After a disappointing wrap to Friday’s game against St. Louis to finish the road trip, the Edmonton Oilers were back on home ice for their third meeting of the season against the Nashville Predators. And much like the game on Friday, the Oilers built themselves a two-goal lead heading into the third period. Only this time, they found a way to get the job done. Final score: 3-1 Oilers

Before I get to the horror that is a potential Leon Draisaitl injury, can I interest you in one stat that shows how dominant he’s been against the Nashville Predators? It’s pretty fun. You in? Cool! When Draisaitl opened the scoring at 3:12 on the power play, it marked his 30th goal in 32 career games against the Predators. That’s stupid. Those are beer league numbers. We’ll never know what it is about the Preds that brings out the best in Draisaitl, but I’m guessing it has something to do with a hatred of their awful yellow jerseys. Maybe that’s just me. Either way, Draisaitl has been haunting Nashville for years, and it’s one of the greatest heaters against a single opponent that I’ve ever seen. A generational run.

The problem, of course, came when Ozzy Wiesblatt took a healthy run at Draisaitl along the boards and sent him crashing into the wall pretty good. At the risk of angering Darren Dreger with a couch diagnosis, we have no idea what happened to No. 29 after the hit went down, but it’s pretty clear that he is not doing well. As admirable as it was that Drai came back and played despite under clear duress, it was the right decision to shut him down for the remainder of the evening. But as much as that was the right call, it’s also one that will have all of us pacing nervously until we find out more about the severity of the problem. What we know for sure is that Draisaitl wasn’t moving well, and losing him for any length of time would obviously be a massive gut punch to the Oilers‘ stretch run. We shall see what news the day brings.

Sometimes, when I watch Matt Savoie play, I find it easy to forget that he just turned 22 on January 1st of this year. Despite his name floating around for years, we’re talking about a player who’s working through his first full season at the NHL level, a league that chews up prospects twice his size. So, when I think about wanting more offence out of him, my opinion hasn’t changed that it’s a matter of “when” and not “if” when it comes to more points hitting the scoresheet. The kid ends up in the right place too often for the dam not to break eventually, but in the meantime, it was nice to see him get rewarded with his 11th goal of the year against the Predators. He’s had more than a few quality looks over the last few games, but the finish wasn’t there.

This time, Savoie ended up as the business end of a perfectly executed two-on-one with Connor McDavid and shelved the puck perfectly up and over Justus Annunen. There was no hesitation this time around. That puck was off his stick in a hurry. Savoie now has points in consecutive games (1G, 1A) after going pointless in his last four. That pointless streak followed what Savoie’s most productive run of the year, which saw him grab seven points (1G, 6A) in a four-game stretch. My point is that Savoie’s offensive side is a work in progress and might be for a while. The good news is that he already plays well at the other end of the rink and can be trusted to handle his defensive responsibilities, and my bet is that he’ll start converting on his opportunities sooner rather than later. I believe all he needs is more at-bats.

I wonder if it feels any different for Connor Ingram now that Kris Knoblauch has publicly named him the team’s starting goalie, and that his playing time would reflect the designation. Not that we haven’t known Ingram is the starter based on how many starts he’s been getting, but I do wonder what saying it out loud does for the player and the room. It goes without saying that the Tristan Jarry trade has been a disaster so far, but knowing that Ingram is the guy going forward means that we’re going to have to ride-or-die with him when the games matter most. It’s hard to believe the position the team is in after swapping out both of its netminders mid-season, but we’re here now, this is our tandem, and No. 39 has the keys to the castle.

Thankfully, Connor Ingram delivered a performance against the Predators that was fitting of the title Knoblauch gave him. Not that he was perfect, but more often than not, he was square to the puck, handled rebounds well, and covered any mistakes by the skaters in front of him. The only goal that beat him needed an unfriendly bounce off the post to beat, and if that doesn’t deserve a sunshine sticker on the report card, then I don’t know what does. Ingram made the saves his teammates needed him to make and provided a stable foundation for them to do their thing. In the end, Ingram stopped 27 of 28 shots, was fantastic on the PK, finished with a .964 save percentage, and was a major reason Edmonton collected two massive points in the standings. One strong start doesn’t mean the issue is fixed, but it’s a nice step in the right direction. The tricky part will be to do it consistently.

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