In Edmonton’s second blowout win against the Penguins this season, Darnell Nurse had himself a really good bounce-back game after some shifts in Buffalo that I wasn’t a huge fan of. He did take one needless penalty in the first period that Twitter showed no mercy towards. He made up for it the rest of the game with some good shot blocks and a pair of goals in the third period. The Connor Brown goal-less show has been a season-long meme, but he showed nice gamesmanship trying to help Nurse get a hat-trick when he passed him the puck on a rush instead of shooting it himself. I know we all like to compare NHL rosters on paper, but you can’t deny the camaraderie on this team. Even during the lows of this season, and they were very low, they know how to support each other.
And how about Calvin Pickard with the 41 save shutout? He had to leave at the last minute and 14 seconds of the second period due to concussion protocol. So Stuart Skinner, being in net for that very brief time, also gets credited with the shutout. It’s the first time in Oilers history that two goalies have shared a shutout since Andy Moog and Grant Fuhr in 1985 against the Quebec Nordiques.
So the Oilers are back from a four game road trip with 5 out of a possible 8 points. Above .500, but not getting 3 of those points against the Blue Jackets and Sabres will always be seen as disappointing. Let’s see if a four game homestand looks any better. The keys to the game are…
Leaders Rebound: Edmonton’s 5-0 win against the Capitals on November 24th was the start of their overwhelming comeback in the standings. It was in large part because they were able to rattle Washington’s stars in their home rink and make them take bad penalties. They might remember that and want to do the same against our team’s stars in our home rink.
Ovie’s Back: Before the All-Star break, Alex Ovechkin only had 9 goals in 44 games. Since then, he has 9 goals in 16 games. Any talk of him being washed up has been halted for now, and we’re back to cheering for him getting closer to the Great One’s goal record. As always, be sure to cover his favorite spot on the ice.
Center Of The Problem: The Capitals placed Evgeny Kuznetsov on waivers after he finished serving his time in the NHL Player Assistance Program. He was then traded to Carolina. Niklas Backstrom, one of the most underrated players of the last 2 decades, has sadly missed just about a year and a half of hockey with injuries. Dylan Strome has taken over as the new #1 centreman in D.C., and against a team with arguably the best center depth in the league, he’ll have his work cut out for him.
