Right off the opening faceoff, the Edmonton Oilers looked like a freshly born giraffe trying to find it’s legs. They flopped around the ice errantly flipping pucks that resulted in plenty of turnovers and plenty of early chances for the Toronto Maple Leafs, two of which they capitalized on in the first frame.
But by the end of 60 minutes, that giraffe that is the Oilers was able to find their walking legs scoring twice. Ultimately, they progressed to a full gallop with Darnell Nurse’s overtime winner taking the cake for a comeback victory.
It was far from pretty, but it got the job done — partially in thanks to Kyle Turris’ rear end, which deflected home a third period shot to tie the game at two all.
“We got a break on Turris’ goal,” said head coach Dave Tippett. “I’m real happy for him, he’s gone through a lot between struggling early, then COVID. He’s worked hard. If anyone deserved to have one go off your ass, it’s him.”
He was apart of the solution last night being bumped into the top-six, rather than part of the issue. His lackadaisical start to the year led to some horrendous goal differentials and his eventual benching in favor of Jujhar Khaira, who in his own right has helped solidify the Oilers bottom-six.
But could there be more to Turris’ game? He is someone who, despite some down years in Nashville, produced at a solid offensive rate. In his first game back in nearly a month, and didn’t look out of place.
For the player, it’s something he wants to keep up moving forward.
“I know i need to play better and I want to contribute more,” said Turris, who spent some time on the COVID-19 protocol list earlier this month. “The timing has been frustrating with the COVID stuff. The bounce tonight, I feel like my legs are coming around. I know i need to play better and I think I’m heading in that direction.”
Edmonton, for all intents and purposes, got themselves back into a game that they really had no part being in. A Josh Archibald breakaway early in the game appeared to be the break they needed, but it turned the other way quickly with Toronto scoring two goals in the next five minutes.
In fact, neither Connor McDavid nor Leon Draisaitl were much help for Edmonton through the first 60 minutes. But thankfully, in the overtime period, they showed up. Mike Smith made a huge save early in the extra frame on a streaking Auston Matthews, before things turned up ice the other way.
Darnell Nurse made no mistake in finding the back of the net giving him his 12th goal of the season and now leads all defenceman in that category.
“We came in tonight and we know we wanted to win,” said Nurse. “As a team we know what we’re capable of and we were capable of getting into the win column here tonight. It was a big win for us and something to build off of down this final stretch of the season.”
The Oilers now take a quick trip to Montreal where they play one of three makeup games from last week in what will be another yardstick game for Edmonton. Those Oilers will look to find their legs early.

Backhanders…

  • Despite scoring the game winner, Darnell Nurse and his defensive partner Tyson Barrie. They accounted for an astronomically bad 2.11 expected goals against. Barrie got bit on both the Leafs goals and both were caught out of position more often than not. As a pairing, they controlled 9.67 percent of the expected goals. They’re not going to be great every night, but last night they were really bad.
  • On the flip side, Ethan Bear continues to come into his own this season. He struggled early this season, then suffered a concussion that has taken him a while to get back to normal from. He seems to have found a home alongside Kris Russell. They’ve played 98:49 minutes at 5×5 together posting a 49.64 CF% and controlling 54.76 percent of the expected goals while only allowing one goal against. They have in 104.7 PDO in thanks to a well-above-average 96.77 on ice save percentage, but they’ve looked really good together.
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.