It was only a matter of time before the Edmonton Oilers offence broke out.
Heading into Friday’s game where Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins would roll into town, the Oilers had racked up a meagre 14 goals through their first seven games — two per game, for those counting at home. It was a far cry from the 3.4 goals per game mark they had in the 2023-24 season, and it started to feel like they would simply never score again.
Feelings aside that wasn’t going to be the case for long. The team, simply put, is far too talented to be denied for long, but by the halfway mark of Friday’s game, Edmonton had five times the amount of shots as the Penguins did. Yes, you read that right.
Joel Blomqvist had been standing on his head keeping his team alive, but it wouldn’t last for long, and neither would a slump that saw newcomer Viktor Arvidsson held pointless through the Oilers first seven games of the season.
Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard would fire a puck up the wall from below his own goal line, looking to clear the zone, but Arvidsson would make a play near the benches to fire a no-look pass to Leon Draisaitl. he would make a move around a Penguin, skate the puck up the ice and fire a shot off the opposite post and in, making it a 1-0 game.
Arvidsson’s work wasn’t done, as a little over four minutes later, he would feed Bouchard at the point, who walked down and wired a shot home. 2-0.
While he wouldn’t contribute on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ goal to make it 3-0, he would on the fourth of the game, once again with a primary helper, winning a faceoff draw to Mattias Ekholm, whose long wrist shot would beat Blomqvist.
“That’s the Viktor I know,” said Ekholm, who played seven seasons with Arvidsson in Nashville. “He’s always the hardest working (guy) out there, he’ll beat you out for icings, he’s a pain in the ass to play against.
“I thought he had a really big night. I thought even in the circle, he won that faceoff to me. That was very nice to see. He’s getting more and more comfortable every night where he gets to play here and get chemistry with his linemates, and tonight, I think he showed what he can really do. He really played a solid night.”
And while Arvidsson would help the Oilers breakout offensively, the team truly poured it on the Penguins all night long. Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said after the game a big part of that was thanks to Edmonton’s play in their defensive zone.
“I thought it started with the defensive zone coverage,” he said. “We weren’t giving up much, we weren’t spending much time there early in the game, which led to us not having to defend and spending more time in the offensive zone.”
As good of a night as it was, it almost ended in horrible fashion for Arvidsson. With just over five minutes left in the game, he beat out Penguins defenceman Marcus Pettersson in a foot-race to a puck, but ended up getting dumped into the boards hard, clearly in discomfort on the ice. He would get up on his own and take a 25-second shift in the final minute of the game.
His teammates, however, weren’t going to let that fly. Draisaitl scrummed with Pettersson right after the hit, but the later would have to answer the bell off the next faceoff, when Darnell Nurse challenged him to a fight.
The win moves the Oilers to 3-4-1 on the season, and they’ll look to continue improving that Sunday when they kick off a four-game road trip against the Detroit Red Wings, for a 4 p.m. MST puckdrop. It will also take them to visit the Columbus Blue Jackets Monday, the Nashville Predators Thursday, before finishing it the following Sunday against the Calgary Flames.
Zach Laing is the Nation Network’s news director and senior columnist, making up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
