EDMONTON — When the start didn’t come off the way it was drawn up, the goaltender came to the rescue, carrying the Edmonton Oilers out of a scoreless first period.
When a defenceman went down early, four others stepped up, each playing more than 23 minutes. The penalty kill overcame all three shortages it faced, and the power play got one in the third period to break open a tie.
All are routine happenings in the hockey world. Or, at least, routine for good teams.
It has not been routine in Edmonton, for some time. Nor have home-ice wins like this one, a 3-2 overtime win over the Boston Bruins and Edmonton’s third straight W. Also sighted Thursday night at Rogers Arena, another rare bird not seen often in these parts of late:
Confidence.
“Last year was so frustrating,” began centre Ryan Strome. “Now, we knew were going to win this game. I knew we were going to win tonight. First game at home, after a win like that (in Winnipeg), there’s no way we’re going to have a letdown.”
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The Oilers opened their season with a pair of losses, squeaked out a 2-1 win at Madison Square Garden, and then stunned the Winnipeg Jets 5-4 in overtime after overcoming a 4-1 deficit. They returned to Rogers Place for the latest home opener in team history (barring a lockout), and waiting there for them was a litany of opponents that began with Boston, before visits from Nashville, Pittsburgh and Washington.
No one gets any schedule sympathy — every team will have their ugly stretch this season. But geez, this one was fairly indecent for a team that choked last season and was/is under major pressure to turn this thing around in 2018-19.
After an 0-2 start, this morning the Oilers are 3-2. Crisis averted.
“After that last game, coming back the way we did, we’re building a little bit,” said goalie Cam Talbot, who so far looks like he’s heading towards a bounce-back season. “Tonight, that’s a huge win against another good team. That’s a team that was at the top of the league last year, so we’re building confidence, building momentum in this room. Just trying to keep it going.”
Edmonton was 19-18-4 on home ice last season. Only seven teams had less than Edmonton’s 32 home-ice points, and on special teams, well, dead last in penalty kill and bottom third in power play does not a playoff team make.
They’re still a bit of a one-man team offensively — OK, more than a bit — with Connor McDavid assisting on Leon Draisaitl’s OT winner after a slick, bait-and-switch defensive play. McDavid had two more assists for 11 points in five games, but Draisaitl scored a big one, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins buried his second on the power play, and rookie Kailer Yamamoto scored his first NHL goal.
“Felt even better than I thought it would,” said Yamamoto, who spun on Charlie McAvoy and burned him to the net, sniping a lovely shot over Jaro Halak’s shoulder. His mind went blank when that puck went in, his first big-league goal after a lifetime of dreaming.
“A hundred per cent. When I scored I didn’t know what to do,” he said. “I was a little nervous, I’m not going to lie. I scored and I was thinking, ‘OK, what do I do now?’”
That bit of support scoring was buttressed by one of the best nights this oft-maligned blue line has seen. Matt Benning played just 2:27 before leaving the game with an injury, and 19-year-old Evan Bouchard was playing career game No. 4.
That left the heavy lifting to Darnell Nurse (27:39), Oscar Klefbom (28:04), Adam Larsson (23:17) and a quietly steady Kris Russell (23:11).
“It was a tough night for them but they gave us some pretty brave minutes the five of them,” said head coach Todd McLellan. “Once we got going and got skating and supported puck movement we were a lot better, but without Cam’s performance in the first period we don’t get a chance to come back.”
This one ended the way so many do when the Oilers get to OT. McDavid, to Draisaitl, to the goal horn sounding.
McDavid saw Patrice Bergeron heading for a breakaway pass and dropped back to the neutral zone. It looked like he left Bergeron open just enough to entice a pass from Brad Marchand, then easily picked off the pass, turned up ice, walked past Marchand and fed Draisaitl for the winner.
“I tried to throw sauce on that,” lamented Marchand, who had a fabulous game, dangerous all night long. “I saw Bergy going. Obviously I should have thrown it a little harder. I saw Bergy, I didn’t really know how close McDavid was.”
Too close, as it turned out.
As it always seems to turn out, with McDavid.
