Well, that was fun! Final score: Oilers 7-3.

There were some early doubts, especially after Edmonton went down 2-0, but what a way to respond. BaggedMilk has the Wrap Up here.

On how much wing he’s played: “I had played about 20 games or so in Carolina, but it’s come along pretty good in the last little bit. I feel pretty comfortable playing the wing, plays on the wall, and playing through the neutral zone a bit. I’ve always said it’s easier to go from centre to the wing, so I’ll stick with that I guess.”

On what’s working for his line: “I don’t know what the single thing is. We’re working hard together, supporting each other. I think we’ve been good on the forecheck getting pucks back — I think that’s huge, especially this time of year in this league. I think you have to score ugly goals, and I think we’ve done that. it feels nice. Got some confidence going, and that helps as well.”

On contributions through the lineup and if it feels notable for the team: “I think so. I can speak for myself, I can’t speak for the whole group, but it feels like we feel that everyone is getting a chance and opportunity to provide help. Obviously, we can’t rely on Connor and Leon to do everything. We need support for those guys, and for everyone in the top six. I think it’s good for myself to just get some confidence built up, to play more, get more opportunity offensively. I think that’s helped.”

On what he’s noticing in the team: “We’re just so much more detailed than we were earlier in the year. Everyone is on the same page. We’ve been working on certain things we struggled on earlier in the year: track reads, defensive zone structure, where guys are supposed to be, supporting each other. It just felt like earlier in the year guys were panicky, didn’t know where to go. I think it’s been a lot more clear and evident lately that that structure coming into our d zone and transitioning into the neutral zone is just so huge. All the teams we’ve played lately, they create so much offence through that transition. I think that’s been big for us in the structure and detail is just evident.”

On having a team that supports 29/97, rather than one that depends on them: “I think so yeah, I feel the same way. I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t feel the game of hockey you can win the Stanley Cup with two guys. That’s the beautiful thing about hockey. You can’t have just the best player and win. You have to have the best team. I feel guys have created some confidence, gotten more opportunity. Those guys are amazing, we can speak to that all day but we need to be there to support them and we also need the opportunity to do so.”

On feeling on the bench when the second unit started the powerplay in the third period: “Oh yeah, we noticed it — or I at least noticed it. This is the first team I’ve on where that’s not a regular occurrence. So I think that’s a good thing for the guys to give them more opportunity. They had a goal… so that’s maybe the first goal all year from the second unit and they haven’t gotten much opportunity on that, so I think that’s huge. We talk about the playoffs here, latter half of the season, it’s huge to have not just one unit stay out there for two minutes. It’s both units going and that also gives Connor and Leon a chance to rest, Nuge too, all those guys on the top unit. It’s tough when they’re out for two minutes then are expected to be out again the shift after, the second shift after. It drags on you, so that’s important to have two units that can play and contribute.”

On if his confidence is from opportunity, or his play: “For sure a bit of both. It was just hard earlier in the year when you’re not playing much, you’re sitting on the bench and it’s pretty hard when you’re sitting there for 15, 20 minutes and you’re expected to go out there and contribute. I don’t know, older legs, maybe it’s just me. But it’s hard. Those legs get stagnant and you don’t have the confidence to try to make a play. When the pucks going in, or you’re making plays and the line is scoring. That confidence kind of snowballs and helps with the game as well. But I think it’s a combination of both.”

On if he had a conversation with Woodcroft about his role, or what he could bring: “I didn’t have that conversation, but I think it’s evident in how he’s running the bench that he wanted to get the 9, 10, 11 guys in the forward group going more. I know it’s something I’ve talked with guys in the bottom-six — we needed that, or we felt like we needed that. I can’t speak for woody, but I feel it’s been pretty clear by how he’s run the bench.”

On finding ways to win: “I think we did a really good job fighting off their storm on the powerplay with a couple of goals. We didn’t get discouraged, we battled back, set ourselves up in the second period going into the third, and I thought we did a good job finishing.”

On contributions through the lineup: “I think everybody is engaged, I think everybody is contributing. I think there’s no better example in this four-game winning streak than tonight. And like I said, it was a good test early for our group getting down a couple goals early and sticking with it and sticking to our game plan.”

On the team playing 11f: “It keeps you on your toes in that you gotta know who is up. I think when you’re all playing the same way and have the same mindset, it’s easy to play with anybody. I think that’s what we’re doing right now and it’s one of the reasons we’re having success.”

On his powerplay goal, PP2 getting time and if it’s the sign of a change going on: “I don’t know. I kind of flip-flop between the first and second. Me, Jesse and Hyms kind of rotate a little bit there, then the other guy goes out for the second. We had some success tonight early and they decided to put us out there. Having depth, having options, having different looks is awesome. Connor and Leon are going to get their time, and deservingly so.”

On supporting top players like 29/97 instead of relying on them: “This league is not like the NBA where you can have two guys and can win a championship. You see how hard it is to win, and the teams that win don’t always have the best players. It’s important for everybody to contribute and everybody to pull their weight and be aport of the tea. They’re great assets to have because they can break a game open at any moment. But i think you’re seeing our team start to really gel. we got to keep this thing going.”

On if he felt the damn would eventually break in the game: “Well we did a lot of good things in the first period. We were maybe not as clean as we wanted to be and we can clean some stuff up on the penalty kill. We like the way we were playing the game. I really liked how calm our bench was, how they showed a little pushback and resiliency. Found a big goal at the end of the first period, then we took that into the second period. It was a good response from our group not hanging our head 2-0.”

On the Foegele-RNH-Ryan line: “I don’t know if you can put your thumb on the exact reason they’re having success, but I think they have the elements of a good line. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is a 200-foot player that plays in every situation. He seems to make everybody around him better. Him in the middle of the rink, I feel really good about. Warren Foegele is a big body. we tasked him with upping his forecheck game and going to hard areas in the offensive zone. For me, Derek Ryan is a very subtle player. You watch him and some of the plays he makes, I think he values making hard plays. those three together, I think they’ve got some mojo going right now and we’re thankful because we think they make us a deeper team.”

On William Lagesson, Markus Niemelainen: “I think Bill has played really well. he is honest as the day is long as a hockey player. He gives you everything he has as on a daily basis. I think he is excelling at his stick on puck, then finishing through the body. He’s killing a lot of cycles, releases to the back of the net, that type of thing. He’s just keeping it simple. He’s not trying to be anything that he’s not. He’s just trying to make simple and make good, solid plays. Fortunately for Dave and me, we have a frame of reference with William Lagesson. We’ve seen him when he first came over to North America, and he’s been a real good player for our team over the last little while.”

On PP2 and if playing them to start a powerplay in the third was a reward: “Yeah, it was. I think it was a heckuva goal and right before that powerplay goal at the end of the first, which was a huge powerplay goal for us. Darnell had a great chance as well. We had another chance go off the shoulder of the goaltender. So putting them on in the third period there, that was certainly trying to empower them because they did some good stuff.”

On having two powerplay units and there maybe being healthy competition: “I do think that’s healthy and the top unit is some of the best hockey players in the world. They move the puck around real well. It hasn’t gone in for them, but they’ve had numerous chances. Anytime you can find others to continue in that situation, I think it just makes us a deeper team and gives us more options as we move along here. Big goal for that unit tonight.”

On giving players opportunity: “I think especially when we made the decision to go 11 forward and seven defencemen, especially when we did that, we wanted to spread out the minutes amongst the many, and not just consolidate them in just a few people. I think we’ve done a good job of asking more people to do a little more in that regard. I think it helps our d-core and has worked through the first four games. We’re getting contributions from everybody who is dressed.”

On Derek Ryan: “I just thought the move to the wing gave him a little bit of a jolt. I think he’s a smart player and I think he complimented Nuge with being able to figure out where to be on the ice. I think he offers Nuge a right-handed faceoff option and I also think that if, and I said that this morning, if he ends up the first forechecker in the offensive zone, and we end up working back to our end, I feel comfortable with Derek Ryan being down low if he ends up down low. I think that group compliments each other. He’s put a lot of hard work in. He’s a hard-working person. I haven’t had too many conversations outside of just hockey information, but his contributions over this last little while… that line is making us a deeper team and we appreciate them.”

On the ‘fourth line’ and what the message is to them: “We like to get in a rhythm, what’s different is the last couple games have been penalty-filled early in the games. Sometimes it’s hard to get people on the ice when there’s so many penalties and if they don’t play in one of the situations, they might sit for a few minutes. We just want to get everyone up and running. We’re not asking those players to do anything that we’re asking any other players, which is to play an energetic game, a straightforward direct game. We’ve put a lot of import on working back into our own zone. If they just do that, we’re not asking them to do anything special or be anyone they’re not. We just want them to bring what they bring and they’ll be just fine. It ended up with Jesse leaving the game halfway through, we just moved pieces around to make sure we spread the ice time around.”

On Kane: “I’ve known Evander personally for a week here, so my frame of reference as a player is that he’s getting better every day. We have to understand he didn’t have a normal training camp, he had a couple games in the American Hockey League but he’s just kind of getting up to speed right now. I think he feels comfortable right now. those two big bodies on that line with him and Leon, I think they’re tough to handle in the hard areas.”