<p class="p1">On a night when lapses, spotty goaltending, and playing from behind cost the Edmonton Oilers a point in a <a href="https://publish.oilersnation.com/2023/02/15/game-55-0-wrap-up-edmonton-oilers-lose-5-4-to-detroit-red-wings-rematch/">5-4 shootout loss to the Detroit Red Wings</a>, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins put together one of those games fans have come to expect from him this season.</p>
<p class="p1">Nugent-Hopkins, who’ll be 30 in April and is the longest-serving player on coach Jay Woodcroft’s roster with <a href="https://www.nhl.com/player/ryan-nugent-hopkins-8476454" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="s1">774 games</span></a> with the Oilers in the books, scored a pair of goals and added an assist to give him 26-40-66, just three points back of his career-high of 69 points, set in 2018-19 – a mark he’ll blow by soon enough.</p>
<p class="p1">And while his three points weren’t enough to push the Oilers past the Red Wings during a bit of a rough patch in which they’ve gone 3-1-3 in their last seven games, this was yet another example of a night when RNH went about his business and was one of the best players on the ice – there’s been plenty of those.</p>
<p class="p1">Nugent-Hopkins got the Oilers on the board <a href="https://www.nhl.com/video/nugent-hopkins-fires-one-home/t-336220262/c-15317004" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="s1">at 2-1</span></a> in the second period when he took a pass from Connor McDavid and snapped at shot past Ville Husso. He scored his second on <a href="https://www.nhl.com/video/nugent-hopkins-nets-second-goal/t-336220262/c-15317806" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="s1">a goalmouth feed</span></a> from McDavid to cut it to 3-2 and he continued to be prolific with the man-advantage with the second assist on a power-play goal by Leon Draisaitl to cut Detroit’s lead to 4-3 early in the third period.</p>
<h1 class="p1"><b>RECORD PACE</b></h1>
<figure id="attachment_128376" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-128376" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-128376" src="https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Edmonton-Oilers-Ryan-Nugent-Hopkins-stare-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" srcset="https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Edmonton-Oilers-Ryan-Nugent-Hopkins-stare-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Edmonton-Oilers-Ryan-Nugent-Hopkins-stare-300x200.jpg 300w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Edmonton-Oilers-Ryan-Nugent-Hopkins-stare-768x512.jpg 768w, https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Edmonton-Oilers-Ryan-Nugent-Hopkins-stare.jpg 1426w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-128376" class="wp-caption-text">Feb 9, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Edmonton Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (93) against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption></figure>
<p class="p1">With his 26-40-66, Nugent-Hopkins sit behind only McDavid, with 42-57-99, and Draisaitl, with 31-49-0, in team scoring. Game-in and game-out, he’s been a go-to guy for Woodcroft whether you’re talking even-strength or with a man advantage. RNH has been as close to plug-and-play as it gets. Put him out there and chances are he’ll make something happen.</p>
<p class="p1">“I thought we did a pretty good job of battling back and getting at least one point, but it&#8217;s disappointing not to get the second,” <a href="https://www.nhl.com/oilers/news/game-recap-red-wings-5-oilers-4-so/c-341102472?tid=282301102" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="s1">said Nugent-Hopkins</span></a>. “We can&#8217;t dwell on it now. We climbed our way back into that game. They had two power-play goals and two face off goals. I thought for the most part, we carried the play and got ourselves one point.</p>
<p class="p1">“I think we could have put more (shots) on net early. I thought they came out with some jump too . . . we couldn’t find that extra one tonight.”</p>
<p class="p1">“I thought we had control of a lot of parts of that game,” <a href="https://www.nhl.com/oilers/video/post-raw--woodcroft-021523/t-281751750/c-15320910" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="s1">Woodcroft said</span></a>. “I didn’t mind our start. I thought we generated enough chances to win the game, but I just thought we were a little bit sloppy in some of our details. We lost the special team’s game, which isn’t conducive to winning hockey games. I thought there were a couple of moments within the game where we were the architects of our own chance against.”</p>
<h2><strong>NUGENT-HOPKINS SEASON SO FAR</strong></h2>
<div class="player-overview__stats">
<div class="season-summary__table">
<div class="responsive-datatable">
<div class="responsive-datatable__inner">
<div class="responsive-datatable__scrollable">
<div>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="0">Season</th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="1"><abbr title="Games Played">GP</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="2"><abbr title="Goals">G</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="3"><abbr title="Assists">A</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="4"><abbr title="Points">P</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="5"><abbr title="Plus/Minus">+/-</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="6"><abbr title="Penalty Minutes">PIM</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="7"><abbr title="Power Play Goals">PPG</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="8"><abbr title="Power Play Points">PPP</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="9"><abbr title="Shorthanded Goals">SHG</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="10"><abbr title="Shorthanded Points">SHP</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="11"><abbr title="Game Winning Goals">GWG</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="12"><abbr title="Overtime Goals">OTG</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="13"><abbr title="Shots">S</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="14"><abbr title="Shooting Percentage">S%</abbr></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr data-index="0">
<td data-col="0" data-row="0">2022-2023</td>
<td data-col="1" data-row="0">55</td>
<td data-col="2" data-row="0">26</td>
<td data-col="3" data-row="0">40</td>
<td data-col="4" data-row="0">66</td>
<td data-col="5" data-row="0">9</td>
<td data-col="6" data-row="0">26</td>
<td data-col="7" data-row="0">9</td>
<td data-col="8" data-row="0">35</td>
<td data-col="9" data-row="0">1</td>
<td data-col="10" data-row="0">2</td>
<td data-col="11" data-row="0">2</td>
<td data-col="12" data-row="0">0</td>
<td data-col="13" data-row="0">134</td>
<td data-col="14" data-row="0">19.4</td>
</tr>
<tr data-index="1">
<td data-col="0" data-row="1"><strong>NHL Career</strong></td>
<td data-col="1" data-row="1"><strong>774</strong></td>
<td data-col="2" data-row="1"><strong>222</strong></td>
<td data-col="3" data-row="1"><strong>372</strong></td>
<td data-col="4" data-row="1"><strong>594</strong></td>
<td data-col="5" data-row="1"><strong>-36</strong></td>
<td data-col="6" data-row="1"><strong>265</strong></td>
<td data-col="7" data-row="1"><strong>60</strong></td>
<td data-col="8" data-row="1"><strong>227</strong></td>
<td data-col="9" data-row="1"><strong>7</strong></td>
<td data-col="10" data-row="1"><strong>14</strong></td>
<td data-col="11" data-row="1"><strong>27</strong></td>
<td data-col="12" data-row="1"><strong>4</strong></td>
<td data-col="13" data-row="1"><strong>1,841</strong></td>
<td data-col="14" data-row="1"><strong>12.1</strong></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>


<p class="p1">On a night when lapses, spotty goaltending, and playing from behind cost the Edmonton Oilers a point in a <a href="https://publish.oilersnation.com/2023/02/15/game-55-0-wrap-up-edmonton-oilers-lose-5-4-to-detroit-red-wings-rematch/">5-4 shootout loss to the Detroit Red Wings</a>, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins put together one of those games fans have come to expect from him this season.</p>
<p class="p1">Nugent-Hopkins, who’ll be 30 in April and is the longest-serving player on coach Jay Woodcroft’s roster with <a href="https://www.nhl.com/player/ryan-nugent-hopkins-8476454" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="s1">774 games</span></a> with the Oilers in the books, scored a pair of goals and added an assist to give him 26-40-66, just three points back of his career-high of 69 points, set in 2018-19 – a mark he’ll blow by soon enough.</p>
<p class="p1">And while his three points weren’t enough to push the Oilers past the Red Wings during a bit of a rough patch in which they’ve gone 3-1-3 in their last seven games, this was yet another example of a night when RNH went about his business and was one of the best players on the ice – there’s been plenty of those.</p>
<p class="p1">Nugent-Hopkins got the Oilers on the board <a href="https://www.nhl.com/video/nugent-hopkins-fires-one-home/t-336220262/c-15317004" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="s1">at 2-1</span></a> in the second period when he took a pass from Connor McDavid and snapped at shot past Ville Husso. He scored his second on <a href="https://www.nhl.com/video/nugent-hopkins-nets-second-goal/t-336220262/c-15317806" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="s1">a goalmouth feed</span></a> from McDavid to cut it to 3-2 and he continued to be prolific with the man-advantage with the second assist on a power-play goal by Leon Draisaitl to cut Detroit’s lead to 4-3 early in the third period.</p>

<h1 class="p1"><b>RECORD PACE</b></h1>
[caption id="attachment_128376" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]<img class="size-large wp-image-128376" src="https://publish.oilersnation.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Edmonton-Oilers-Ryan-Nugent-Hopkins-stare-1024x683.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="683" /> Feb 9, 2023; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Edmonton Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (93) against the Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports[/caption]
<p class="p1">With his 26-40-66, Nugent-Hopkins sit behind only McDavid, with 42-57-99, and Draisaitl, with 31-49-0, in team scoring. Game-in and game-out, he’s been a go-to guy for Woodcroft whether you’re talking even-strength or with a man advantage. RNH has been as close to plug-and-play as it gets. Put him out there and chances are he’ll make something happen.</p>
<p class="p1">“I thought we did a pretty good job of battling back and getting at least one point, but it's disappointing not to get the second,” <a href="https://www.nhl.com/oilers/news/game-recap-red-wings-5-oilers-4-so/c-341102472?tid=282301102" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="s1">said Nugent-Hopkins</span></a>. “We can't dwell on it now. We climbed our way back into that game. They had two power-play goals and two face off goals. I thought for the most part, we carried the play and got ourselves one point.</p>
<p class="p1">“I think we could have put more (shots) on net early. I thought they came out with some jump too . . . we couldn’t find that extra one tonight.”</p>
<p class="p1">“I thought we had control of a lot of parts of that game,” <a href="https://www.nhl.com/oilers/video/post-raw--woodcroft-021523/t-281751750/c-15320910" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><span class="s1">Woodcroft said</span></a>. “I didn’t mind our start. I thought we generated enough chances to win the game, but I just thought we were a little bit sloppy in some of our details. We lost the special team’s game, which isn’t conducive to winning hockey games. I thought there were a couple of moments within the game where we were the architects of our own chance against.”</p>

<h2><strong>NUGENT-HOPKINS SEASON SO FAR</strong></h2>
<div class="player-overview__stats">
<div class="season-summary__table">
<div class="responsive-datatable">
<div class="responsive-datatable__inner">
<div class="responsive-datatable__scrollable">
<div>
<table>
<thead>
<tr>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="0">Season</th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="1"><abbr title="Games Played">GP</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="2"><abbr title="Goals">G</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="3"><abbr title="Assists">A</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="4"><abbr title="Points">P</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="5"><abbr title="Plus/Minus">+/-</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="6"><abbr title="Penalty Minutes">PIM</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="7"><abbr title="Power Play Goals">PPG</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="8"><abbr title="Power Play Points">PPP</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="9"><abbr title="Shorthanded Goals">SHG</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="10"><abbr title="Shorthanded Points">SHP</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="11"><abbr title="Game Winning Goals">GWG</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="12"><abbr title="Overtime Goals">OTG</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="13"><abbr title="Shots">S</abbr></th>
<th class="no-sort" data-index="14"><abbr title="Shooting Percentage">S%</abbr></th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr data-index="0">
<td data-col="0" data-row="0">2022-2023</td>
<td data-col="1" data-row="0">55</td>
<td data-col="2" data-row="0">26</td>
<td data-col="3" data-row="0">40</td>
<td data-col="4" data-row="0">66</td>
<td data-col="5" data-row="0">9</td>
<td data-col="6" data-row="0">26</td>
<td data-col="7" data-row="0">9</td>
<td data-col="8" data-row="0">35</td>
<td data-col="9" data-row="0">1</td>
<td data-col="10" data-row="0">2</td>
<td data-col="11" data-row="0">2</td>
<td data-col="12" data-row="0">0</td>
<td data-col="13" data-row="0">134</td>
<td data-col="14" data-row="0">19.4</td>
</tr>
<tr data-index="1">
<td data-col="0" data-row="1"><strong>NHL Career</strong></td>
<td data-col="1" data-row="1"><strong>774</strong></td>
<td data-col="2" data-row="1"><strong>222</strong></td>
<td data-col="3" data-row="1"><strong>372</strong></td>
<td data-col="4" data-row="1"><strong>594</strong></td>
<td data-col="5" data-row="1"><strong>-36</strong></td>
<td data-col="6" data-row="1"><strong>265</strong></td>
<td data-col="7" data-row="1"><strong>60</strong></td>
<td data-col="8" data-row="1"><strong>227</strong></td>
<td data-col="9" data-row="1"><strong>7</strong></td>
<td data-col="10" data-row="1"><strong>14</strong></td>
<td data-col="11" data-row="1"><strong>27</strong></td>
<td data-col="12" data-row="1"><strong>4</strong></td>
<td data-col="13" data-row="1"><strong>1,841</strong></td>
<td data-col="14" data-row="1"><strong>12.1</strong></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>

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