss after loss, and made his way annually to the World Championships for Team Canada.
Then, when the Oilers finally landed Connor McDavid, hired a front office that knew what it was doing, and turned a corner, it was Hall who was sent packing to New Jersey for help on defence.
“I had a fun night, [enjoyed] the ovation,” said Hall, who was given a nice video tribute and a standing ovation from the Edmonton fans. Then, as if turning the page, when the puck dropped after the tribute, some fans booed Hall as he rushed the puck up-ice. “I think you can say I’m a former player now,” he chuckled, “after you get booed.”
It was all Edmonton could do to get it to a 2-2 overtime against the NHL’s third weakest offence in New Jersey. You see, Edmonton isn’t exactly filling the nets either these days, with some prominent offensive players barely moving the needle.
Jordan Eberle rung one off the crossbar in the second period, extending his futility streak to just one goal in his last 24 games and 16 straight without denting the twine.
Milan Lucic has gone nine games without a goal now and found himself on the third line with centreman Drake Cagguila and recent call-up Anton Slephyshev. And then there’s Benoit Pouliot, who has been wholly ineffective since training camp, producing just eight points in the season’s opening half.
But Pat Maroon swiped home his team-leading 17th goal — 16th at even strength — to tie the score with 7:24 to play in the third period. Then in overtime, Hall’s team botched the play, with Adam Henrique’s clumsy change giving up a two-on-one to the Oilers’ most dangerous duo, McDavid and Draisaitl.
As McDavid carried the puck, with Draisaitl as his decoy, Devils defenceman Jon Merrill simply froze. He took neither Oilers player and McDavid put the puck on a tee for Draisaitl’s one-timer.
“What a nice pass,” marvelled Draisaitl. “It was pretty easy to tap that one in.”
Hall can now move on, losing his second game inside a week to the Oilers in OT.
As for Larsson, who was largely forgotten in this homecoming:
“I’m not going to lie,” he said. “It feels pretty good.”
