Oilers 6, Lightning 2 post-game Oil Spills: Welcome to the McDavid show
By Cam Lewis
6 years agoConnor McDavid. My goodness.
Highlights
The Oilers opened the scoring with a power play goal (!!!) just a couple minutes into the first period. Oscar Klefbom fed Ryan Strome who directed a shot-pass to the slot for Connor McDavid to tip past Andrei Vasilevskiy. This goal featured some nice, quick puck movement we haven’t been seeing from the team’s power play this season.
With a couple minutes to go in the first period, the Oilers restored their lead with another goal on the power play. Like with the first goal, Oscar Klefbom found Ryan Strome who slid the puck right into the crease for Leon Draisaitl to tap in.
The Connor McDavid show really began in the second period. Two minutes in, Leon Draisaitl takes an outlet pass from Matt Benning and leaves the puck for McDavid, who’s rolling into the zone at full speed. He fakes Matthew Peca into the middle, then quickly pulls back wide and flips the puck over Vasilevskiy’s shoulder for an impossible goal to make it 3-1. He’s literally at the goal line when he shoots this, but manages to find the only open part of the net to tuck it away. Simply ridiculous.
Iiro Pakarainen buried his first goal of the season to make it 4-1 mid-way through the second. This was a feel good goal for Iiro the Hero, who’s back in the NHL after clearing waivers earlier this season. Pakarinen took an outlet pass from Anton Slepyshev, broke down the ice on a two-on-one, and fired a wrister past Vasilevskiy’s blocker.
And down come the hats. McDavid was lurking around the blueline, waiting for the predictable pass to Lightning defender Vladislav Namestnikov at the point. Namestnikov misplays it and McDavid pounces. He beats Namestnikov to the puck and, before you know it, he’s gone. He burns down the ice, dekes out Louis Domingue, who had come into the game in relief, and roofs the puck for the hat trick.
Then there’s a fourth, because of course. Leon Draisaitl tries to feed McDavid for his fourth goal, but Vasilevskiy makes a nice stop. The puck then bounces around and somehow finds its way into the back of the net. Sure, why not?
By the numbers
I don’t really care much for stats in a game like this where one player really took over the game. Connor McDavid was simply absurd last night, playing one of, if not his best game of the season. At an individual level, he was actually negative in terms of shot attempt differential. But the number that indicates how well he played is the fact he was on for seven high danger chances for and zero against. When McDavid was on the ice, the Oilers were rolling. Otherwise, the rest of the team actually played pretty solid too, dominating Tampa with 13 high danger chances for and just six against at even strength.
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Thoughts…
- I think the team was solid overall tonight, but Connor McDavid was simply exceptional. The team played with speed and energy, the power play was much more effective than usual as they moved the puck around quickly and effectively, but this win really was on the shoulders of McDavid’s MVP-calibre game. If the Oilers are going to somehow work their way back into a playoff spot, which is very unlikely but still mathematically possible, it’ll be because McDavid plays like this on a near night-to-night basis.
- Games like this are great, but you can’t help but feel a little frustrated knowing what could have been if the team had showed up like this in games against teams like Buffalo. How can the same team pound Tampa Bay 6-2 and lose to the Sabres 5-0? It’s truly astonishing.
- Cam Talbot was strong last night, stopping 32 of 34 shots against a Lightning team that knows how to score. They lead the league in goals by a pretty large margin and feature a wealth of very good shooters. The blueline was also exceptional, limiting Tampa Bay to just six high danger chances at even strength. A game with solid defence, good goaltending, and McDavid doing his thing? That’ll work more often than it doesn’t.
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