No Connor McDavid, no problem for the Edmonton Oilers.
In fact, there’s an argument that this was by far the best game the Oilers played all season as on Thursday night, the Oilers defeated the Nashville Predators 5-1 to move their season record to 5-5-1 through 11 games.
The scoring started early for the Oilers, as Viktor Arvidsson scored his first goal as an Oiler against his former team. Nice pass from Vasily Podkolzin to Leon Draisaitl, who found Arvidsson on the doorstep less than a minute into the game.
Nashville scored their only goal of the game on a power play just five minutes into the game. From there on out, it was all Edmonton. The Oilers’ second goal came midway through the first period, as Noah Philp found Drake Caggiula in front of the net. The shot was saved, but Corey Perry picked up the rebound to take a 2-1 lead.
Midway through the second period, Draisaitl picked up a loose puck at the blue line for a breakaway, beating Juuse Saros for his seventh goal of the season and his second point of the game.
Early in the third period, Draisaitl used his big frame to get inside the defence, beating Saros off the post for his second goal of the game and his eighth of the season.
To cap off the scoring with just over seven minutes left in the game, Zach Hyman scored his first of the season on a breakaway. This was a pretty big one for Hyman, as he was playing well despite being snake-bitten.
Takeaways…
A common question that’s often asked is “can Leon Draisaitl do it by himself?” Every time Connor McDavid is out of the lineup, we’re reminded why he’s making the money he is. In this game, he scored his seventh and eighth goals, now tied for fifth in the league in the category. That line of Draisaitl, Vasily Podkolzin, and Viktor Arvidsson is a good one as well, they just have instant chemistry.
There needs to be a serious discussion about Calvin Pickard getting the bulk of the games, at least for the time being. On Thursday, he saved 26 of 27 shots for a .963 save percentage. For the season, Pickard has an .897 save percentage and a 2.48 goals-against average in five games and is 3-1-0.
As for special teams, the Oilers once again allowed a goal on the penalty kill, the eighth time in 11 games this has happened. Brett Kulak made a rare mistake, firing it up the middle of the ice before Filip Forsberg buried it for the only Predators’ goal of the game. Other than that, the Oilers killed off two of three opportunities.
The Oilers fought again, the Oilers won again. So far this season, every win they’ve had has seen them fight at least once (5-0-0). In every loss they’ve had, the Oilers haven’t fought (0-5-1). This is just a coincidence, but it’d be nice to see them win without fighting in a game. The first fight saw Ty Emberson drop the mitts with Cole Smith, and the second fight saw Vasily Podkolzin drop the mitts with Jeremy Lauzon.
On Sunday, the Oilers wrap up a four-game road trip as they’ll head to Calgary to face the slumping Flames. After a 5-0-1 start, the Flames have dropped their last four games.
