After two losses in Toronto and Montreal, the Edmonton Oilers sought to salvage their eastern Canadian road trip with a win over the struggling Ottawa Senators. Fortunately, the boys were able to do exactly that with a flurry of offence that overwhelmed the Sens to the tune of a 5-2 finish.

When Connor McDavid is at his best, it’s nearly impossible to stop him. His wheels are too fast, his hands are too quick, and his brain processes the game at a level beyond what anyone outside of Gretzky can match. The captain was buzzing on that higher level Tuesday against the Senators. For most of the 22:08 of ice time he played, McDavid was basically able to do as he pleased with the puck on his stick, and that understandably caused all kinds of issues for Ottawa. Given how he was ripping around, one might almost consider scoring “only” two goals to be unlucky.

With 15 points (6G, 9A) in his last six games, Connor McDavid is starting to go supernova, and that’s huge news for an Oilers team still struggling to score goals. Outside of the Dynamic Duo, Edmonton is gagging for goals, and that means the captain needs to drag everyone else along more than we’d like. That said, when he’s playing as deadly as he is right now, it’s no stretch to suggest that he can win games on his own. Even though he didn’t need to last night, McDavid was so good against the Sens that you have to think his teammates were inspired by what they were watching. That’s what greatness can do.

Stuart Skinner has had an up-and-down season through his first 13 appearances, and even though it’s still fairly early, we’re getting to a point where he needs to start stringing together some quality performances. While the Ottawa Senators may not be an offensive juggernaut or anything like that, they’re still a team with some weapons, and it was going to take a solid performance in net to avoid a third straight loss. From start to finish, Skinner provided his teammates with exactly that.

Even though Skinner wasn’t as busy as his counterpart for the first 40 minutes, he was called upon in a big way in the third. The game was basically out of reach by that point, but that didn’t stop the Sens from throwing more pucks on net in the third period than they did at any other point. Even with plenty of run support on the board, Skinner was steady until the very end and earned the .931 save percentage, which happened to be his best outing since Nov. 3 against the Calgary Flames.

I’m not saying that one win and strong performance means everything is fixed between the pipes, but I’m hopeful Skinner can draw some confidence from a steady night in the crease. Stu is at his best when he’s calm in the net and square to the shooters, and last night’s win was about as locked in as he’s looked in a while. I know it’s going to take more than one game to get some folks off his back, but I still fully believe he’s up for the challenge of getting his season back on the rails.

Sports are funny, aren’t they? Evan Bouchard has been a major topic around here for the last little bit, including back-to-back games where his lack of backchecking and poor decisions may or may not have directly contributed to three goals against. Bouchard will never be a defensive wizard — that’s not who he is — but the way he’s gotten caught in bad spots lately has been especially bad, even for him. On the most basic level, we just expect and need more than that from him.

The frustrating part for those of us who love this player is that he’s so much better than how he’s been playing lately. To me, it’s a product of confidence or lack thereof. Then he goes out and scores the goal he did — one of the best you’ll ever see — along with a pair of assists, and it should be a reminder of why we need to be patient with him. Just because he looks 40 doesn’t mean last night wasn’t only his 285th career game. At 25 years old, there’s still plenty for Bouchard to learn, even though the team is most definitely going to overpay him.

I guess my point here is that Evan Bouchard is never going to be a perfect defender, but when he’s at his best and feeling confident, there are very few other defencemen in the league who can produce points the way he can. When it comes to whatever this next contract looks like, the decision management will have to make is how much they’re willing to pay him, knowing the warts that accompany the offensive brilliance. I guess the answer will depend on how many three-point nights he puts up like Tuesday’s performance in Ottawa and how much those nights allow everyone else to forget about the others.

1. Evan Bouchard opened the scoring (1-0) with what might be one of the prettiest goals you’ll see all season. After taking a pass in stride, Bouchard walked through the entire Sens roster before roofing his shot up and over Ullmark on the glove-hand side. It was one of those goals that made you shake your head, because it was as nasty as it gets in this league.

2. Tim Stutzle tied the game (1-1) with a rocket of a shot from right the slot after Drake Batherson found him charging toward the net with absolutely no one around. Even though there are people reading this who won’t buy it, there’s not much Skinner could have done about that goal.

3. Only 35 seconds after the Sens knotted the score, Connor McDavid restored the lead (2-1) after a strong second effort by Vasily Podkolzin freed the puck up for a quick cross-ice pass that seemed to catch Ottawa off guard. Even though Podzilla’s pass didn’t make it through to the captain cleanly, McDavid’s quick hands were still able to get the job done and knock the puck into an open cage.

4. Three minutes after restoring the lead, Connor McDavid gave the Oilers some insurance (3-1) on the power play (!!!) after zipping a shot through traffic from the high slot and having the puck make its way past everyone and into the back of the net. Unlike what we saw against Montreal last night, the boys were actually shooting the puck on the power play and the strategy paid off quickly.

5. Leon Draisaitl pulled himself to within a single goal of the league lead (4-1) when Connor McDavid found him in alone behind Ottawa’s defence where he then dangled Ullmark and slid the puck through his legs. I think my favourite part of the goal, though, was when Draisaitl chirped the Senators’ bench on his way past for the bench fly-by.

6. After what seemed like countless chances over the last few games, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins finally got something to go (5-1) after Derek Ryan found him charging toward the crease with his stick on the ice. Once Ryan’s pass got there, RNH tipped the puck up and over Ullmark for a goal that he so desperately needed. May the floodgates open, pal.

7. Josh Norris narrowed the gap (5-2) on a deflection in the slot on Nick Jensen’s point shot that was very close to being a high stick. The NHL did review the goal momentarily, but it was deemed to be a good goal even though I thought the replay clearly showed Norris’ stick was above the shoulder. That said, I’m also incredibly biased so what the hell do I know?

8. Zach Hyman was not on the Oilers bench when the third period began, and the last thing we need is for ZMH to be out of the lineup too. We already don’t really know what’s going on with Viktor Arvidsson, so to have Hyman miss the rest of Tuesday’s game was incredibly unfortunate.

9. It may be the caveman in me but I still love a good scrap, and we got a decent one last night when Josh Brown squared up with Zack MacEwan early in the first period.

10. The Oilers penalty kill has now killed off 12 consecutive penalties over five games of perfection. Another small win for the PK, but we should celebrate it a little bit based on how poor the penalty kill was a couple of weeks ago.

11. Death, taxes, and your ol’ pal Baggedmilk telling you that the Oilers won only 48.3% of the faceoffs.

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