So long and thanks for the points. Final Score: 7-1 Oilers
With as tight as things are in the 2-4 slots in the North Division — only four points separated second and fourth place before puck drop — the intensity is getting cranked up for every single game and that’s making these nights against Ottawa all the more important. But as I’ve been saying for a while, the Sens have shown over the last little while that they are by no means an easy out, and I felt that the boys needed to make sure their execution was on point if they were going to continue this wonderful run of dominance. And like a house on fire with a breeze blowing through, the Oilers were unstoppable from the moment the puck dropped, pumping four goals past Matt Murray before the game was even 20 minutes old. I know I talk about the need for a good start a lot in these wrap ups but I think what Oilers delivered went well above and beyond what I’m ever talking about. They were simply fantastic. What else can you really say when the team puts a field goal and a rouge on the board without ever taking their foot off the gas?
Moving through the second period, I was expecting some push back from an Ottawa team that was probably lit up by its coach during the intermission but it never really came to fruition. Picking up where they left off in the first, the Oilers went right back to controlling every aspect of this hockey game and it honestly reminded me of something we would have watched in the Eakins era but in reverse. I mean, there was a sizeable chunk of this hockey game where the Oilers had more goals than the Senators had shots and I’m not talking about the boys being up by an early goal on the first shot of the night either. Honestly, the first 40 minutes reminded me of back when I was playing Atom and there would be that one practice per year where all of my teammates’ older brothers would come out and absolutely school us, never letting us touch the puck or get shots on net. That’s what this game was like. It was men against boys and I started to wonder how lopsided things had to get before the NHL would make the call to run the clock.
At the end of the day, the Oilers got the result they deserved and it was a tonne of fun to watch.
The wrap.

THE BRIGHT SIDE

  • @Darnell Nurse opened the scoring with a nifty little wrist shot (1-0) that made its way through traffic and beat Murray through the legs before he even knew what happened. Before the goal, though, had to be one of the most dominant shifts I’ve ever seen by the McDavid-Draisaitl line and it seemed like the only possible outcome was to score a goal.
  • @Jujhar Khaira extended the lead (2-0) with a tap-in goal after Devin Shore set him up beautifully. Shore and Khaira found themselves on a 2-on-1 down low and Shore pulled off a little shimmy-shake that Murray bit on completely, and all Jujhar had to do was put the puck into the empty net.
  • @Leon Draisaitl added the Oilers’ third goal of the period (3-0) with what can only be described as a finely tuned piece of German engineering. Put another way, Leon Draisaitl took the Sens over his knee and spanked their bums individually before firing a wrister up and over Murray. Draisaitl added another goal in the second period on the powerplay (5-0) after Nugent-Hopkins found him at the side of the net with a filthy little pass from the slot. Draisaitl completed the hat trick (7-0) early in the third period after McDavid left a drop pass for him that left the reigning MVP with a clear look on net that he did not waste.
  • If I didn’t know better, I’d almost say that @Connor McDavid was jealous of Leon Draisaitl getting a first period goal so he had to go out and get one for himself. Only moments after Draisaitl extended the lead to three goals, McDavid added the fourth marker with a wrist shot from the slot that beat Murray between the arm and body. McDavid was fantastic all night and it’s pretty incredible when he finished up with another casual three-point night and wasn’t even the star of the show. Unreal.
  • @James Neal added to the onslaught (6-0) when he snapped a shot through a defender’s legs from a ways out but still managed to beat Murray on the glove side. It was one of those goals that Murray definitely should have stopped but when it rains it pours, I guess.
  • @Mike Smith got the nod for round two against the Senators, and I was looking for him to make the saves you’d expect from your starter without allowing anything suspect. Seems fair, right? As requested, Smith came through when he was called upon and while the Senators didn’t get many shots on net, the goaltender still needed to make a handful of quality stops in order to lock in the. The only bad news for Smith is that the boys weren’t able to get him the shutout he probably deserved. Smith finished the night with 21 saves and a .955 save%.
  • How about a tidy little three-point night for @Tyson Barrie to go along with 20:11 in TOI, four shots on net, and a block?
  • The Oilers’ powerplay went 1/3 on Monday night and I was hoping that they’d be able to get even more done here in the rematch. Getting one goal is nice but getting more than that is better, ya know? And as hoped, the boys came through with two goals on four chances with the man advantage. I’m not saying I’m a fortune teller but I might be.
  • Not to be outdone, the Oilers got the job done on the penalty kill as well, discarding the lone Ottawa chance when up a man.
  • Oilers dominated the shot clock by a 36-22 margin. I like that. The Corsi people like it. We all like it.
  • A wrap up with a mention of the Oilers winning 57% of the faceoffs is like nachos without salsa. I need it, you need it, we all need it.

THE FACE PALMERS

  • Evgenii Dadonov got the Sens on the board (7-1) midway through the third period and I have to say that the goal didn’t really bother me apart from the fact that it ruined Mike Smith’s shutout bid.
  • I need to put something else in the Face Palmers section so I guess I’ll put that the Sens outhit the Oilers by a 49-23 margin, which could be included in the Bright Side section depending on how you look at it. I mean, you can’t hit when you have the puck the whole time, ya know?
  • Oh, I know! I hate that @Ethan Bear’s name is coming up in trade rumours. That is definitely Face Palmer worth nonsense.
  • I wonder what the deal is with @Evan Bouchard who was moved back to the taxi squad this afternoon.
  • Some Oilers fans will find a way to disregard tonight’s win because it happened against the Senators.

SCORING SUMMARY

#GOODCONTENT

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