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The Day After: The Oilers score a touchdown against the Senators
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Photo credit: © Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports
Cam Lewis
Mar 11, 2021, 10:30 ESTUpdated: Mar 11, 2021, 10:31 EST
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That was one of the more dominant performances you’ll ever see.
The Oilers pounded the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night, exploding for seven goals while holding their opponents to virtually nothing the other way until garbage time in the third period.
Edmonton buried two goals early and then added a couple more before the end of the first period to carry a 4-0 lead into the intermission. From there, they scored two more in the second and one in the third to go up 7-0 before easing off the gas a bit. Ottawa managed one goal to bust the shutout but this game was never close.
From top to bottom the Oilers dominated the Sens. At one point, near the middle of the game, the Oilers had more goals than the Senators had shots on goals. It’s one thing to see that mid-way through the first period, it’s another to see that after half-an-hour of play.
Leon Draisaitl was the star offensively for Edmonton on Wednesday night with a hat-trick and five points. He has four goals and six points since being reunited with Connor McDavid, a nice boost after his eight-game stretch without a goal.
After the game, Dave Tippett said that Draisaitl took a few days of rest from practice and has come back feeling much better…
“There were two or three days there he didn’t practice,” Tippett said. He got some rest, took care of his body a little bit. He’s come back and feeling good now and it’s showing on the ice.”
Beyond Draisaitl, there were multiple performances that stood out last night. Jujhar Khaira and another rock-solid game as the third pivot and scored a goal. He’s now up to eight points, all at even-strength, through 19 games. The third-line centre has been a big question for the Oilers this season but Khaira is proving he could be the answer here.
Tippett was quick to praise Khaira’s play after the game…
“He’s played really well,” Tippett said. “I give him a ton of credit because early on, it wasn’t going his way. He missed some games, went down to the taxi squad and worked his butt off. I give him credit, he’s come back and been a big part of our team.”
The Darnell Nurse and Tyson Barrie pairing has also been excellent for the Oilers. When they’re on the ice with the McDavid and Draisaitl combo, the Oilers look unstoppable. In 17 minutes of even-strength play together, Nurse and Barrie were on the ice for 19 shots-on-goal and only five against. That’s pure puck possession dominance.
Barrie said after the game that he feels he’s found chemistry with his new teammates after a slow start to the season…
“I think I got off to a bit of a slow start,” Barrie said. “I was trying to get some chemistry and find my way. I’m feeling pretty comfortable with my game the last couple weeks. The points come with team success and it helps having those guys out there and getting to play with them.
I really enjoy playing with nursey too. He’s a super steady guy, a great puck-mover and I think we’ve got some chemistry ourselves.”
The Oilers have now won three in a row since getting swept by the Maple Leafs and they’ll have a chance to sweep the Sens on Friday. Ottawa will surely be looking for vengeance after Wednesday’s loss so the Oilers need to continue to push hard in order to bag these points.

Backhanders…

  • The Oilers now have a 17-11 record at the middle point of the season. If they operate at this exact pace the rest of the way, they’ll finish 34-22, good for 68 points, which would put them in contention for home-ice-advantage in the first round of the playoffs. For the sake of comparison, the Oilers had a 16-9-3 record after 28 games last year, but went cold in December and had a 20-17-4 record at the season’s middle point after 41 games (well, what we thought the middle point would have been before we knew the season was going to be cut short). As with last season, the Oilers have built themselves a nice cushion of points that allows for some room for error later on in the season.
  • Edmonton is now 6-0 against Ottawa this season, meaning they have an 11-11 record against everybody else in the division. People will undoubtedly use this as a way to criticize Edmonton’s overall record but the Sens aren’t just an automatic win. Heading into this series, they had won seven of twelve games, including an epic come-from-behind win over the Leafs and two lopsided spankings of the Flames. A win is a win, even when it comes against a team that, on paper, you should beat. These points don’t count for less.
  • With his five-point explosion on Wednesday, Leon Draisaitl is up to 42 points through 28 games and is back in second in the league in scoring behind Connor McDavid. Draisaitl’s point-per-game pace of 1.50 is just a shade below his production of 1.55 last season that won him the Art Ross Trophy. It would be amazing to see these two finish one and two in the league in scoring.

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