Now that's more like it. After being shutout by Jesper Wallstedt and the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night, the Oilers offence responded in the biggest way possible, putting up 9 goals on the Seattle Kraken's shell-shocked goaltending tandem of Joey Daccord and Philip Grubauer. The Oilers were dominant in all three phases of the game, …
Now that’s more like it. After being shutout by Jesper Wallstedt and the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night, the Oilers offence responded in the biggest way possible, putting up 9 goals on the Seattle Kraken’s shell-shocked goaltending tandem of Joey Daccord and Philip Grubauer. The Oilers were dominant in all three phases of the game, with 4 powerplay goals, 1 Shorthanded and 4 at even-strength. Connor McDavid and Matt Savoie led the way offensively, contributing a hattrick and 2-goals respectively. Tonight was the first time Edmonton had put up 9 goals in a game since April 15th, 2024, and only the third time in the salary cap era.
The Oilers started the game with their feet on the gas, hemming in the Kraken for large swathes of the opening frame. Less than 7 minutes into the game it appeared that Andrew Mangiapane opened the scoring with a hard shot that went off both posts and out of the net, but not before the goal-horn went off and play was paused to review whether the puck crossed the line. It only took a couple moments after that near miss before Connor McDavid finally decided to actually shoot the puck (and did he ever), ripping it top corner past Joey Daccord:
It took less than 20 seconds for Vasily Podkolzin to extend the lead to 2-0, as the Oilers second line won the neutral zone draw, got the puck deep, and cycled it to the point before Podz ripped a one-timer past Daccord from the rockstar zone off a nice feed from Draisaitl:
The Oilers kept the pressure up following this goal, and their extended zone time paid off after Ryker Evans inadvertently fired a puck out of play, putting Edmonton’s red hot powerplay out on the ice. It only took 7-seconds of the man advantage for Leon Draisaitl to fire home a cross crease feed from McDavid and extend the lead to 3-0:
The game started to slip away a bit from the Oilers as the Kraken put up 2-goals in the last four minutes of the first period, and it was beginning to look like a classic Oilers collapse type of game heading into the second period. Things started looking dicey after Connor Clattenburg was sent to the box for cross-checking, but Matt Savoie saved the day as he received a stretch pass from Bouchard and finished a breakaway with a beautiful backhand deke to finish off a textbook shorthanded goal:
Edmonton went back on the powerplay a few minutes later, and the Oilers powerplay would again make Seattle pay as McDavid deposited his second goal of the night between the wickets of Joey Daccord after a nasty fake pass that the Kraken goaltender was completely fooled by:
Following this Joey Daccord was pulled in favour of Philip Grubauer in the Kraken net, but this point the rout was on, and it would only take a couple more minutes for Zach Hyman to join in on the party, scoring his first goal of the season off his actual stick this season, as he came in on a breakaway and scored backhanded past past the sliding German netminder Grubauer:
Heading into the third up 6-3, it was points night for the Edmonton forwards, and Mattias Janmark took the opportunity to get his first of the year and first goal since May, as he capitalized on a sloppy Seattle turnover, feeding a pass to Mangiapane, who banked one off Grubauer’s pads and right back to Janmark for the tap in goal:
The Kraken were just playing for pride at this point, and after a double minor high sticking penalty to Brandon Montour, McDavid completed his hat-trick with a sharp angle shot off a missed Nugent-Hopkins shot:
Matt Savoie completed the Oilers offensive marathon with a sharp angle one-timer off a nifty feed from Adam Henrique, which gave the rookie forward his first two goal performance in his young NHL career:
Jani Nyman added another goal for Seattle with 5-seconds left, but it was much to little much too late, as the Oilers walked away with a 9-4 blowout win, and an offensive breakout that should hopefully get the team rolling for the first time this season.
Connor McDavid is a multiple time 40 goal scorer, and he put up 64-goals in the 2022-23 season, but from the way he’s been playing the last couple seasons you wouldn’t think it. McDavid has a lethal shot when he uses it, which was on full display on the first goal of the game, and a game like this should serve as a wakeup call to him that when he doesn’t look off shots and try to force passes good things happen.
Matt Savoie’s biggest intangible has always been his high end skill and offensive IQ, and that was on full display today with his first multi goal performance in the NHL. On his first goal, a highlight reel shorty where he froze Joey Daccord with an incredible backhand move, he demonstrated exactly the kind of skill we can expect from him in his career. On his second he was in perfect position for the one-timer finish into the empty net, showing off his offensive IQ. Games like this are hopefully an opportunity for Savoie to continue to build skills that will allow him to thrive as his rookie season progresses.
The Oilers will be back in action on Saturday at home against the Winnipeg Jets.
