The bright side

• Connor McDavid is an Oiler. That doesn’t really get old, does it? McDavid did a bunch of things really well tonight. He drove Edmonton’s offence literally whenever he was playing, and he chipped in with a beautiful goal. He took a penalty in the second period, but saved a goal in the process. Is there anything he doesn’t do well? The league’s MVP looks like he’s in mid-season form.
• Jesse Puljujarvi had a three-point night tonight, scoring two power play goals and setting up Connor McDavid with an excellent deflection pass. I have mixed feelings on Pulju’s game, though. He was pretty invisible with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jussi Jokinen save for a few strong shifts to begin the game. But when he got on the ice with McDavid, Puljujarvi really seemed to compliment the MVP. I mean, there’s a good chance it was actually McDavid making Puljujarvi better because that’s what McDavid does, but the former fourth overall pick became a lot more noticeable with a different centre. On the other hand, I didn’t notice Ryan Strome in tonight’s game as much as I did in his first per-season game against the Flames.
• Speaking of McDavid, he took a hit from Dustin Byfuglien at the end of the second period and got knocked to the ice. Patrick Maroon, being the good teammate he is, jumped in and gave Big Buff the business. It wasn’t a dirty hit or anything, but it’s great to see Maroon jump in and stand up for McDavid. This is something we never saw during the decade of darkness.
• You could really notice Edmonton’s depth in tonight’s game. There simply weren’t times in which the players on the ice looked bad or outclassed. The blueline, I thought, was especially solid in this way. Even the third pair of Simpson and Jones looked calm and poised. Nurse and Gryba made life a nightmare in the defensive zone for the Jets and Benning and Russell complimented each other nicely.
• Brad Malone, who’s in tough to crack this roster, had himself a very good audition. He scored a couple of goals and was all over the ice, playing physically and causing turnovers. If Anton Slepyshev isn’t good to go come Oct. 4, Malone did himself a favour tonight.

The face palmers

• There isn’t much to complain about after a game like that. The Oilers thoroughly outplayed the Jets and that reflected in both the shot and goal counter. The only issue, really, was an ugly second period in which the Oilers looked slow and sluggish, but they really carried the play in the first and the second. Wait, is this the face palmers section? I’m trying to look for negatives but can’t really find any.
• Winnipeg scored their second goal on a hideous bounce off of the glass in Edmonton’s zone that totally fooled Cam Talbot. I thought the stadium was supposed to give the Oilers a hometown advantage? /sarcasm
• This game wasn’t televised (apparently it was? IDK I couldn’t get it on my TV but I don’t have golorious HD), which is a big pain in the ass. It’s 2017 and there a billion Sportsnet channels. Can people in Edmonton not be given Oilers games? I mean, we seem to get a lot of Canucks and Leafs games. My stream was also bad and it felt like I was watching the game on a GameBoy Colour at times.

Scoring summary

Highlights