November 28, 2022 by Ryan Lotsberg

Oilers Come Back

This was a short but memorable stay for the Edmonton Oilers. They hosted the Florida Panthers after completing a three game road trip and before departing for their next two games. It was a back and forth affair that saw the Oilers win after trailing in the third period for the second consecutive game. Leon Draisaitl scored the overtime winner in a 4-3 win for the Oilers.

Call Outs:

I don’t know what Darnell Nurse was doing on Florida’s first goal. Josh Mahura floated a wrister into Nurse’s corner from the point. Nurse went down to a knee to try to corral the puck, and it bounced right to Matthew Tkachuk, who was Johnny on the spot. Tkachuk made no mistake in capitalizing on Nurse’s miscue to give the Panthers an early 1-0 lead. That was a brain fart by Nurse. There was definitely a better way to deal with that innocent dump in from the point.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got caught in no man’s land on Florida’s second goal. Mattias Janamark and Zach Hyman were both forechecking in the offensive zone, and Florida was able to make a short pass to get out of their zone. Eetu Luostarainen snuck past Nugent-Hopkins on the left side of the neutral zone. He received the pass up the wall, and Nugent-Hopkins was unable to get there to break up the pass. That created a three-on-two which Florida executed beautifully. Nugent-Hopkins could’ve taken Luostarainen or eventual goal scorer Anton Lundell streaking through the middle, but he didn’t take either of them, and the Oilers got burned as a result.

Standouts:

Evan Bouchard is officially back! Suddenly, he’s finding the back of the net instead of shin pads. He led the comeback against the New York Rangers on Saturday by scoring two goals, and he scored the game tying goal with five seconds left in this game. His seven shots on net were a team high. Additionally, the scoring chances were 9-6 (60%) when he was on the ice at five-on-five, and the shots were 11-7 (61.11%) in that situation. This is the Bouchard that the Oilers have been missing. He and Philip Broberg have been really good as a pairing in the two games that they’ve played together thus far. Hopefully this trend continues.

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Zach Hyman got three assists in this game. He made a perfect stretch pass to Connor McDavid for a breakaway goal on the powerplay. Brett Kulak hit him with a point shot, and the puck bounced right to Tyson Barrie in the slot for the second Oilers goal. Hyman was a part of the battle for the puck on the faceoff before the puck eventually got to McDavid’s stick and wound up in the back of the net after Bouchard’s shot. This was another fantastic performance from Hyman, who has been one of the most consistent Oilers forwards all season long.

Shout Outs:

It didn’t take Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl long to end the overtime period. Draisaitl won the faceoff back to Stuart Skinner, and he played it to Nurse behind the net. Nurse had to do some good work to receive that pass and to protect it from the Panthers forecheck, but he managed to keep two Panthers busy and escape with the puck. He got it up the ice to Draisaitl, and it was all over.

McDavid picked the Oilers up off the mat with his breakaway goal in the second period. The Panthers made a sloppy change on the powerplay. McDavid saw it happening and decided to hang out ahead of the play. Hyman fired a perfect pass to McDavid, and McDavid made a nice backhand deke move to beat Spencer Knight. The Oilers weren’t getting trounced early, but they weren’t generating many chances either. They seemed to get some more jump after that goal.

James Hamblin made his NHL debut tonight. His stat line was empty, but he played an effective 9:56. His line with Dylan Holloway and Brad Malone outshot the Panthers 3-1 (75%), out chanced them 4-2 (66.67%), and had an xGF% of 57.59%. They were fast and they did quality work engaging in puck battles and keeping plays alive. That’s the type of effort the Oilers need from their fourth line.

This was a solid effort from the Oilers. They held a Panthers team that leads the league with over 40 shots per game to only 28 shots. They were unlucky to have this game go to overtime. The Tkachuk goal was a completely lucky bounce that he did nothing to get; and Tkachuk’s stick looked a little bit higher than his shoulder when it hit that puck before the third Panthers goal to me. Regardless, that was another lucky bounce that went Florida’s way. They got two bounces that cost the Oilers goals against, and the Oilers still won the game.

The Oilers will take the win and move on to Chicago on Wednesday, where they will hope to take care of business against the Blackhawks in more typical fashion than they have done it in the last two games and they did in their last visit to Chicago.