In the grand scheme of things, Connor-2’s 100th NHL goal isn’t quite as big a story as, say, Connor-1’s 1000th NHL point was, but, hey, that nice snipe on Sergei Bobrovsky Monday night was still a fine feat for Connor Brown.
“To hit a milestone, 100 goals in the NHL is not anything to scoff at,” said Brown.
“But we were kind of laughing…around this locker room, around this legacy, it’s, uh, nobody even thinks twice about it. I mean guys are hitting 1000th points (Connor McDavid) and whatnot, but I feel proud. A lot of hard work has gone into this.”
His very first career goal came against Freddie Andersen proving his milestone goals aren’t coming against backups.
“Yeah, it was against a friend of mine, backhand at home. I remember it well. You definitely remember the milestones, and along the way, they get bigger,” said the Edmonton Oilers winger Tuesday, reflecting on goal No. 1 on Tuesday after the 6-5 Oilers loss to Florida, with a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to hit 100.
Like last season, with all the heartache, he went 55 games before he finally scored a goal. When he did, he got a standing ovation from Oilers fans, as if the goal had given him a hat-trick, rather than it being the seventh in a 7-2 win over Washington Capitals—a deflection off an Evander Kane shot.
The 100th career goal Monday was his sixth of the season (on 52 shots for an 11.5 per cent efficiency after 3.7 per cent last season) and the third straight game he’s scored. He’s feeling it, something that was foreign stuff last season, when he was coming off major knee surgery, his skating wasn’t anywhere near his normal for months, and his contract ($3.25 million bonus for playing 10 games on top of his $775,000 salary) was a sore point for his critics.
Last season it looked like he didn’t even want to shoot after a while.
“I don’t know if that was the mindset but it’s a feeling…I just felt really disconnected last season,” admitted Brown, who came alive in the playoffs as a penalty-killer with Mattias Janmark in the Oilers’ 25-game run to Game 7 against Florida.
“Coming off the injury it wasn’t very smooth. I felt very robotic. Now? I just feel connected…I don’t know if I feel surprised (by it). I mean, I’ve felt like this most of my life. Just back to myself.”
Last season, he went 88 shots before he scored his first Oilers goal on March 14, 2024, against the Caps. The longer the drought dragged on, month to month, from afar, it appeared his hands had turned to stone. As former Oiler winger and Cup winner Jaroslav Pouzar once opined after his scoring woes: “Just cut these (hands) off.”
Shooting became optional (108 total shots on the season), and the goalies knew it. Maybe he figured if he shot and missed the net because he was trying to blister one bar-down, he would just put his teammates in a defensive posture hole.
“I was shooting, but not to score, just to get it on the net. Now, I have my eyes up more, picking corners. I’m a little quieter in the scoring areas,” he said. “Like a little calmer, like the top guys when they get it (scoring chance) in the slot. Feels for them like they’re shooting with nobody else on the ice,” said Brown.
“The important thing is, when you get that feeling again (of scoring), it’s to build on it,“ said Brown, who probably deserves more ice-time or playing higher up in the line-up, maybe not top 6 but replacing Janmark on RW on the third line even as good as Janmark is as a two-way defensive forward, along with his 12 points.
Divvying up ice time
In a perfect world, a team’s third and fourth lines can be interchangeable like the Vegas Golden Knights have been for some time but that’s not the way it is here with Adam Henrique centering Jeff Skinner and Janmark on the third line and Brown, Corey Perry (six goals) and Derek Ryan currently on the fourth.
“Our top two lines now, I’ve been looking at expected goals…the last six or seven weeks, they’ve been very strong. They’ve been carrying a lot of the play, getting it into the offensive zone with shots even though it hasn’t always shown up in goals for and against,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch.
“The third and fourth lines not as much but with (Vikor) Arvidsson coming back (suspected groin/core muscle issue) into the lineup soon that will help. We’ll have to manoeuvre a bit. For us, the third or fourth line, it’s just finding lines (combinations) that help us win. The line that sustains more offensive zone time should maybe get more time.
“You can see it with the goals Connor’s (Brown) scoring, the plays he’s making. It warrants more ice time and more responsibility. But it’s tough. As a coach, you have to look at the matchups, too. Who is he going to bump out, is it somebody else playing well?”
Does a player like Brown need a certain amount of ice time? McDavid and Draisaitl, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, they get their 20 minutes every game, or close to it. What about a role player like Brown?
“There’s something to be said for the more you play, being more physically activated, the more pop you have, once you get into a battle you’re warm,” Brown said. “It’s easier to get into the flow or rhythm when you know when your next shift is coming. But as a pro. your job is to do what’s asked of you.”
Penalty killing prowess
Being on the second PK forward pair with Janmark gets him more work, with Nugent-Hopkins and Henrique as the first forward tag team.
“For sure, selfishly, if you can get a kill but you get your legs going, get in a hard battle, skating hard for the 45 seconds to a minute. Important for me, especially if I’m playing 12 minutes (ES),” said Brown, who is averaging 13:40 overall.
Brown figures going on the attack while killing is hugely beneficial, too, after he and Janmark’s work in the playoffs last spring.
The Panthers lead the NHL with eight shorthanded goals, including the breakaway shortie by Jesper Boqvist Monday night.
“We were messing around with Schwartzie (goalie coach Dustin Schwartz) last week and he was saying that I was going to get a shortie when we were in Minnesota. I said ‘Yeah, damn right, I am getting a shortie.’ And I did,” said Brown.
“I haven’t been of a mindset to go down there (on the attack) and get one. But I was that way in the playoffs. I’ve always been able (on his other stops with Toronto and Ottawa) to generate chances and goals short-handed. But you can’t cheat it to be going north.”
So scoring in three straight games, is he going to channel McDavid or Leon Draisaitl or Panthers’ Sam Reinhart, who bounced a shot off Stuart Skinner’s mask from below the goal line on a cheeky play in Florida’s win?
“Yeah, yeah,” said Brown, laughing at the thought.
“That was a sharp-shooting goal. I was telling Pears (Perry) that I was impressed with my goal (100th). I was saying that was from the rock-star zone like Leo (Draisaitl) always shoots from there. That’s going to take some building from me. I’ve got a ways to go (to try that),’’ he said.
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