It’s one thing for a football team that plays four games a month to make a mantra of never losing two games in a row. It’s quite another for an Edmonton Oilers club that will play its final 34 games over a 66-day stretch.
But for now, after they walked into one of the toughest rinks in the National Hockey League and beat the Dallas Stars 4-3 in overtime, the Oilers can boast of not having lost two in a row since Dec. 16 and 19
A team that found itself quasi on the ropes coming out of St. Louis came up with a massive performance in Dallas, starting their backup goalie against a Stars team on an 8-1-1 run and walking away with two points on a gutsy Saturday afternoon in Texas.
This after losing two out of five games since the All-Star break, and on the heels of a solid spanking by the St. Louis Blues two days previous.
“This is new to us right now. We didn’t lose a game for so long… When you lose, it doesn’t feel good,” Brett Kulak said before the game. “When you win 16 in a row you feel like you might never lose. But the reality is, you lose games, you have bad periods, and things go wrong. It’s just about working through that.”
Back home in Edmonton, fans were trading away players, swapping lines and wondering if they should believe all those Canucks and Flames fans who’ve been pointing out that the Oilers’ 16-game skein came mostly against also-rans.
But inside the dressing room, this latest run of futility is nothing but a scratch for a team that was 2-9-1 in its first dozen games this season.
“Talk about the mental side of it, we’ve been in some much darker places this season,” laughed Darnell Nurse. “To win one and lose one in the fashion that we have (of late), we’ve been in much worse spots.”
On Saturday, with Calvin Pickard running his personal record to 7-2, Evan Bouchard’s second of the game on an overtime power play sent the Oilers on their way to Arizona with a legit chance at a 2-1 road trip.
Leon Draisaitl absolutely walked Roope Hintz in the Dallas slot to open overtime, and Wyatt Johnston’s hook quashed his scoring chance. Draisaitl won the draw on the ensuing powerplay, and Bouchard took it from there, moving to his right and wiring a wrist shot past Stars goalie Jake Oettinger.
“Tonight was probably the best game I've seen (Bouchard) play in the last couple of weeks,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “He's very dangerous … his ability to fire the puck. He’s got the big bomb, but a lot of his goals are just little wristers from the point. The last one (in OT), he makes a little move, walks the line and freezes the forward, then rips a nice little wrister inside the post.”
Like a few players before him — Al MacInnis, Al Iafrate, Sheldon Souray come to mind — Bouchard just has that gift. His slapshot is elite, but his wrist shot is also harder than almost anyone else on the ice.
He overpowered Oettinger with a wrist shot in the second period, then ripped the OT winner far side. It was Bouchard’s second OT winner of the season.
Meanwhile, the line of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Corey Perry — all three past Hart Trophy winners — was a study in effectiveness. McDavid and Draisaitl’s chemistry is well known — but adding the greasy Perry to the mix changes the line’s recipe entirely.
“I’m just trying to give them time and space,” said the 38-year-old Perry, who banged in a McDavid feed and added an assist. “You know, Connor is skating, moving around and cutting back — all that fun stuff. A couple of times there, I set a little pick and let (McDavid) go, and then get back to the front of the net.
IN THE CREASE — Bouchard’s two goals, his 13th and 14th, set a new career high … McDavid’s lone point, an assist, is his NHL-leading 60th helper of the season. It’s his eighth straight 60-assist season … This was the sixth straight game in which Edmonton allowed at least three goals. This, after setting the team record going 14 straight games allowing two or less … The Oilers moved into a tie for the most wins in the NHL when tied after two periods with nine, tying Florida and Philadelphia … It’s another day game on Monday in Arizona to round out this road trip, 2 p.m. MT on Sportsnet.
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