7 GOALS, 7 OILERS
Stars fall 7-1 to team effort
Todd McLellan’s obviously a good union guy as a coach because after the Edmonton Oilers’ morning skate Tuesday, he looked at Lindy Ruff’s woeful Dallas Stars lineup and, with a straight face, said: “They’re an offensive time bomb. They could come up with seven on you.”
If you pumped Warburg’s own Ruff full of truth serum, he’d probably say: “Have you seen our goaltending? There’s a better chance every game blows up in our face and they get seven on us.”
The Oilers did ring up seven on the Stars with five on starter Antti Niemi halfway through the game, then Ruff went to his bullpen for Kari Lehtonen, who gave up the last two in a 7-1 Edmonton victory to stop the bleeding after three straight Oilers losses. They’ve got 81 points, one back of Anaheim and Calgary with all three teams playing 69 games in the Pacific Division, while the Stars are sixth in the Central and have given up 227 goals, the most of any team.
The Oilers got goals from seven different players and points from 13 of their 18 skaters, scoring seven for the third time this year, but first against somebody other than the Calgary Flames. And after just four goals in their last three losses, they had five just 31 1/2 minutes into Tuesday’s rout.
Benoit Pouliot started it with his first goal in over three months, since Dec. 8 in Philadelphia. Followed by Oscar Klefbom, who missed some time in the second when he took a shot in the throat, Darnell Nurse, David Desharnais and Patrick Maroon. Niemi was gone after 20 shots. Lehtonen came in before Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had one go in off his skate and Connor McDavid earned his 76th point, which ties him with Patrick Kane for the NHL scoring lead.
Brett Ritchie had the only Dallas goal on Cam Talbot in the second period.
The Oilers spread it around so much, they had six goals before McDavid even got a point.
“This takes a little pressure off the group,” said McLellan. “They can relax a little.”
“It’s important that we get goals without Connor from a confidence and stress point of view. But we have to park this and we move on (to the Boston Bruins on Thursday).”
Pouliot probably didn’t know what the protocol was after a goal, because it had been so long since he raised his arms in celebration. So what went through his mind when the shot went in on Niemi? Was he saying about bloody time?
“I probably swore more than that,” laughed Pouliot, who only has six goals on the year. “Good screen, straight shot in, just feels good.
“I think I’ve been shooting the puck more since I’ve come back.”
While he had been sitting out for a month with an undisclosed injury, Pouliot wasn’t simply floating in the Whirlpool through all of this. He’s tried to stay upbeat.
“No sense in pouting or bringing negative energy into the room,” he said. “In my head, I’ve always thought things would turn around and hopefully this is it.”
Pouliot and linemates David Desharnais and Zack Kassian had four points, six shots and combined to go plus-9. They were the best line on a night when the Oilers pretty much played against air on the other side, considering the Stars were coming off a 5-1 loss in San Jose and playing out the string.
“They always say the third line is a checking line, but you have to produce offensively too along with making sure the puck doesn’t go into our net,” said Pouliot.
“Benny’s line and Benny had a big part in it. To get the first one for us, I’m sure his confidence level will go up,” said McLellan.
It was the 13th time this year Dallas has used two goalies in a game and the 28th time in their 69 games they’ve given up four or more goals, which is almost 40 per cent of the time. They’ve surrendered four goals on 12 occasions, five goals 11 times, six goals four times, seven and eight goals once.
They have the 30th-ranked save
percentage to go along with the worst goals-against average and they’re 12th in the West.
But it wasn’t just the masked men. Ruff chose not to throw his goalies under the bus. There were way too many passengers throughout the Dallas lineup to Ruff ’s displeasure and a lot of them were veteran guys.
“That might be the worst game I have coached as a Dallas Star. We need a lot more from the leaders of our team. They are the guys who can make the difference at this time. We have had some tough breaks, but they are the guys the responsibility lies on,” said Ruff. “As soon as the third one went in, our team went dead. This time of year and knowing where we are at, all you can try to do is go out there Need to Know: Oscar Klefbom was hit as he stood to the right of Cam Talbot in the second period and had a welt on his neck ... A hard Anton Slepyshev shot nailed Dallas reliever Kari Lehtonen smack on the mask late in the second period and he was shaken up … Dallas centre Jason Spezza played his 900th NHL game with 852 points to show for it ... Klefbom’s 12th goal put him into a tie for sixth spot among defenceman snipers on the season. Brent Burns (27), Shea Weber (16), Justin Faulk (14) Victor Hedman (14) and Erik Karlsson (13) have
and win your shift. We need more out of the leaders on this team.”
Maroon, one of four Oilers to get two points along with Milan Lucic, Kassian and Leon Draisaitl, liked the offence being spread around. It wasn’t just McDavid or Draisaitl. It was one of those democracy-inaction nights.
“We did some good things and some confidence will build. Pou got a huge goal and he needed that. He’s been working hard all year. He deserves that goal,” said Maroon. “Nurse got on the board tonight. Davey’s (Desharnais) line was really good. It’s all good to see.”
“I look at it like this: Hopefully we go upwards from here. We peak at the right time, going into big conference games against San more ... Benoit Pouliot’s goal was his first in 29 games. He’s scored in five games this year: Two vs. Washington and singles against Calgary, Winnipeg and Philadelphia prior to Tuesday. The Oilers lost out on coveted college free agent, Northeastern University RW Zach Aston-Reese, who signed with Pittsburgh ... The Oilers scratched Eric Gryba and put Matt Benning in his spot with Darnell Nurse. Slepyshev was on the fourth line for Iiro Pakarinen ... The Stars didn’t have Antoine Roussel (hand) and Jiri Hudler. Jim Matheson Jose, Anaheim and L.A., these are the times we need those wins.”
ON THE BENCH: Draisaitl is now one point (59-58) behind Marco Sturm for the highest single-season scoring total by a Germanborn player ... Nurse was plus-4 on the night and played more minutes (21:16) than any other Oilers teammate ... Klefbom took an errant Dallas shot off his neck and had a large welt, missing a chunk of the second frame but still played 16:34 ... Once again, faceoff stats are misleading. The Oilers had a wide edge against Pittsburgh and Montreal and lost both games and were 23-38 on the dot against the Stars and romped to a big win.