Getting back into the office is never easy after the Christmas Holidays. You’re groggy, packed full of turkey and treats, and your belt is juuuust a little bit tighter.
It was no different for the Edmonton Oilers, who barely showed up to the office for their first two games out of the break, falling to both the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks. But they weren’t going to let that last for long.
The Oilers pulled up their socks to beat the Utah Hockey Club on New Year’s Eve, fended off another comeback from the Ducks to snag a win, and on Saturday night, handled an impotent Seattle Kraken team with relative ease to secure their third win in a row, 4-2.
They’re letting the Edmonton Oilers get hot again.
And that should be scary for those around them in the Pacific Division. Leon Draisaitl is starting to pull away in the Rocket Richard race, extending his lead to six goals with an empty net marker, and is playing at a Hart Trophy level on both ends of the rink. When he’s not scoring goals or shutting down opposing teams, he’s helping set up his teammates, as he did on the Oilers’ opening goal just 57 seconds left in the game.
Vasily Podkolzin entered the offensive zone with the puck on his stick, dishing to a streaking Viktor Arvidsson, who with one touch fed the puck to Draisaitl as he drove to the net. That cleared the way for Draisaitl to put it on a platter, for the game’s opening goal. The Oilers would extend to a 2-0 lead just over four minutes later as Jeff Skinner made a nice move in front of Philipp Grubauer, then it was Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who would score early in the third, his fourth goal in his last five games, to make it 3-0.
Seattle tried to sneak back into it, as Chandler Stephenson would score late in the second and Jaden Schwartz early in the third, but this comeback attempt wasn’t as potent as some of the others the Oilers have seen as of late. In fact, the Oilers did a tremendous job of limiting the quality of looks that the Kraken got. The Oilers limited them to 1.2 expected goals at five-on-five, the fifth-fewest they’ve allowed to a team all season, and just five high-danger chances against, also tied for fifth-fewest.
The Kraken isn’t a team packing much offensive punch these days, so it shouldn’t come as a shock, but the Oilers played a tight defensive game, and that was much needed from this club.
Entering the Christmas break the Oilers were riding an 11-2 stretch, but after a brief bump in the road, they’re showing signs of getting back to where they were. Next up, they’ll head to Boston Tuesday night, before continuing their road trip Thursday in Pittsburgh and Saturday in Chicago.
