Heading into that back-to-back weekend for the Oilers, I felt that they should’ve played Calvin Pickard against the Kraken and Stuart Skinner against the Penguins. I shared that opinion on Twitter/X, but then had to retweet it, saying that I stood corrected. That is why I just write about hockey games and don’t actually play them. The moment on Sunday night that made me eat my words was Pickard robbing Sidney Crosby of a goal with a toe save a few seconds before the Oilers went the other way and scored. Edmonton was only up 1-0 at that point. It was early in the second period, and I feel that save was the difference. The Penguins may not have been run out of the building otherwise. We may not have watched a 6-1 hockey game.
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There was so much secondary scoring to go around as well. Four points between Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele; Brett Kulak followed up his goal on Saturday with two assists, and Cody Ceci scored a goal. It’s very reminiscent of the balanced offense that helped Edmonton win 16 straight games. The coaching staff experimented once again with changes to the defensive pairings they tried before. Kulak/Ceci and Nurse/Desharnais were better this time around, whether it’s a Trade Deadline exam or not.
The Oilers now start their four game road trip with a rematch against one of the top teams in the NHL. Consider the first two games of it the last audition for players before Friday. The keys to the game are…
Notes:
Not Over Till, It’s Over: The last meeting between these teams was just two weeks ago. The Bruins took a 4-1 lead, and then the Oilers made a comeback to salvage at least a point in Overtime. Last season, when Edmonton played Boston on the road, they erased a two goal deficit to win it in regulation.
Team Game: The reason that comeback win happened last season was they managed to score three unanswered without one single point from Connor McDavid and only one from Leon Draisaitl. This is more impressive when you take into account that the Bruins were recording the best regular season in league history at that time.
Pasta With A Side Of Pucks: Coming off a 61 goal, 113 point season last year, David Pastrnak is tied for 4th in goals with 38 and is 4th in points with 89. In his last 14 games, he has 18 points. Two of those points came against Edmonton in the last meeting.
