It was bound to happen. The Oilers were going to get a game where all the bounces were going to go their way. Last night was that game against the Las Vegas Golden Knights when they ran up the scoreboard putting up eight goals. I’ll admit that I didn’t jump out of my seat after the fifth goal. While fans are ecstatic and happy that the Oilers had themselves a night, I have to be the bearer of bad news and tell you not to expect that outcome all the time. Yes, the Las Vegas Knights are a good team, they’re no joke.

With a record of 10-5-1 coming into last nights game, we knew that they could play, but they had fourth-string goalie Maxime Lagacé between the pipes. Legace was only 2-4-1 on the season with the big club heading into the game. If the Oilers could put together a dominant performance, I figured that they could get a few past him. Early in the game, the Oilers looked sloppy in their end — at one point the puck trickled past Talbot through the blue paint. Luckily there wasn’t an opposing player waiting on the other side to pop it in, but it was concerning to watch. I’m thinking that maybe the Oilers watched their intro video a few dozen times before the game as well because they were delivering blows and playing with passion like that video shows. Not that the team wasn’t playing with passion before, they just connected most of the dots last night. The Golden Knights couldn’t make a pass or handle the boys in blue — reviewing the stats sheet, I couldn’t believe that they only had ten giveaways. The next game that the Oilers play against the Golden Knights in January will be much different — they’ll likely have a qualified NHL netminder in their net. It’s well-known league-wide that there’s a Vegas flu — when teams visit, they don’t play as hot as they usually do.

Don’t get me wrong, the game was great for the Oilers, and they needed it as a confidence booster. All the guys looked great. Klefbom really bounced back from whatever you want to call the start of his year. Nuge really cemented the fact that he’s all in this season. Puljujarvi’s play after blocking a shot and chasing it up the ice to grab a stick off the bench was monumental in my opinion — it showed us how high his hockey IQ really is. The biggest thing for me was that the powerplay was incredibly successful. They got the blood flowing and it came back to life. I could keep going on about how great this game was for each player, but you get the drift.

It will be interesting to see how the Oilers do tomorrow night against the St. Louis Blues. They aren’t happiest campers after their last game in Calgary the other night. The Flames had their own coming out party, putting up a touchdown against the Blues and defeating them 7-4. It was a back and forth game for a while before the Flames ran away with it, scoring three unanswered goals. If you want to know how brutal the game was, just know that Sam Bennett scored his first of the season. Local product Colton Parayko will look to play a solid game in front of friends and family, while his teammates look to rebound from that abysmal game.

It’s time to return to our atmosphere and prepare for tomorrow’s game. This game is going to be much tighter and better managed by the Blues, who are a very defensively minded team with a strong blue line to break through. If the Oilers can put it all together again tomorrow, we’ll have ourselves a good game, and hopefully, Baggedmilk won’t have to eat more beets. I don’t want to be that person that rains on the parade, but I felt the need to make you aware of the fact that yesterday won’t turn into an everyday thing like it was in the 1980’s. Have you come back down to earth? How do you think the team will do? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!