With endless speculation and smoke in the air surrounding the future of the Stuart Skinner and the Oilers defence, the team put it all aside and after a chippy, defensive minded performance in Seattle on Saturday afternoon, they emerged with a huge 4-0 win. How it Happened: Edmonton started the game of strong, registering the …
With endless speculation and smoke in the air surrounding the future of the Stuart Skinner and the Oilers defence, the team put it all aside and after a chippy, defensive minded performance in Seattle on Saturday afternoon, they emerged with a huge 4-0 win.
Edmonton started the game of strong, registering the first 8 shots on goal before taking a penalty to put Seattle on the powerplay. The Oilers special teams looked really good in this game, and after killing it off they responded with a goal by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in his return to the lineup after a great passing sequence by McDavid and Bouchard:
The Oilers would kill off a lengthy 5 on 3 to take the lead into the intermission, and then early into the second Andrew Mangiapane dropped off a pass to Draisaitl, who walked into the slot and made no mistake with his low blocker snipe:
The Oilers kept the pressure up, and after killing yet more penalties they got sent back on the powerplay. On the said powerplay Edmonton fans finally got to see a classic Zach Hyman net front goal for the first time since May, as Draisaitl banked a pass of the back on ZMH’s skate and through Joey Daccord’s fivehole to extend to a 3-0 lead:
The Oilers played some stifling defensive hockey going into the third, and didn’t give the Kraken much of anything in the final frame. McDavid would extend to a 4- 0 lead with a nice little shot over Daccord, and the Oilers would manage to cruise to a nice little 4-0 shutout in Seattle. This is the kind of comfortable win we’ve come to expect from Edmonton over the last few years, and it would be great if they could build on this and get a bit of a streak going here.
tuart Skinner has been facing an otherworldly amount of noise in the last couple weeks, from endless speculation and rumours about trades to reporters literally telling him that fans don’t want him here. It would be easy for Skinner to get in his own head and struggle even more than he has been facing all of this, but instead he managed to put it in his back pocket and play arguably his strongest game of the season since October 14th in New York. For the first time in a while the Oilers didnt allow much at 5 on 5 and as a result they gave Skinner more of a fighting chance then usual, and to his credit he responded. Goalies have to be your best penalty killers, and on a night where Edmonton was short handed 5 times in the first 30 minutes of the game, including a minute forty-five of 5 on 3, Skinner was a brick wall short handed. He also made a few nice stops of the rush, most notable stretching out to deny a Seattle breakaway with the tip of his right pad in the first.
When’s the last time the Oilers have had a game where the “core-4” forwards all scored? It’s been a while, and having them all back and firing on all cylinders it’s clear how much of a lift that is for the team. The Oilers powerplay, at full strength for the first time this season, looked extremely dangerous and managed to capitalize twice with a net front deflection from Zach Hyman and a layup shot from RNH from the slot. It’s going to be vital for Edmonton from now on (especially with Jack Roslovic hurt) that McDavid, Draisaitl, Nuge and Hyman can all stay healthy and playing at the top of their game.
One key aspect of the Oilers game the last few seasons on their cup runs has been their strong team defensive play. This is something that has gotten away from them this season early on, and while Skinner and Pickard have been very bad, it doesn’t help them at all playing behind one of the NHL’s statistically worst defenses night-after-night. Against Seattle however, the Oilers looked much closer to the team that plays stingy defensive hockey, keeps pucks outside and defends the rush well.
