Find a way.
At this point in the season, with Connor McDavid out of the picture while he recovers from an ankle injury, it’s up to the Edmonton Oilers to keep piling up points by any means necessary.
Whether it’s Leon Draisaitl showing again why he’s one of the top players on the planet, one of their goalies stealing a game or some unsung depth guy stepping up with an out-of-body experience, they’re going to need heroes wherever they can get them.
And on some nights, they’ll need a little bit of everything.
That’s what they got Sunday evening in the Saddledome.
Draisaitl was all-world again with a three-point night, Jeff Skinner scored his third of the season, Zach Hyman scored his second goal in two games without McDavid and Mattias Janmark closed the show with an empty netter as the Oilers dug in for a 4-2 decision over the host Calgary Flames.
Edmonton blew a 2-0 lead, but found a way to pull away with two goals in the third period. They’re now 2-0 without their captain and 6-2-1 since their season-opening three-game losing streak.
DRAI DRAI AGAIN
Once again, Draisaitl set the tone early. And late.
After setting up Viktor Arvidsson’s goal 37 seconds into the Predators game, Draisaitl one-upped himself against Calgary, scoring just 20 seconds after the opening faceoff to make it 1-0 Oilers.
He also assisted on the Hyman game-winner and the Janmark empty netter to seal it, giving him three goals and three assists in his last two games and a team-leading 15 points on the season.
THE WEAK LINK
The penalty kill remains an issue as the Oilers try and regroup their PK following some key off-season departures. Calgary’s first goal of the night marked the ninth time in 12 games that the Oilers had to fish at least one power-play goal out of their own net. Thirteen power play goals against in 12 games (33 chances) is a costly leak that they can’t seem to fix.
Credit where it’s due, though. With the score 3-2 Oilers and Calgary on a power play late in the third period Edmonton got the snuff it needed to preserve the win.
SELF-DESTRUCT BUTTON
Some teams find a way to win and some find a way to lose. Sunday night was Calgary doing the latter.
Yegor Sharangovich’s wrist shot from the point eluded Stuart Skinner to tie the game 2-2 and the Flames had momentum on their side down the stretch. It looked like their comeback was inevitable. Right up until Martin Pospisil got the stick up on Mattias Ekholm deep in the offensive zone.
Sure enough, Hyman scored on the power play at 10:10 and the Oilers were back in control.
Then, with 2:18 to go, a bench minor for too many men sealed their fate.
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