The Day After 30.0: Edmonton’s winning streak over Nashville extends to eight games
By Cam Lewis
1 year agoAs much as going up against the Minnesota Wild often feels like an automatic loss, the Edmonton Oilers facing the Nashville Predators feels like money in the bank.
The Oilers rolled into Nashville on the second night of a back-to-back after a frustrating loss to the Wild and picked up a casual 6-3 win. Their winning streak against the Predators is now eight games and it dates all the way back to February of 2019.
Zach Hyman scored the first hat trick of his NHL career and a four-point game from Connor McDavid has him sitting at 59 points through 30 games on the season. Leon Draisaitl, the Mayor of Nashville, led the way with five points, giving him 35 points over 22 career games against the Preds…
“There are other teams that sometimes you struggle against a little bit. Every player has their team,” Draisaitl said.
Jack Campbell made 29 saves on 32 shots in his first start since December 1 against the Wild. The win was his first since all the way back on November 26 when the Oilers were in New York. He allowed a goal just over one minute into the game but locked in the rest of the way…
“I thought everybody moved on and it ended up being a real nice evening,” Campbell said. “There was still 59 more minutes or whatever it was to go, and you’ve just got to keep going. So, that’s what we all did.”
While the continued dominance by Edmonton’s star players over the Predators was the big story from Tuesday night, head coach Jay Woodcroft praised his team’s ability to shut things down in the third period and protect their lead…
“Our team has learned some lessons along the way,” Woodcroft said. “Tonight’s third period was another mature, professional third period where we locked it down. We gave up a few chances, but we didn’t break and we were able to get the empty-net goal to make it 6-3.“Our team is taking steps forward in learning how to check to win. When you have a night where you score four or five, that should be enough to win if you check the right way.”
THE DAY AFTER IS PRESENTED BY BETWAY
Parting notes…
- The Oilers swept their three-game season series with the Predators in 2021-22 and in 2019-20 and they’ll have a chance to again complete the season sweep on Monday when they’re back in Nashville. The last time the Predators beat the Oilers was all the way back on February 25, 2019. Pekka Rinne, now retired, made 25 saves for Nashville, P.K. Subban, also now retired, scored a goal and an assist, and Brian Boyle scored the shootout winner. Connor McDavid was suspended for that game and Leon Draisaitl scored both of Edmonton’s goals.
- Draisaitl’s dominance of the Predators is truly incredible. This isn’t just a step player beating the crap out of some scrub team. Nashville is solid and they’ve been above average defensively and in the net for years. This season, they rank 11th in the league in terms of goals against. Only twice have they allowed more than five goals in a game and both of those games were against the Oilers.
- Anaheim Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek watched the Oilers play in Minnesota and Nashville. The assumption here is that he’s scouting Jesse Puljujarvi, a player who everyone is aware wants a change of scenery. The word on the street now is that the Oilers would be happy to simply move Puljujarvi and his $3 million salary cap hit and what comes back in return isn’t a concern.
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