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The Day After: It’s time for the Oilers to start rolling
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Photo credit: Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
Zach Laing
Apr 3, 2021, 09:00 EDTUpdated: Apr 3, 2021, 01:48 EDT
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It’s been a weird stretch for the Edmonton Oilers over the last week and a bit. They travelled to Montreal, only to find out their games were cancelled. Then in four days, the Oilers played Toronto twice and Montreal once.
The last game, against Montreal, was nothing short of the team’s worst game of the year.
So last night, the Edmonton Oilers wanted to come out with a statement game and a 3-2 victory over the Calgary Flames was nothing short of just that. Head coach Dave Tippett got Caleb Jones and his solid two-way prowess back into the lineup and it paid off.
The Oilers as a whole, too, looked much fresher than that against Montreal. They almost looked like a team who actually had some rest.
“Well, tight games like this as a coach you’re concerned about coming home from a long-trip and lots of stuff going on,” said Tippet. “You’re concerned how your team is going to compete, and I thought we played real well in the first period we had some energy then it was just a tight game, tight battle.
“We gave up a few more chances than I would’ve liked in the second, but third period was kind of a game in the trenches. we knew they were going to be a desperate team.”
The win came off the back of captain Connor McDavid, whose third period powerplay marker served to be the game winner. But solid play in all three periods and resilient effort when facing 1-0 and 2-1 deficits were the true story of the game.
“It’s like a playoff game, it was very tight,” said forward Dominik Kahun, who was called out earlier by Tippett for not driving to the net hard enough only to score a second period goal last night doing just that.
“I think the biggest thing we were talking about was to outwork them and I think we did that. All four lines were going, all four lines were battling, and that’s what brought us the win.”
Edmonton will take an off-day today before a light Sunday morning practice and a flight to Montreal. The team will look to get back into the flow of things with a Monday game against Montreal, and games Wednesday and Friday against Ottawa.
It’s the perfect time for the Oilers to get back into the regular swing of things after what been an undoubtedly tough stretch for the club. A few extra days off probably helped some of the players get rested.

Backhanders…

  • In Jones’ return, he played 8:31 and didn’t take a shift in the final six and a half minutes of the game while Kris Russell and Adam Larsson both played almost 23 minutes a night. It was Russell’s most minutes this season by a longshot, with his previous season high being 20:50.
  • Jones and Ethan Bear were rock solid for the Oilers last night. Bear played a big part of Kahun’s second period goal, while the pair controlled 58 percent of the 5×5 shot attempts and 57 percent of the expected goals. I think this should be an everyday pairing for the Oilers the rest of the season.
  • Mike Smith. That’s it. That’s the note.
  • But in all seriousness, he had a solid game last night for Edmonton once again. His record improves to 13-3-1 on the season with a .919 save percentage.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@oilersnation.com.

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