Yakupov draws first blood, but Blues fall to Oilers
Talbot backstops Edmonton to rare victory over St. Louis
Cam Talbot’s wife Kelly delivered twin babies — a boy Landon and a girl Sloane — on Wednesday morning and Thursday night the Edmonton Oilers’ goalie delivered an exciting 60-minute effort in the hockey operating theatre.
Talbot made 34 stops, Connor McDavid set up Milan Lucic for the winner in a wide-open third period before adding an insurance marker into an empty net, and defenceman Kris Russell had a tremendous game with five blocked shots as the Oilers beat their longtime nemesis, the St. Louis Blues, by a 3-1 count.
Nail Yakupov was the only Blues’ player to beat Talbot — it always happens that way for returning ex-Oilers — in a measuring-stick victory for the Oilers, now 4-1 on the season.
After the win, Oilers PR director JJ Hebert presented Talbot with two game pucks.
“Good, one for each of them,” said Talbot of his new twins.
Talbot stopped Vladimir Tarasenko four times in the third period, seven times in all, in a goaltenders’ duel with Jake Allen at the other end. Allen stood on his head in the third frame to make it interesting until McDavid got his eighth point and fourth goal of the year.
“I don’t know how Cam’s doing it with so much going on in his life right now,” said McDavid. “Huge credit to him to keep his focus. Can’t say enough about him these last two games (3-2 win, 31 stops against Carolina the night before the twins came).”
Talbot was running on adrenalin after becoming a dad.
“I actually didn’t feel too bad. I was able to get home (from the hospital) last night at 8 p.m. and got some rest. Long day yesterday but I wouldn’t change it for the world,” said Talbot, who got the Player of the Game motorcycle helmet after the Carolina game and handed it over to Lucic in the dressing room.
“Can’t wait to get back there tonight (hospital) with the big win in my back pocket.”
Yakupov gave him no chance, slapping the puck past Talbot’s blocker in the second period to put the Blues in front 1-0. In the third period, Yak hit the post on a backhand.
“Can’t leave that guy alone in the slot. He’ll bury those most times,” said Talbot.
The Oilers gave Yakupov a nice video tribute six minutes into the game on the big screen, presenting a nice highlight package. He acknowledged the applause with a wave to the fans from the Blues’ bench.
“He’s a great young man,” said coach Todd McLellan. “I hope he succeeds and fulfils his hockey dreams in St. Louis.”
And that he gets 15 goals, so the third-round draft pick acquired in the deal becomes a second-rounder in 2018.
Yakupov was very appreciative of the crowd in his first trip back.
“Crowd was good, rink was good,” he said. “More, I was trying to stay focused on my team. Play the right way as a teammate. It’s all about this (Blues) team now. We have a plan. Obviously I was nervous, but after a couple of shifts, everything went away.”
The Oilers, the first team in the league to four wins, weren’t about to let it get away, though.
“These are not the Oilers of the last few years, I’ll tell you that,” said Allen. “They’re a good hockey club and obviously they made some good additions.”
Lucic and McDavid broke free in the first minute of the third against the Blues’ top defence pair of Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester, with McDavid sliding a pass under Bouwmeester’s stick that landed right on Lucic’s tape.
“They’re really good defencemen but it’s hard to be perfect,” said McLellan. “They played Connor, Ebs (Jordan Eberle) and Looch well most of the night, but they got one break and scored.”
Actually, they had some chances later, too, as the game opened up.
“We were able to break the puck out and Connor did a great job of criss-crossing with me. I kept going to the net and obviously he makes a great pass. One of those plays where you don’t think, you just shoot and it goes in for you,” said Lucic.
“It’s a cliché but the best defence is a good offence.
“We did a good job of that and had four point-blank chances but their guy stopped Connor twice, Ebs once and me on a power play. Credit to their goalie,” said Lucic.
The Blues had beaten the Oilers 15 of the previous 17 games and they kept singing a sad, sad song against the blue note, but it wasn’t the same old refrain in this one.
“Leading up to this year, we talked about erasing the past. Talk about St. Louis having the Oilers number the last few years, but it’s just not them. It’s everyone. We want to turn the page with everything that’s happened with the new building,” said Lucic.
McLellan has a bigger team than in the past.
“They got the first goal (Yakupov) but (Tyler) Pitlick tied it up and then in the third we scored early ... we had some nerve-racking moments but I think you can see the size difference along the walls. Lucic, Patrick Maroon, (Zack) Kassian, Pitlick, (Anton) Slepyshev ... the ability to play in those tight areas and advance the puck to the blue-line and get it out. It’s not always pretty but it’s out,” said the Oilers’ coach.
Cam Talbot was running on fumes and adrenalin Thursday when he stepped between the pipes for the Edmonton Oilers.
In a whirlwind 48 hours that saw him play a game Tuesday night, witness the birth of twins on Wednesday and report back in the cage on Thursday, the Oilers goalie was surprisingly alert at the morning skate.
“I was too excited to sleep after the game Tuesday,” he said. “I got maybe an hour-and-a-half power nap and woke up ready to go (to the hospital at 5:30 a.m.).
“Then the adrenalin kicked in right when the babies were coming. I kind of rode that for a little bit and started to pass out around lunch time.”
He spent most of Wednesday at the hospital with his wife Kelly and new son and daughter, Landon and Sloane, but had to leave early when he learned he was starting against the Blues.
“I went home and got some sleep once I found out,” he said. “Luckily I had my mother-in-law to stay at the hospital with my wife to help take care of her so I could sneak away for some sleep.”
He bolted from the morning skate to the hospital to see the family again Thursday morning and then went home to try to catch another nap.
Game. Babies. Game. It’s not a typical schedule for anyone, but Talbot saw it coming months ago.
“When we scheduled it I kind of knew what I was in for, it was between two games,” he said. “I didn’t know if I would be playing both of them at the time, obviously, but you have to be prepared for everything.”
With backup Jonas Gustavsson out with concussion symptoms, and the Oilers wanting to see what they’re all about in a measuring stick game against the Blues, head coach Todd McLellan decided to go with the new father instead of Laurent Brossoit.
TIMELESS DESIGN
As a proud Edmontonian, Blues coach Ken Hitchcock is glad to see they nailed it when it came to designing and building Rogers Arena.
“This is the best of everything,” he said, adding he sees elements of many different arenas in the one Edmonton built. “The practice rink is exactly what you see in Columbus, the locker-room is like what you see in Pittsburgh … This is a perfect example of people who have really done their homework.”
His one complaint: It’s like a Vegas casino: there are no clocks.
BRUINS DNA
Here’s something you’ve never heard an NHL coach say about the Oilers before.
“They look like Boston,” said Hitchcock. “They play like Boston. They have size, they go to the net hard, they’re very physical, really strong on the puck, really wear you down.
“They look like Boston, they play like the Bruins did. It’s going to be a tough go for a lot of us. They’re going to be able to wear you down with that puck possession game, especially when they can control it like they can with their size and skill.”
SUCCESS WELCOME
Most of the pre-game hype centred around the return to Edmonton of Nail Yakupov, a polarizing figure among Oilers fans but a wellliked player in the dressing room.
“He’s a good guy,” said Connor McDavid. “I definitely liked playing with him. He’s a good player, a good finisher. That’s the way hockey goes. He found a level of success in St. Louis and that’s good for him.”
McLellan isn’t worried about listening to a whole bunch of “I told you so’s” if the move to St. Louis turns Yakupov into an effective top-six forward. In fact, he’s hoping it does.
“Yak is a great young man. I hope he succeeds. I hope that he fulfils his hockey dreams in St. Louis.”
STATS OUTLIER
Oilers defenceman Kris Russell apparently has some mediocre analytics numbers, which in this case only illustrates that teams should never base decisions on analytics alone.
He’s been a solid addition to the Oilers blue-line, delivering key plays at key moments since being paired with Andrej Sekera.
“He’s played over and above what the analytics show you,” said McLellan. “The blocked shots, the competitiveness, the ability to move the puck out of the zone. He just stabilized our back end somewhat.”