November 7, 2022 by Ryan Lotsberg

The Edmonton Oilers opened up their road trip by losing their third straight game, this time to the Washington Capitals. Alexander Ovechkin scored the 788th goal of his career, and Evgeni Kuznetsov got four points in a 5-4 win for the Capitals.

Call Outs:

The Capitals went 4/5 on the powerplay. That’s the story of this game from an Oilers perspective. One of the goals was on a five-on-three after consecutive careless stick penalties by Zach Hyman and Kailer Yamamoto. Another was late in the game when Evan Bouchard took a cross-checking penalty with 2:21 left in the game and when the Oilers were down by a goal. They cheated for a short-handed goal, and they got burned going the other way. The other two were more telling of what’s wrong with the Oilers penalty kill this season. Having said that, the penalty kill continues to cost the Oilers valuabble points in the standings. It needs to improve.

Warren Foegele received a pass on the right wall in his own zone. He tried to carry the puck out of the zone because he had no good passing options. Dylan Strome tracked him down from behind and stole the puck. Foegele lost the battle, gave the puck away, and watched Strome go in and snipe the top corner on Stuart Skinner.

It was noteworthy that Kailer Yamamoto started this game on the fourth line with Dylan Holloway and Devin Shore. Yamamoto was demoted from the top line to the fourth line, and he wasn’t all that noticeable playing against weaker competition. Yamamoto and Holloway didn’t see much action when Jay Woodcroft shortened the bench in the third period.

Standouts:

This was Connor McDavid’s 500th career NHL game, and he put on a show. He scored a dazzling goal where he split two Washington defenders and tucked the puck in past an outstretched Charlie Lindgren. McDavid was one of a few Oilers that had his skating legs in this one.

Shout Outs:

Hyman took a penalty, but he made up for it once he got out of the box. He beat Ovechkin to a loose puck and took it to the net. Hyman passed it to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in front for a well earned assist. He added a second assist on a smart spin pass to Leon Draisaitl in the slot on the 4-3 goal.

Nugent-Hopkins got another two goals, bringing his total up to seven on the season. Both of his goals brought the Oilers to within one of the Capitals. Those were important goals.

Tyson Barrie had a good night. He got an assist on McDavid’s goal, and he narrowly missed cashing a McDavid feed at the top of the crease in the first period. The Oilers outscored the Capitals 2-0 when he was on the ice at five-on-five. The scoring chances with Barrie on the ice at five-on-five were 13-7 (65%). That’s excellent work by Barrie.

The Capitals had approximately $40 million out of this game due to a long list of injuries, and they played their backup goaltender. The Oilers outscored the Capitals 4-1 at even strength. This should’ve been a much easier game for the Oilers. Give the Capitals credit because they moved the puck crisply and made life tough for the Oilers all night long. They took advantage of their opportunities on the powerplay, which is a normal script for Oiler victories.

The Oilers head to Tampa Bay for the second half of their back-to-back on Tuesday night. The Lightning haven’t played up to their usual standard this season, but they’re still the Lightning.