OILERS PLAYED WITH CHIPS ON THEIR SHOULDERS
Victory in Detroit stopped the bleeding one night after a drubbing in St. Louis
After the no-show in the ShowMe State Tuesday night, the Edmonton Oilers chose not to go into the fetal position Wednesday, 24 hours after they were kicked in the teeth by the
St. Louis Blues.
They didn’t roll over against the Detroit Red Wings, even when the Wings scored first — the 14th time in 22 games the Oilers have allowed that to happen — even after another shot pinballed off an Oilers player and past goalie Cam Talbot, like Niklas Kronwall’s prayer that hit Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on his waist late in the opening period to tie it 2-2.
Instead, they kept on ticking and put a licking on Detroit, the same team that crushed them 2½ weeks before at Rogers Place. So one night after getting beaten 8-3, the Oilers win 6-2.
Now, can they do it Friday in Buffalo and Sunday in Boston?
There were encouraging signs, for sure. They didn’t need Connor McDavid, even if he had two assists, setting up goals by his linemate Drake Caggiula and his housemate, defenceman Darnell Nurse, who got the biker’s helmet and vest as player of the game in his teammates’ vote.
Instead, they got goals from some unusual suspects — Jujhar Khaira and Mark Letestu, with his first even-strength marker of the season in his 500th NHL game, and Jesse Puljujarvi, with his third NHL score.
Talbot gave up two goals on the first 11 shots, but that was it in a major bounce back.
The defence, which waived people toward Talbot’s overworked backup Laurent Brossoit like they were Walmart greeters in St. Louis, actually refused the Wings entry to their zone most of the night.
It added up to a good game for a heretofore bad team.
For one night, anyway. No more bleeding.
“Hopefully, we can stick to this. We can’t just play one good game, then three bad,” said defenceman Oscar Klefbom, much sounder in his end after being minus-4 in St. Louis.
“One good game, some good points, but it’s nothing more than that.”
Two points in the standings, many more points on the ice.
“People say we were quitting (in St. Louis) and this would have been an easy one to quit after they got that goal (off NugentHopkins) but there’s plenty of character in this room,” said Letestu. “We needed this game, there was a desperation and urgency than we’re used to but we’ve put ourselves in this position and everybody responded appropriately. We got it done five-on-five. Everybody came here with something to prove, a chip on their shoulder, and it showed up.
“I guess we’ll answer the question about whether we can do it for more than one night next game There’s been a lot of lip service that this is the one that can change things, but we have to show up Friday in Buffalo.”
“Yeah, we checked off a lot of things tonight,” said coach Todd McLellan, whose club was awful in St. Louis, with token resistance from the opening faceoff.
“We played the kind of game you need to play to win, we made plays when they were there, we managed the puck and chipped it out when the play wasn’t there ... good shifts, good line changes, we blocked shots.
“We were responsible all over the ice and it took everybody.
“It’s a good lesson and we have to bottle it up and use it in Buffalo on Friday.”
Again, McDavid had a quiet 18 minutes, one shot, two assists.
Leon Draisaitl set up Patrick Maroon but had one shot and one point in 17 minutes.
The Oilers got goals from Khaira and Puljujarvi, playing on the third line, and fourth-liner Letestu. And third-line centre Ryan Strome set up two goals, while No. 6 defenceman Yohann Auvitu had his first-ever multiple assist (two) for the Oilers and was plus-3 in 13 minutes.
“We needed Connor and Leon but they didn’t have to score two or three to win. When you’re secondary level of player is contributing offensively, you have a good chance to win,” said McLellan.
The Oilers’ quickness, in question other than from McDavid and a few others on too many nights, looked just fine against a fleet Detroit team.
“We were faster,” said Klefbom. Now, can they replicate that speed two nights from now?