Breadcrumb Trail Links
Published Jan 14, 2024 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 5 minute read
Edmonton Oilers players celebrate a goal by teammate Evan Bouchard against the Montreal Canadiens during overtime period NHL hockey action in Montreal, Saturday, Jan. 13, 2024. Photo by Graham Hughes /The Canadian Press
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The Edmonton Oilers have never been hotter.
The club is on a record-setting run which has helped vault them back into the playoff picture.
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How have they done it?
That and more in this edition of…
9 Things
9. Stick tap to Philip Kemp who made his NHL debut on Saturday. He only played 2:03 and not even at his natural position (he played wing). But Kemp will always be able to tell the story of how he played his very first game in a record-setting effort at the Bell Center.
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8. What a terrific call on radio by Jack Michaels of Evan Bouchard’s overtime goal on Saturday night. Jack possesses that extra gear that he can shift into when the moment calls for it, as it did in this one. We get to hear him and Bob Stauffer together far too seldom for my tastes.
7. We all know there were people who wanted Stuart Skinner traded or farmed out to the AHL as he struggled early in the season. I wonder how those guys are doing now that Skinner is one of the hottest goaltenders in all of the NHL? After a Calder-finalist 2022-23, the Edmonton-born puck stopped has taken another positive step.
6. Leon Draisaitl has been elected to the NHL All-Star game and will join Connor McDavid. Whether Zach Hyman and/or Evan Bouchard (who was excellent Saturday) join them in Toronto remains to be seen. Draisaitl drove his line on Saturday. He scored the equalizer (his 20th) in tight, which seemed to turn the tide of that game. And he assisted on the winner. All in a night’s work.
5. Raphael Lavoie has been named to the AHL All-Star team. Lavoie has 11 goals in 21 games for the Bakersfield Condors (including 1 on Saturday). No doubt Lavoie has become a very good AHL player who has not yet been able to catch on in the NHL. Often, we say a player first needs to dominate at the AHL level. Has Lavoie done that yet? Fair question. But arrows up and he is still young.
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4. Connor McDavid has the 4th most career points before turning 27 in NHL history. His 906 trails only Dale Hawerchuk (713), Mario Lemieux (1,014) and Wayne Gretzky (1,606). Difficult to be in better company than that. I have been fortunate enough to see all four men play live. The late Dale Hawerchuck starred in the first NHL game I ever attended in the old Winnipeg Arena. All four were very different players, but terrific in their own ways. And the older three all had to fight through withering (and not always legal) defences much like McDavid had to in Montreal on Saturday.
3. Connor Brown is now goal-less in 32 games this season. I will not be one of those guys who hides from the fact that I felt it was a terrific signing by Ken Holland. I feel bad for Brown who is clearly in quicksand. But I do not see the game that Kris Knobauch is seeing right now. I admire Brown’s PK work. But nowhere can I find the “Zach Hyman-lite” that Brown was touted to be. The lack of production is one thing. But Brown’s total lack of physicality is confounding. He does not need to be Evander Kane. But Connor Brown is 19th on this Oilers team in hits with 11. Sam Gagner, who has played just 18 games and Dylan Holloway who has only played 14 (in severely limited minutes) are both ahead of him.
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2. Dylan Holloway scored a goal in his first game back in action with Bakersfield on Friday. I expect Holloway to get a few more games with the Condors. But I fully expect him to be back in Edmonton and in the lineup as early as next weekend. We saw Saturday that with Ryan McLeod out of the lineup, the Oilers are not as quick as you might think they are. But with both McLeod and Holloway in, then just like that this team becomes fast. I would move McLeod back to Center and have them on the same line. Part of what makes that possible is the much better performance by Evander Kane on Saturday (had an assist, 4 shots, and 5v5 was 22-11, 67% CF) back up on the 2nd line.
1.The Oilers won their 10th consecutive game in Montreal on Saturday night, which is a franchise record. That in itself is of course impressive. But it is that much more remarkable if you think of it in the context of the 5 Stanley Cup Champions this city has produced. That not one of those 5 teams has done the same thing makes the accomplishment extra special. Thin of the Hockey Hall of Famer’s on those clubs. But impressive records aside, the far more important thing is how the Oilers have played.
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Most hockey fans everywhere would expect these Oilers to score their way to those heights. But that is not what has happened. While Edmonton has scored “enough,” the fact is that over these past 10 games the Oilers have only allowed 17 goals. And in the last 8 games, they have allowed a mere 11.
How? The goaltending has come on strong, between both Stuart Skinner and Cal Pickard. The PK under Kris Knoblauch and Mark Stuart has come leaps and bounds. But the entire club is playing more as a single unit in all three zones.
The slumping Power Play will come around and these Edmonton Oilers will score goals and lots of them. But in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, as it so often does…
…it may be their ability to play Defence that ultimately becomes the difference maker between contender and champion.
Now on Threads @kleavins. Also, find me on Twitter @KurtLeavins, Instagram at LeavinsOnHockey, and Mastodon at [email protected]
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