A decade ago, Tuesday night’s game against the Boston Bruins would’ve gone a much different way.
They would’ve rolled into Edmonton, dominated play on the ice, choked out scoring chances and held the Oilers scoreless. Oh, how the times have changed.
These Edmonton Oilers of today showed Tuesday night why they’re one of the top teams in the league, rolling into TD Garden and walking out with a 4-0 win. It wasn’t just any 4-0 win, though, as Stuart Skinner got robbed of a shutout when Bruins blue liner Nikita Zadorov crashed into him.
While Skinner would shake the hit off, accept an apology from the hulking defenceman, and carry on with the game. And he didn’t just twirl his fingers when he got back into the crease, either. He slammed the door on the Boston Bruins.
He would get some help, though, as Adam Henrique scored twice, Connor McDavid and Viktor Arvidsson added goals of their own, and the team played as tight of a defensive game as you could ask for.
“It was amazing,” said Skinner. “I think the way we are defending is very impressive.“I think you can tell by the amount of shots that we give up throughout the nights, but I think even when you see a team come in and get a lot of shots, we’re still defending really, really well and keeping things to the outside, and just battling. A great team effort here tonight. It’s hard to get wins in this building. It feels good to get one.”
For the majority of teams, that’s the case. In the last decade, teams not named the Edmonton Oilers have a 147-205-48 record when rolling into TD Garden getting outscored, on average, 3.2 to 2.5 across those 400 games.
Not the Edmonton Oilers, who have somehow found ways to win in Beantown, going 7-2 in their previous nine visits before Tuesday night’s game, outscoring Boston 28-23, or 3.1 to 2.6, on average.
And if you look at the previous three trips over five years between the 2009-10 season and the 2013-14 season, they were all losses in which the Oilers were outscored, in aggregate, 12-3. Woof.
So what was key for the Oilers in last night’s win?
“I thought we defended really well,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “We did have some breakdowns, and Stu came up with some really big saves. I thought probably the biggest one was on the power play in the second period. We give up the breakaway and he makes the save, and then we go back and we score.“He doesn’t make that save, it’s probably a completely different game. But he makes that save, we score, and then we kind of were able to a little bit cruise through that game.”
It’s all about building for this team, and that’s exactly what they’ve done as of late, refining details in their game along the way that have paid off.
That attention has paid off in dividends, and a breakout performance from the Oilers’ new look third line is nothing short of a boon for the team.
Henrique opened the scoring six and a half minutes into the game when Corey Perry fed him in the slot from behind the net, firing a shot over top of a helpless Jeremy Swayman. Connor McDavid would score that aforementioned power play marker, and then Rico was back at it, extending the lead to 3-0.
Once again, a pass from behind the goal line — this time from Jeff Skinner — was just what the Oilers needed.
“I’m just trying to time it and be in the right spot, and go to where the puck’s going to be,” said Henrique, who was welcomed into the dressing room with chants of his nickname, Rico, after the game. “Perrs (Perry) was in his office behind the net on the first one, and again Skinny (Jeff Skinner), we had a few of those looks from behind the net earlier in the game, then he found me too on that second one.“It’s nice to get on the board and it certainly helps with the confidence, but it’s the overall game and making sure that I’m solid in all situations as well.”
Edmonton’s attention to detail will be key moving forward, Knoblauch noted.
“We have to. There’s teams we want to pass, there’s teams that are playing better than us ahead of us in the standings, and there’s teams that want to catch up,” he said. “If we’re not getting better everyday, we’re going to get passed and we’re not going to catch those other teams we feel we can play better than.“We’re happy with our game this last month or so, we’re winning games, but it’s far from being perfect. We need to have stuff to work on.”
The Oilers will look to stay hot Thursday night when they pay visit to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, and senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
