EDMONTON — It’s going to take some magic.
When you are where the Edmonton Oilers are, with a freshly fired coach and just a couple of points separating you and 32nd place in the National Hockey League, it’s going to take a miracle or two to find your way back into the fight.
Miracle No. 1 arrived as if on cue Wednesday, in the form of an Evander Kane natural hat trick in the game’s final nine-and-a-half-minutes that gave the Oilers a 4-3 overtime win. It was two points that seemed like a distant dream only a half hour before the game-winning goal dented the twine, and the Oilers players poured over the boards to congratulate Kane.
Edmonton has scored five third-period goals in its past two games, both wins at Rogers Place. Now, the team that was stuck on two wins seemingly forever will take a three-game winning streak out on the road Thursday, for a southeast swing through Tampa, Florida, Carolina and Washington.
“These last couple games, we’ve had big third periods,” Kane said, “and they’ve propelled us to wins. I think we’re starting to find our groove a little bit here.
“We talked about it in the second intermission: we’ve got to create some energy; we’ve got to flick the switch. I thought we did a pretty good job.”
Down 3-1 and having been outworked for much of the night, Kane’s third-period goals came at 13:28 and 19:14. Then he converted a Zach Hyman pass for the OT winner, and the Oilers snatched two points from a game that had seemed nearly irretrievable just a few moments before.
Had the Kraken ran this one out, up 3-1 with seven minutes to play, it would have been a depressing — yet deserving — loss for Edmonton. They were soft defensively and lost more battles than they won through 50 minutes, before hauling these two points out of the jaws of defeat.
In a season where Leon Draisaitl‘s and Connor McDavid‘s play has been collectively spotty — and their production down from usual levels — Kane has been an offensive leader. He has seven goals, and the way he plays has made this team taller and heavier.
Give him credit. The Oilers needed leadership and Kane provided it.
Up until he started scoring, though, there wasn’t a lot to like.
“I think some of the goals we gave up, we could have been a little harder, a little firmer,” admitted Kane, whose swagger and physical play can’t be contagious enough for this group.
“I saw a 50/50 game in the first period,” assessed new Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “I saw a team relax and make a lot of mistakes after we made it 1-0 (in the second period).
“Third period, we played with a lot of passion. We worked hard. We won a lot of battles and just really worked to score goals.”
This was classic NHL, where the worm finally turns for a team that has lost a few games like this one.
You’ll recall these Oilers outshot Vancouver 40-16 and lost 4-3. They poured 49 shots on Dallas and lost by the same score. They outshot the San Jose Sharks 41-18 yet lost 3-2.
On Wednesday, Edmonton was the hammer, not the nail. The Oilers ate the bear for once, not the other way around.
“The season is never going to be easy, there’s never going to be no adversity,” Knoblauch said. “The more things that you work through and fight through and have success when it’s all done, it’s just great for team building. Then, the next time things are in a difficult situation, they know they can handle it. They know they can do this.
“Hopefully, the way that we won today makes us a better team in the long run.”
Two small things happened that allowed this unlikely comeback to occur: a glove save by Stuart Skinner late in the third and a difficult shot block by Darnell Nurse while Skinner was on the bench, just seconds before Kane’s tying goal.
“It would have been over. We don’t have two points unless he makes that defensive play,” Knoblauch said of Nurse. “The guys who scored the goals get the recognition, and they should. But guys who make plays like that should also.
“That’s a huge, huge play.”