With Oscar Klefbom and Kris Russell both out with injuries, the Oilers had their backs up against the wall in Winnipeg. Still, they managed to put in a gritty effort, erasing a 3-1 deficit and picking up a point in overtime. Three of four points on this mini road trip ain’t bad.

What happened…

The Oilers opened the scoring half-way through the first period. Leon Draisaitl picked up a turnover at the blueline and found Ryan Spooner for a one-timer snap in the slot that beat Connor Hellebuyck. I have a feeling we could see some goals from Spooner if he sees more time with the top centres.
The Jets would answer back with two goals late in the first and one early in the second to take a 3-1 lead. Mathieu Perreault buried a power play goal, a Matt Benning turnover led to a Nik Ehlers goal that redirected off of Kevin Gravel’s skate, and Patrik Laine got left alone in the slot for the third goal.
The Oilers then scored three straight goals of their own to regain the lead. Darnell Nurse crashed the net and deflected a rebound off of his skate and in (the goal was reviewed but it stood, as it should have), Jesse Puljujarvi worked the puck behind the net out front and off JJ Khaira for the game-tying goal, and then Alex Chiasson redirected a nice pass from Connor McDavid to take the lead. That second one, though, was especially nice because it involved Puljujarvi finally getting in the mix and using his size and skill offensively.
The Jets were relentless in the third period, outshooting the Oilers by a margin of 17-2. Cam Talbot largely stood tall, but Mark Scheifele managed to squeeze one by to tie the game.
The Oilers managed to grind their way to overtime despite the Jets pouring on endless pressure. Connor McDavid nearly ended the game but hit the post, then, soon after, Schiefele found a streaking Josh Morrissey who got one past Cam Talbot for the win. I know this looks soft on Talbot, but this really comes down to some pretty ugly defence from the Oilers left on the ice.

By the numbers…

The shot chart perfectly summarizes what went down last night. The Oilers and Jets played a tightly contested game for the first 40 minutes and then Winnipeg took over as Edmonton was clearly the more exhausted squad. The Jets hammered the Oilers with 34 (!!!) shot attempts in the third period, though the Oilers did a solid job limiting it to seven high danger chances.

Thoughts…

  • The Oilers just went on a two-game road trip against two of the top teams in the Central Division and managed to take three of four points. That’s damn good stuff.
  • Many are blaming Talbot for the loss but if it wasn’t for his showing in the third period the Oilers don’t manage an overtime point. That overtime goal looked soft, I agree, but the defence on the play was ugly. I think that was the case on most of the goals Talbot let in last night. The Perreault goal was ugly D on the PK, the Ehlers goal was a weird bounce, the third, well, you can’t leave Laine in front of the net like that, and the game-tying goal from Schiefele came from within five feet of the net. It’s easy to see five goals against and think Talbot was bad, but that simply wasn’t the case here.
  • I thought the blueline did a decent job of mitigating the loss of Klefbom and Russell. Adam Larsson and Darnell Nurse really stepped up and munched a lot of challenging minutes, but I was impressed particularly with the rock-solid 20 minutes from Kevin Gravel. He played with a very-erratic Matt Benning last night and managed to protect the front of the net nicely. Sticking with the blueline, I would probably put Caleb Jones out there over Jason Garrison. Garrison only played nine minutes last night and looked really, really slow. He can’t keep up with teams that can wheel like the Jets.