For the second time in two weeks, the Edmonton Oilers play the Nashville Predators on a Thursday.
In that edition of Throwback Thursday, we looked at the game where Leon Draisaitl torched the Predators, scoring four goals against them on Mar. 2, 2020. Since they play the Predators again two Thursdays from now, we’ll instead look at the Oilers record on Halloween.
The Oilers are in their 46th season since joining the National Hockey League. Funnily enough, they’ve only played 11 games against nine different opponents on Halloween, most recently during the 2015-16 season. In those 11 games, they are 5-4-2, out-scoring their opposition 40-30. One game, the first one we’ll look at, is a big reason for that.

1981-82

Edmonton’s first Halloween game came in their third season, as they faced off against the Québec Nordiques at Northlands Coliseum, with the Oilers smashing them 11-4 to bring their season record to 9-4.
Wayne Gretzky accounted for four of these goals, scoring his 10th, 11th, 12th, and 13th goals of the season in what became the highest-scoring season of all time, as the Great One finished with 92 goals. Also getting on the score sheet for the Oilers were Matti Hagman (twice), Brett Callighen, Glenn Anderson, and Jari Kurri (also twice).
It’s not Edmonton’s largest margin of victory nor the most goals they’ve scored in a game (they won another 11-4 game less than two months later), but it was the most goals in a game they had scored up to that point.

1982-83

The Oilers suffered their first Halloween loss the following season, as they fell 3-2 to the Vancouver Canucks. Scoring in this game were Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier. Richard Brodeur (no relation to Martin) picked up the victory, but a fun fact about him is that he’s the netminder that Wayne Gretzky has scored the most on with 29 goals.
Edmonton made it to their first Stanley Cup Final in 1983, but with this loss, their season record became 4-6-3. The three times the Oilers fell short in the Stanley Cup Final, they’ve started their first 13 games with a 4-6-3 record, a 6-6-1 record in 2006, and a 2-9-1 record last season.

1986-87

Four years later, the Oilers would get their revenge on the Canucks, defeating them 6-2 to bring their season record to 6-2. At two different points in this game, the Oilers were down a goal, but heading into the third period with a 2-2 score, the Oilers took control with Gretzky scoring two goals and Paul Coffey and Mark Messier each scoring once. That was Messier’s second of the game, while Mike Krushelnyski had the other goal in the second period.
One of Vancouver’s goals was scored by Steve Tambellini, yes, the future Oilers general manager. Over his 10-year career, he scored 160 goals and 310 points in 553 games, with the 1986-87 season being his penultimate season
Vancouver was one of two teams the Oilers have played twice on Halloween, the other team had their first meeting with the Oilers the following season.

1987-88

The following season, the Oilers faced off against the New Jersey Devils, falling 6-5 to bring their season record to 6-5-0. It’s okay though, as the Oilers won the Stanley Cup in 1988. Early in the third period, Pat Verbeek scored to make it 6-3 for the Devils. Despite goals from Mark Messier and Glenn Anderson in the final five minutes of the game, the Oilers fell short in their comeback bid.
The two teams combined for 111 penalty minutes, which sounds like a ton in today’s day and age but doesn’t even rank in the top 86 games for the most penalty minutes in league history. Man, 1980’s hockey was a totally different beast and I wish I could’ve experienced it.

1990-91

From a high-scoring game to a game that finished 1-0 in overtime, the Oilers fell to the original Winnipeg Jets 1-0 thanks to Pat Elynuik’s overtime winner 23 seconds into the extra frame. After winning a surprising Stanley Cup just a few months prior, the Oilers fell to 2-7-2 with this loss.
This game marked their fifth loss in a row, but it didn’t stop there, as they lost another four games to bring their season record to 2-11-2. Over their next 37 games, they went 25-10-2 to bring their record to 27-22-3. They made the postseason and even made it to the Conference Finals, where they fell to the Minnesota North Stars in five games.

1992-93

Two seasons later, the Oilers faced off against the Capitals, defeating them 4-2 to bring their season record to 3-8-1. Craig Simpson, Brian Glynn, Esa Tikkanen, and Josef Beránek, who was a part of the Wayne Gretzky trade tree.
Picking up an assist in this game was Bill Ranford, the 13th assist of his career. Overall, the netminder’s 24 assists rank tied for 16th in all-time scoring for the position. The 1992-93 season was also the first season the Oilers missed the playoffs since joining the National Hockey League.

1995-96

By the time Halloween rolled around in 1995, the dynasty was long gone and a new core with the likes of Doug Weight, Jason Arnott, Todd Marchant, and Miroslav Satan moved in. The Oilers defeated the New Jersey Devils 2-1 in this game to bring their season record to 4-5-1.
This was also the second and final time the Oilers played an opponent they played in a prior Halloween. Like the game in 1982 against the Canucks, the opposing team had a netminder with the last name Brodeur, with the Hall of Fame netminder saving 24 of 26 shots in this game.

1998-99

Three years later, the Oilers hosted the Mario Lemieux-less Pittsburgh Penguins, defeating them 4-1 to bring their season record to 5-4-0.
Kevin Brown opened the scoring on a power play 9:12 into the game.. Brown was born in Birmingham, England, and is one of just 50 United Kingdom-born players to have played in the National Hockey League. Overall, he played 64 games, the 26th most. He’s also one of only 10 UK-born players to play in the NHL since the turn of the millennium. 
Exactly a minute later, Boyd Devereaux scored a shorthanded goal for the game-winning goal. Andrei Kovalenko scored his second goal of the season late in the second period, followed by a Penguins goal from Rob Brown (no relation, he’s from Kingston, Ontario). Mike Grier scored late in the third period to give the Oilers a 4-1 win.

1999-00

The game against the St. Louis Blues was the final before the turn of the millennium, with the Oilers falling 3-2 to the Blues after jumping out to an early 2-0 lead. With the overtime loss, the Oilers moved to 2-2-2-2 on the season. Doug Weight and Janne Niimimaa picked up the goals for the Oilers in this game.
Funnily enough, a whole bunch of players in this game ended up with a job in hockey after their playing career ended. On the Oilers’ side, Dan Cleary serves as Detroit’s Director of Player Development, Mike Grier serves as the San Jose Sharks general manager, Jason Smith is currently an assistant coach for the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, and Doug Weight was the ex-head coach of the New York Islanders for two seasons.
As for the Blues, Marc Bergevin was the general manager of the Montréal Canadiens and now serves as the Senior Advisor to the General Manager for the Los Angeles Kings, Craig Conroy is the general manager of the Calgary Flames, and Chris Pronger worked in NHL Player Safety.

2009-10

The first Halloween game played in the 21st century was in 2009, as the Oilers fell 2-0 to the Boston Bruins to bring their season record to 7-6-1. It was the second time they were shut out on Halloween, as they fell 1-0 to the Jets in 1990.
Both goals came before the mid-way mark of the third period, as Blake Wheeler scored his fourth goal of the season and Valdimír Sobotka scored his first of the season just over four minutes later. Daniel Paille picked up assists on both goals.
Before the 2009-10 season, the Oilers signed netminder Nikolai Khabibulin (at the time he was 36 years old) to replace Dwayne Roloson. The Russian netminder had a solid season, posting a .909 save percentage in 18 games, but had season-ending back surgery in mid-January. His final season with the Oilers was in 2012-13, retiring on Nov. 13, 2015… for eight years, before returning to the Kontinental Hockey League to play for Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod as a 50-year-old. Sadly, he never played in a KHL game that season.

2015-16

The last time the Oilers played a Halloween game was in 2015, as they fell 5-4 to the Calgary Flames to bring their season record to 4-8-0. Edmonton’s four goals came courtesy of Taylor Hall, Brandon Davidson, Teddy Purcell, and Leon Draisaitl, the fifth goal of his NHL career.
This game featured the no-icing call with seconds left in the third period of a tied game. Michael Frolík took a shot from a terrible angle and the puck squeaked past Cam Talbot, giving Frolík his first hat trick in the National Hockey League. I was angry at the time (it was the right call), and I still am, but I’m not sure how I remember this play as it has been nine years since the Oilers last played on Halloween.
On Thursday, the Oilers will play the Nashville Predators, looking to snap a three-game losing streak in games that fall on Oct. 31.
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