The Edmonton Oilers were trying to salvage their four-game home stand against the visiting Philadelphia Flyers, and while they were able to accomplish the goal in the bonus period, by no means did they make it easy on themselves. Final score: 4-3 Oilers in OT.
If I’m being honest, I thought we’d all be having more fun at this point. No, Stanley Cups aren’t won in the first week of the season, and watching these early games will never feel as fun as the ones we experienced just a few short months ago, but I’ll be the first to admit I wasn’t at all prepared for another start like this. Lose a game or two? Sure. Lose the first four? There was no way. I refused to believe our boys would let that happen.
That’s not to say losing these early games is the biggest problem one deals with in life, but when a big chunk of our mood revolves around this hockey team, no one is happy with how the Oilers kicked off their schedule. Those three losses to beatable teams were undoubtedly annoying, and even though I genuinely believed they’d recover, the Oilers needed to do themselves a favour with a win over Philadelphia.
Yet, even though there was already pressure to make something happen, the Oilers came out flat in the first period again. Perhaps stalled by an early run of three straight penalties, the boys limped their way into the game, and the result was getting tagged with two early goals against. Instead of hitting the ice with urgency, the home side took penalties that allowed the visitors to strike first for the third time in four tries.
Frustrated but not out, the Oilers did a much better job of not folding their hand against the Flyers despite the two-goal lead. Instead, they chipped away at the hole with waves of pressure that the Flyers struggled to handle. When the Oilers were cycling the puck, Philly really couldn’t do much about it. Shift by shift, the boys appeared to wear the Flyers down until finally, Adam Henrique was able to get a goal actually to stick on the scoreboard for once.
Once the goose egg was cracked, it did seem like the ice was starting to tilt in Edmonton’s favour. I’d even go so far as to say the biggest problem they had was convincing themselves that the point of hockey was not to spend all of their time in the penalty box. There were even rumours out there that there were some kind of exclusive snacks in there. What I’m trying to say is had they not spent nearly an entire period on the PK over the game, maybe it wouldn’t have taken until overtime for them to lock down the win.
Either way, the Flyers really struggled to pick themselves up off the mat once the Oilers got rolling. Even when they pulled ahead 3-2 on the late second period goal by Bobby Brink, Edmonton seemed relatively unfazed and almost sure that they would respond. In fact, it was practically lousy luck that it took until the 16:18 mark for Evan Bouchard to tie the game because the Oilers had all kinds of chances that could have easily turned into a goal or more. Once it got to overtime, completing the comeback felt inevitable.
At the end of the day, this wasn’t the prettiest win we’ll ever see, nor did the Oilers play to the best of their abilities. But what they lacked in polish, the boys made up for in resiliency, and it was the first time so far that we’ve seen the unshakeable belief in themselves that carried the team so far last season. The Oilers had some of that spark back in their game for the first time since June. And while being 1-3 on the season is anything but perfect, I’m hopeful that a comeback win like last night’s can trigger the team to get themselves going.
I mean, how else would you look at a big comeback win that took beating the Flyers and the refs?

OTHER THINGS WORTH MENTIONING…

  • Matvei Michkov scored his first NHL goal (1-0) to open the scoring after he whacked away at the puck along the post before finally forcing it over the line. My first reaction was that it was a tough goal allowed by Skinner, but Kris Knoblauch thought there was enough interference to throw up the coach’s challenge. Of course. the Oilers trying to challenge a player’s first NHL goal would never work. It is our destiny to let these in. Michkov added his second NHL goal — also on the power play — less than five minutes later (2-0) to extend Philadelphia’s lead and pretty much ruin any good vibes there were left in the crowd.
  • Adam Henrique got the Oilers on the board (2-1) with a backhand snipe after cashing in on a rebound that popped out into the slot and onto Rico’s stick as he drove toward the crease.
  • Connor Brown tied the game (2-2) with a one-timer on the back of a pretty tic-tac-toe passing play between Jeff Skinner and Darnell Nurse. The Oilers had put together a few consecutive shifts in the offensive zone leading up to that point, and it really was wonderful see them finally cash in on the pressure. More importantly, it took until game 64 for Connor Brown to score his first goal of the 2023-24 season, and only four games this year.
  • Bobby Brink restored Philadelphia’s lead (3-2) moments after the Oilers killed off a 5-on-3 after his shot took an unfriendly bounce into the net off of Mattias Ekholm. When it rains it pours for the Edmonton Oilers.
  • Evan Bouchard tied the game for a second time (3-3) by being the business end of a beautiful passing play by Draisaitl and McDavid that led to Dad being all alone with a wide-open look on net. Bouchard may have gotten a goal called off earlier in the game, but there was no denying this masterpiece.
  • Leon Draisaitl scored the OT winner (4-3) immediately after Connor McDavid missed a breakaway chance, picked up his rebound, and fed the former-MVP for a clean look from the slot. The Flyers clearly were expecting a penalty or a whistle or something because all of them basically stopped skating well before the winning goal went in.
  • I’ll be the first to say that I didn’t like the first goal by Matvei Michkov, and thought that Skinner should have kept his leg up against the post, but I also thought Stu was dialled in after that. Faced with a seven Flyer power plays, Skinner had to be the team’s best killer on more than a few occasions and he did a really nice job of keeping the door closed. Even though he gave up two while down a man, Skinner didn’t give up anything on the final five, and that’s an important point to remember in the story of this win. No, the .900 save% on 27 saves isn’t the world-beating numbers we dream about, but Stu made the saves he needed to make to get the job done, and that’s a marked improvement over his first two starts.
  • You have to give Troy Stecher credit for dropping the mitts with a much larger Sean Couturier after the Flyers captain made no attempt to miss Stuart Skinner on a fly-by behind the net. Stu took a shot behind the net for the second straight game, but this time, Stecher decided to do something about it and squared off against a guy twice his size.
  • The very next shift after Stecher and Couturier went at it, Corey Perry squared off with Joel Farabee for a spirited tilt that almost saw the future Hall of Famer land a Tiger Uppercut like it was Street Fighter 2.
  • With Evan Bouchard’s first period goal getting waived off for goaltender interference, you can make it four disallowed goals for the Oilers in four games played. They had more goals called off than they had goals that counted after 10 periods of play. Stats don’t get much weirder than that.
  • You can make it seven power play goals against for the Oilers through their first four games after they gave up two more in seven shothanded situations against the Flyers on Tuesday. Whether you think the Oilers deserved all of those penalties or not, it’s tough to win games when you spend nearly a full period in the box, and Edmonton was very lucky to find a way to pull this one out.
  • Not to be outdone, the power play also struggled mightily. How else would you describe that the Oilers’ PP mustered only a single shot on its first three attempts? Their fourth chance was certainly the best of the bunch, but even so, the boys still went 0/4 with the man advantage.
  • No matter what happens on the scoreboard, we all know the most important stat of the night was that the Oilers won 59.1% of the faceoffs. You love it, I love it, we all love it.

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