THE BRIGHT SIDE

• Is there anything outside of the surface of the sun that’s hotter than Leon Draisaitl right now? No. That’s the answer. No. Leon added goal #41 to his total after he was the business end of a shorthanded 2-on-1 with Connor McDavid that the duo executed perfectly, giving the Oilers an early lead.
• Zack Kassian kept his hot streak going with a beautiful one-timer goal off of a ridiculous cross-ice pass from Connor McDavid. The captain basically sauced the thing 80 feet right into Kassian’s wheelhouse and the big man made no mistake of clapping it past Ullmark.
• Less than two minutes after Kassian’s goal, Darnell Nurse unleashed an absolute laser that I’m pretty sure Ullmark still hasn’t seen go past him. After Draisaitl picked the puck up at the half-boards, he made a perfect pass into the slot where Darryl was waiting to unleash hell.
• With less than 10 seconds left on the clock in the second period, Kyle Brodziak found himself in front of the net with an incoming point shot from Adam Larsson that deflected perfectly off his skate and through Linus Ullmark’s legs, restoring the Oilers lead for the first time since Draisaitl opened the scoring.
• Gotta love three goals in 3:26 to finish off the second period.
• I know Connor missed the empty netter at the end of the game but I’m happy to forget about that because the team still won and he added another two assists to the pile, including that ridiculous cross-ice saucer on Kassian’s goal.
• After getting a shutout against the Blue Jackets on Saturday, Mikko Koskinen was back between the pipes and looking to extend his winning streak. Early on, he was not as sharp as he has been over the past couple of nights and got burned with a couple of goals that he’d definitely want to have back, but that was not the case at all over the final forty minutes. Had it not been for Koskinen then this game would have been over early and the comeback never would have happened. Koskinen came up clutch with all kinds of big saves down the stretch and finished his night with 35 saves and a .921 save%.
• Sam Gagner got his first assist since being back with the Oilers and I can’t get enough of this story. Quite frankly, Sam Gagner could be The Answer.
• Big props go out to Kris Russell for playing a rock solid game tonight. As always, he finished the game with some big blocked shots and it was nice to see him get an assist as a bonus for his efforts.
• You like the Oilers winning 58% of the draws they took? I certainly do.
• I’m enjoying my post-win cocktails! As always, you can join in on the #BoozeNotBeets win cast conversation over on my Twitter account.

THE FACE PALMERS

• Moments after Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring, Jack Eichel tied the game up at one after he made a power move from the boards to the slot and lifted a perfectly placed wrister over Koskinen’s shoulder. Eichel scored a second goal a little bit later in the period to extend the Sabres’ lead to two goals. If Eichel went out to try and have a statement game against Connor tonight, Gord knows how he hates the comparison, then he certainly put his best foot forward as he was dangerous all night long.
• Casey Mittelstadt gave the Sabres a 2-1 lead after he picked up the puck in the left circle and snapped a wrister past Mikko Koskinen. After Eichel got the Sabres on the board, they had the Oilers running around a little bit in their own zone and it wasn’t exactly surprising to see Mittelstadt/someone get another one.
• Getting outshot 38-27 against the Buffalo Sabres is probably not a great look, but you have to be happy to take the win and run.
• How bad was the Oilers’ lone power play chance tonight? If you had never watched hockey before and you saw the Oilers’ power play, you’d think the point of having the man advantage was to allow the other team to ice the puck as many times as they could without ever getting a shot on goal.
• Speaking of the power play, how did the Oilers only get one? I know the Sabres took a penalty in the last minute of the game but that hardly counts. You know what I mean.

SCORING SUMMARY

#GOODCONTENT