Once you get over the sting of losing in Toronto on a Saturday night, you begin to accept that the Edmonton Oilers have turned the corner from their uneven start to the season.
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Their game is still not where it needs to be. But there are fewer holes in the dam and the points are now beginning to add up.
In the middle of the resurgence was a special night for Edmonton’s best player. Reminding all of us that even when things look bleak, this team still has the best cheat code in the game.
That and more in this edition of…
9 Things
9. The 0-3-0 start seems like a distant memory now. Since then, the Oilers are 9-4-2. You cannot win them all. And if the club can maintain that pace they will make the post-season comfortably.
8. Darnell Nurse had to leave Saturday’s game with a head injury after a predatory hit by Ryan Reaves. If the NHL is really serious about taking those hits out of the game, that should be a suspension and not a short one. Reports that Nurse was “aware and joking with trainers” after the game is a relief and encouraging.
7. Brett Kulak was superb again on Saturday. His play has been a godsend to a blueline left thin on the left side. Against the Maple Leafs (a top ten team) his 5v5 CF was 21-12, 64% and Scoring Chances 8-4. Lots of people have been wondering if the Oilers need to acquire a RHD. But maybe it is a LHD to replace Kulak on the third pairing that Stan Bowman really needs?
6. I do not sweat the occasional bad goal against. Goaltenders are often left to their own devices. They are the last line of defence and there are so many factors in front of them that they do not control. But what you do need is for your goaltender every so often is a stop that they should not make, at a critical point in the game. The Oilers did not get that in Saturday’s overtime loss.
5. When I was a kid my dad, a very smart hockey man, always warned me against carrying the puck in front of my own net when I was the last man back. I thought of Dad on Saturday night when Evan Bouchard attempted a long, cross-ice pass from deep in his own end. I do not mind the play as much as the lack of awareness in that moment. It is a 2-1 game. You do not need to try that. Bouchard has a gift of seeing offensive possibilities on the playing surface where others do not and we should be grateful for that. But at critical points in a game, caution is the better part of valour.
4. I have much respect for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. I wonder if the soon-to-be 32-year-old has lost a half-step, though? When I watch him this season, he is still going to all the right places on the ice. Nugent-Hopkins is a super heady player. But he seems to be arriving a shade late. If this is true, it could explain his fall-off in production over the past season and maybe even some of the Oilers’ early season PK issues. Ryan was particularly good on Saturday. But he remains at just one goal. Father time is unforgiving. He would not be the first 32-year-old that to have this happen to him.
3. Leon Draisaitl extended his multi-point streak to four straight road games Saturday with a goal and an assist. He ties Connor for the second most in franchise history. The guy who has done it more probably comes as no surprise: Wayne Gretzky (20 times). I do not think it is much of a debate that Draisaitl has been the best Oiler so far this season. He is trending to top fifty goals once again. But to my eye it is his defensive game that has taken another step forward. His work back-tracking and deep in the D-zone has been noticeable. The truth is that Leon Draisaitl has often carried this club as its various parts have struggled out of the gate.
2. The Edmonton Oilers have five out of a possible six points over their last three games. Not much to complain about, right? In terms of the standings, absolutely not. Even winning two of three 3v3 overtime games is a perfectly reasonable average. But all of those positive’s create a false mask which is hiding a troubling issue. And it is one that this club absolutely needs to figure out if they are to repeat and exceed last year’s achievement: They cannot seem to hold a lead. You can argue that none of these last three games should have ever made it to an extra frame. It is a bit of a head-scratcher. They have a club filled with veterans used to the pressure in those situations. Players with a reputation for solid play and decision making in those moments. Are the best blueliners over-taxed? Are they missing that one big save? Blowing that big chance to add an insurance goal? In a word…yes.
1.I have spent decades in arenas. And I loved every minute of it. But on most nights, I am now comfortable watching the games from a distance. I had my time. But for the 1,000-game evening for Connor McDavid, however, I admit that I would have sure liked to have been in the old rink for that one. Most Oilers fans, while spoiled to an extent with Stanley Cups and Hall of Fame players, are also familiar with the sting of defeat and years of drought. Those were hard miles. And it was the arrival of Connor McDavid and his generational talents that delivered Oilers faithful from those years. His presence is a salve for the wounds and welts those losing seasons left behind. Hope is a very underrated emotion to the human condition. And it is an ingredient McDavid delivers every night.
So, when Connor converted that pass from his buddy Leon, it was an opportunity for those in Rogers Place present to say “thank you” in the best way that most hockey fans know: To stand and applaud, showing the respect that they hold for a player who has rescued them from losing. Who so consistently gives the Oilers faithful joy. Who gives them the hope they so desperately needed through the decade of darkness.
And as Connor McDavid’s voice cracked a bit while thanking the fans afterward, you realized in that very instant that this is (from a hockey point of view) also a symbiotic relationship. It goes both ways. He feeds off of us and we off him.
He takes our collective breath away, leaving us to exhale in exaltations when the red light flicks on behind the net.
Newly on Bluesky @kurtleavins.bsky.social. Also on Twitter @KurtLeavins, Threads @kleavins, Instagram at LeavinsOnHockey, and even on Mastodon at [email protected]. This article is not AI generated.
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