EDMONTON — The struggle, as they say, was real.
The Philadelphia Flyers seemingly had the Edmonton Oilers‘ number, holding the National Hockey League’s highest-scoring team to one goal in 65 minutes two weeks ago in Philly, and just 10 shots on goal through 40 minutes in the Rogers Place rematch on Tuesday.
Sleepy?
People have more fun doing their taxes than the sellout crowd had for 40 minutes, the Oilers playing a disconnected, clumsy game against a Flyers team that squeezed them in the neutral zone like Jacques Lemaire’s pet boa constrictor.
“We didn’t really have our stuff. We were pretty flat,” admitted Oilers captain Connor McDavid. “Only 10 shots through 40? That isn’t good enough.”
But, as the Oilers learned while coughing up three-goal leads in each of the past two games, a hockey game consists of three periods — not two. And, for a change, it was Edmonton scoring the three goals in the final stanza.
On a night when the Los Angeles Kings lost in regulation and the Vegas Golden Knights dropped a shootout, the Oilers gained ground by gutting out a 4-2 win over the Flyers.
“You are down a goal and it didn’t go your way for 40 minutes, but you still have 20 minutes. That is the talk in the dressing room (between periods),” said Leon Draisaitl, who had a goal and three points. “At this time of year, no one really cares if it is pretty or not. We had played two good periods the last two games — the first two — and then kind of blew it in the third.
“We will take the two points and move on.”
Draisaitl tied the game early in the third period when the Flyers committed the cardinal sin, with Olle Lycksell taking a double minor for high-sticking Devin Shore. Philadelphia had handled the Oilers exceptionally well at even strength through five periods this season, but Edmonton’s second power-play goal of the evening gave the Oilers a lead they would not relinquish.
This Oilers team dearly needed a solid third period, and to hold a lead.
“That would be an understatement,” said McDavid, who played 10:12 of the third and delivered seven shots on goal plus two goals and an assist in the period. “We’ve been in really good positions the last week and didn’t find a way to close things out. We needed that.
“You have to win games without your A stuff. It’s cliche that good teams find a way to win when they don’t have their stuff, but that was tonight,” he continued. “We did just enough to get a win. It’s going to take a lot more than that to win coming down the stretch, but give the boys credit.”
Down the hall, Flyers head coach John Tortorella could only praise a Flyers team that, along with previous injuries, was without Travis Konecny after he was hurt Monday in Calgary.
“I thought the team laid it out there. They did all the things we asked of them, and we played a hard game. We just couldn’t find a way to win,” he said.
It was the last of a four-game, 1-3 road trip for an Eastern team that is used to sleeping in its own beds soon after most road games. Lord forbid they have to journey out to the colonies once a season, maybe leave home for as long as six days.
“We’re a team playing four in six nights,” whined Tortorella. “We get bag-skated through the trip, through a lousy game in Seattle, travel. … It’s been a long trip.”
Yeah, four whole games. We’d call the schedule maker if we were you, Torts.
Anyhoo, on the same third period power-play goal, McDavid recorded his 800th career point, Draisaitl notched career point No. 700, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins set a career high with point No. 70 on the season.
They’ll have to chop that puck up into three pieces, though, if McDavid kept a puck for every one of those milestones, his folks’ basement would run out of room.
“They are two of the best players in the world, plain and simple,” Draisaitl said of his mates. “It is so much fun sharing the ice with these two. I feel very fortunate and very honoured that I get to play with these two for a long time.”
The Oilers hit the road for a pair of games, in Pittsburgh and Columbus, before returning home to a stretch of games that includes home-and-homes with each of Boston, Toronto and Winnipeg. All in and around the March 3 trade deadline, of course.
It’s getting spicy here in Edmonton, with an Oilers team that has lost once in regulation since Jan. 11 — a span of 16 games.