October 26, 2022 by Ryan Lotsberg

Revenge is sweet. The Edmonton Oilers avenged their shutout loss against the St. Louis Blues Saturday by taking them down on Wednesday. The Oilers emerged victorious 3-1.

This game was extremely well played by both teams. This was certainly the most complete effort of the season from the Oilers. They scored the first goal of the game, and they didn’t allow one until there was only four seconds left in the second period. They had the Blues on their heels on many occasions, and they didn’t make any atrocious defensive gaffes. Life was difficult for the Blues in front of both nets as well.

Call Outs:

This section is going to be refreshingly short this time. I praised Evan Bouchard’s performance against the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday. I’ve got less praise for him today. He failed to tie up Ryan O’Reilly’s stick on the Blues’s only goal of the game. O’Reilly was able to hit the puck out of the air while standing just outside the blue paint. A bit more focus is needed from Bouchard there, especially so close to the end of the second period. Bouchard also let Nick Leddy walk in untouched on a rush in the third period. Leddy made a nice move, but Bouchard didn’t even flinch as Leddy skated by him. 

Standouts:

It was a bit of a surprise to find out that Stuart Skinner would be starting the front half of this back-to-back rather than tomorrow’s seemingly easier game against the Chicago Blackhawks, but the coach might’ve been on to something. The three words I would use to describe Skinner’s performance are calm, cool, and collected.

His rebound control was superb. Pucks were sticking to him, which is always a sign that a goalie is on their game. There were a few scrambly sequences in front of his net, and he remained poised. His pad work along the ice was exceptional. He didn’t need to make any spectacular saves because he was positionally sound. Skinner showed how much polish he has on his game in this one.

Shout Outs:

The third line featuring Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod, and Jesse Puljujarvi was really good. Puljujarvi opened the scoring on a tip of a Darnell Nurse shot. Puljujarvi and Foegele had a two-on-one in the first period where Puljujarvi looked off Foegele and almost snuck it five hole on Jordan Binnington. Foegele got absolutely robbed on a different two-on-one after taking a pass from McLeod. He had a wide open net, but he shot it back across the net into Binnington’s stick. They were consistently in the St. Louis zone for most of the night. 

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored the game winner late in the third period. It was his fourth goal of the season. His line with Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman created chaos in front of Binnington on multiple occasions. It’s a wonder how they didn’t end up with more goals. A small development to watch for tomorrow night and for the next little while was Nugent-Hopkins and McDavid switching positions on that line. Nugent-Hopkins took draws and played centre in the first period, but McDavid handled those duties in the second period. I personally like the idea of playing Nugent-Hopkins at centre with McDavid or Leon Draisaitl because Nugent-Hopkins is a better centre than he is a winger, and the two big guns can produce no matter what position they play. Perhaps McDavid getting limited time at centre and taking fewer faceoffs in this game had something to do with Monday’s run in with the goal post.

The penalty kill showed up tonight. The Oilers killed off all three penalties that they took. The game likely would’ve gone to overtime if not for the penalty kill stepping up tonight, so the penalty killers deserve some love tonight.

This was a tight, low checking game with occasional frantic sequences. The Oilers aren’t accustomed to winning these types of games. The frantic sequences typically happen in their end, and they usually lose as a result. That wasn’t the case in this game. The Oilers withstood their share of chaos, but they caused a bunch of it themselves, and they got the extra goal this time. That’s a good sign from where I sit.

The Oilers won’t get much time to revel in this win. They’re back at it Thursday night in Chicago.