EDMONTON — They were 20 minutes into another lousy start, to be followed by an enigmatic finish.
The fans — at least the ones we interact with on Twitter — could see it plain as day.
Heck, even us sports writers could see another loss — and a 2-4 season-opening homestand — coming around the bend, the way the Edmonton Oilers were sleep-walking around the ice versus the speedy Pittsburgh Penguins through the first 20 minutes of Monday’s game.
And you know who else saw it?
Jay Woodcroft, that’s who. The Oilers head coach walked into that dressing room after the first period, raised his voice and took a strip off his players. They responded by dominating the Penguins for the final 38 minutes, scoring five straight goals in a 6-3 win.
If you know Woodcroft, however, you know he’d never take credit for the turnaround.
“I would say the reason the team played well was because the players decided to get together,” said Woodcroft, who would not admit to the outburst, though it was heard by more than one person within earshot of the Oilers dressing room. “The players are the ones that solved what was going on there. It’s full credit to them.”
The beauty of what happened here is this: the coach held his players to account, and they responded. We’ve seen teams where there is a collective eye roll when a coach brings down the hammer, and we’ve seen other teams that simply weren’t good enough to deliver on their wishes.
On this night, with this team, the Oilers watched Bryan Rust score at the 2:00 mark of the second period to make it 3-1, and then saw Connor McDavid go down the following shift and limp to the dressing room.
With every opportunity to fold, Edmonton instead scored on the ensuing power play, proceeded to outscore a previously unbeaten Penguins club 5-0 in the final 38 minutes, and outshot them 38-15 in the final 40:00.
They didn’t just take the lead. Edmonton grabbed the game and never let it go back.
“No one needs to tell us what to do, what to change,” said Leon Draisaitl, whose game seemingly exploded the moment McDavid left the game (he returned shortly thereafter). “We know better than anyone when we are not going. It has happened too much so far this season. We are looking for a 60-minute game. We have to find a 60-minute game here pretty soon.”
Draisaitl, who appeared as disinterested as the rest of his teammates in the opening 20 minutes, was the best player on the ice the rest of the way. He had two assists in Period 2, then scored on a lovely effort, turnstiling Brian Dumoulin with 23 seconds left in the frame to send the Oilers back to their room with a 5-3 lead.
“We were just not skating,” said Draisaitl, who closes this homestand with 3-9-12 in the six games.. “It seems very obvious with our group that the second we start skating and being engaged that we are extremely hard to stop. It just takes us too long to get to that point right now.”
The 26 shots on goal in a single period is a team record, as is the plus-22 shots differential over a Pittsburgh team that didn’t have a shot on net for the final 15:50 of the second period.
Evander Kane tied a team record (Taylor Hall) with eight shots on goal in the second period — and he missed the net on three more.
Is he feeling it?
“Well, not really,” he said. “Because I only had the one goal.”
So, on a night where the Oilers scored six but McDavid went pointless, Edmonton closes out its season-opening homestand at an even 3-3. That record would have left us wanting 10 days ago, but the way it unfolded — with a hot Penguins club coming in for the finale — 3-3 sounds pretty good. Next, Edmonton jets off for a three-game swing through St. Louis, Chicago and Calgary.
“There were good moments, and then moments that are going to make us better going forward,” said Woodcroft, who pointed out that his club had just faced its third straight undefeated opponent. “(To be) 3-3 at the end of it? We’re going to take a good feeling with us on our road trip.
“I do believe there are some good footings to build our game on as we move forward here.”