The Day After: Edmonton completes the nine-game season series sweep over Ottawa
By Cam Lewis
3 years agoIt certainly wasn’t pretty, but the Oilers got the job done.
They picked up a 3-1 win over the Ottawa Senators and completed the nine-game sweep of the season series.
As expected, Ottawa came out hard on Thursday night. They knew what was at stake and they didn’t want to suffer the embarrassment of losing all nine meetings against another team this season. The Sens beat the Oilers in terms of shot attempts at even-strength 58-to-44, high-danger chances at even-strength 7-to-4, and total shots in all situations 40-to-22.
The difference on Wednesday night was the brilliance of the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl combo. On Thursday, it was Mike Smith.
The veteran stopped 39 of 40 shots that Ottawa threw his way, the most saves he’s made in any of his 21 starts this season. Smith now owns a .922 save percentage on the season, his highest figure since posting a .930 save percentage for Dave Tippett’s 2011-12 Phoenix Coyotes. That team ended up going to the Western Conference Final.
The Oilers opened the scoring in the second period on a power-play goal from Kailer Yamamoto, but Connor Brown answered back for the Sens shortly after. In the third, with the game knotted up at 1-1, Edmonton got the eventual game-winner from their depth, as Devin Shore redirected a Caleb Jones point-shot past Anton Forsberg. Jesse Puljujuarvi would score into the empty net to seal the deal.
Mike Smith credited the young Senators after the game, saying that they consistently put out a good effort and improved over the course of the season…
“It was a busy game,” Smith said. “[Ottawa] improved it seemed like every time we played them. I knew back-to-back going in I wanted to make some timely saves. One thing you have to give them credit for is their work ethic.
“We want to build something and it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we just want to be building and putting ourselves in a position going into the playoffs where we’re playing our best hockey.”
Dave Tippett echoed Smith’s sentiments about Ottawa, suggesting that they aren’t the easy, automatic win that many seem to suggest they are…
“There were some games that were real close that could go either way,” Tippett said. “There were some games where i think their goaltending wasn’t as good as it needed to be. tonight, they played hard. They probably deserved a better fate.“If [sweeping Ottawa] was so easy why didn’t everybody do it?”
Backhanders…
- Edmonton’s season sweep over Ottawa is just the second sweep in NHL history of a head-to-head of nine games or more. The only other time this has happened came all the way back in 1944-45 when the Montreal Canadiens swept a 10-game season series against the Boston Bruins. Nobody else will execute such a sweep this season. The New York Islanders are 6-0-0 against the Buffalo Sabres thus far but they only play each other two more times. This is a unique accomplishment for the Oilers.
- All told, in the nine-game sweep, the Oilers outscored the Sens 41-to-18. There were a couple of lopsided scores (7-1, 6-2) but the Sens managed to keep things to within two goals in six of the nine meetings. I agree with what Mike Smith said earlier. Ottawa is a team that got better as the season went along. At the beginning of the season, they were a mess and beating them looked like a walk in the park, but that certainly wasn’t the case this week.
- A lot of talk right now is about what Edmonton’s record would look like if you take away the nine games against Ottawa. But what about if you take things from Ottawa’s perspective? They’re a respectable 13-15-4 against the rest of the Canadian Division. They’ve beaten Calgary in five of seven meetings thus far and they’ve beaten the Leafs three times and the Habs four times.
- With the win, Edmonton now boasts a 25-14-2 record. They’re in second place, one point up on the Jets, but Winnipeg has a game in hand. The Jets and Oilers play each other three more times this season. The Habs lost to Winnipeg last night so they’re now nine points back of the Oilers with four games in hand. Even if they win those four games they won’t be able to leapfrog the Oilers in the standings. Edmonton and Montreal play each other four more times. Simply earning a split there will help keep the Habs in fourth place.
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