With a two-week break in the schedule fast approaching, style points don’t matter right now.
The only item on the Edmonton Oilers checklist in these final three games before the Four Nations Face Off is banking wins in their chase for first place in the Pacific Division.
It doesn’t matter how, just how many.
So there will be no criticizing the esthetics of Tuesday’s 3-2 overtime win over the St. Louis Blues.
The Oilers survived a major scare in this one. They shouldn’t have been trailing 2-1 late in the third period and headed for their first three-game losing streak since the first week of the season, but there they were, hanging by a thread with time running out.
“It was a little bit of an up and down game for us,” said Leon Draisaitl, who tied it with the goalie pulled and then cheered from the bench as Connor Brown won it 2:33 into overtime.
“We were pretty good in the first, not good in the second and gave up a couple in the third. But we found a way to get two points, which is all that matters.”
Indeed. They won, moving two points ahead of the slumping Vegas Golden Knights atop the Pacific, and that’s all that matters.
So there will be no criticizing how they did it.
But if there were, you might want to start with the offence.
After being held to five goals in back-to-back losses to Toronto and Detroit — despite outshooting the Leafs and Red Wings 95-63 — the Oilers almost lost a game in which they outshot the Blues 38-22.
Their hands have turned to dust lately and that was the case again in a scoreless first period with the shots 13-3 Oilers.
But the Oilers, who’ve learned how to deal with this exact situation, kept their cool, didn’t let frustration get the better of them and waited for their moment.
They kind of wish they hadn’t left it so late, but all’s well that ends well.
“We had a lot of good scoring chances, their goaltender kept them in it,” said head coach Kris Knobauch, who’s been saying that a lot lately. “But your best players came up big with some huge plays — the game-tying goal with Leon and Connor and then McDavid setting up Brownie on that goal. It’s good that we stuck with it. We’ve seen that a lot this year.”
Edmonton’s best players carried the whole load offensively, with Connor McDavid finishing with a goal and two assists, Draisaitl with a goal and an assist and Evan Bouchard with two assists.
“We dipped a little bit there for a little while, it wasn’t our best, but good teams find ways to win hockey games at all times,” said Draisaitl. “To come back like that shows a lot of character.”
When the hands dry up, the most important thing to do is tighten up defensively and the Oilers were committed on that front. They held the Blues to three shots in the first period and zero goals in the second.
It was still only 1-0, which is not the most comfortable spot to be after 40 minutes on the road. But at this point it was just a matter of a good team finding a way to win and an average team finding a way to lose.
The only problem with that theory is that for much of the third period the Blues looked like the good team and the Oilers looked pretty average.
St. Louis tied it 1-1 on a power play five minutes into the third period and then went up 2-1 on a wide open backdoor play at 8:58.
Robert Thomas missed on another wide open backdoor sitter 10 seconds later or would have been 3-1 and game over.
That left just enough room for the Oilers to get back into it when Drasaitl scored on a patented one-timer with Stuart Skinner pulled for the extra attacker and 2:14 left in regulation. Then Brown capped it with the first overtime goal of his career.
“We showed a lot of resilience,” said Brown. “Giving up the lead there, we weren’t really happy with the penalty kill and they capitalized. You have to stick with it through those highs and lows.”
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