EDMONTON — You could plausibly say that the Edmonton Oilers have, in nine of their past 10 games, exhibited elements of what it will take to win playoff rounds.
Games that, though imperfect, contained building blocks. Nights where you left the rink thinking, “Not perfect.” Or “Didn’t win.”
But you didn’t mind a lot of things you saw. You could see success from there.
It started with a 4-3 loss at Florida that featured an excellent 40 minutes, dipped in a 6-2 loss to Anaheim, but now has produced a 5-2 run that culminated Tuesday with a dominant 7-1 win over the Utah Hockey Club — Edmonton’s third straight win.
And let’s face it: It’s never been about how this team plays in November or February. It’s about April through June in Edmonton, and this is simply the build-up to that.
“Our game is definitely coming,” said Darnell Nurse, after an excellent outing for the big defenceman, “and as we continue to play with some new faces and continue to gel, our team game is going to continue to grow. Obviously, you want to head into the end of the season playing your best hockey and I think we are starting to get there.”
Starting to get there. He couldn’t have put it better.
A three-game winning jag is nice, as Edmonton reapplies some pressure on the Vegas Golden Knights atop the Pacific Division. But perhaps just as importantly, it was the third consecutive game where the Oilers allowed only one goal against.
“We understand that if we want to have the type of season we want to have, that it is going to come down to defending. It’s got to continue,” Nurse declared. “There have been lots of good steps defensively. The main thing is limiting them to the outside, and our goaltenders have been awesome for us the last three.”
Small picture, it’s hard to find much wrong with a 7-1 victory.
Big picture, things are beginning to fall nicely into place in Edmonton:
• Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (1-2-3) posted his second consecutive three-point game, now centring the third line. He appears to be emerging from a moribund campaign offensively.
• Zach Hyman had another two-goal night, up to 24 goals on the season. Meanwhile, Viktor Arvidsson, another under-achiever offensively, has goals in consecutive games for just the second time all season.
• Connor McDavid was flying, had 1-2-3 and went plus-4 after watching his defensive stats plummet coming out of the 4 Nations tournament. He’s looking more like playoff McDavid the past few games, up to 26 goals and 89 points as he hunts down Nikita Kucherov for third place in the Art Ross standings.
• And the blue-line hasn’t looked better all year: Jake Walman is an excellent addition whose style fits this team to a tee; Mattias Ekholm (1-2-3) returned from injury with a three-point night and steadied partner Evan Bouchard; Nurse was playoff owly, with a scrap and a general scowl as he cleared the Utahns out from in front of Calvin Pickard.
“Certainly, when you look after the break we were rock bottom. We played terrible,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “We were getting outplayed tremendously. And after those first three, maybe four games we’ve been getting better and better.”
It was the third seven-goal game for the Oilers this season, but first in over three months. But here’s the weird part:
In a seven-goal outburst, leading scorer Leon Draisaitl — in search of his 50th goal of the season and his 19th consecutive game with a point — somehow went without a goal or an assist.
“He’s been driving it for us this whole season,” said Nugent-Hopkins, who’s happy to do some heavy lifting after riding Draisaitl’s like so many others this season. “The game can be funny sometimes. You do all the right things and nothing shows up on the scoresheet, and then sometimes you get some bounces and they go in for you. I’m just trying to play the same way and trying to help out however I can.”
First place in the Pacific is back in sight again, with the Oilers two points behind Vegas, having played one more game. The teams meet one last time on April Fool’s Day just off the Vegas strip.
But far more important than playoff position is playoff posture.
The Oilers are beginning to find theirs, and with 14 games to play their timing couldn’t be much better.
“(Playoffs) are in everyone’s vision right now,” Knoblauch admitted, “so I think (their level of play) has a little bit to do that. But more so, it has to do with how poorly we were playing defensively. Everyone’s understanding the importance of dialling it in, making sure that our defensive plays a lot better moving forward towards the playoffs.”
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