BRIGHT SPOT
Oilers pick up the win in sunny Arizona
GLENDALE, ARIZ. Backup goalie Al Montoya’s had a long and winding career path. Consider his first NHL win came here on behalf of the Coyotes nine years ago, on April Fool’s Day no less. On Friday night, the veteran stopper recorded his first win as a member of the Edmonton Oilers in the very same building.
The win in 2009 was one for the ages because former Oilers legend Wayne Gretzky was his coach.
The win here Friday could be described as one for the “aged” now that he’s 33 next month and this is his sixth team. Both very important in their own way, though.
As a memory, having 99 hug you is great stuff.
In terms of where the Oilers are today, having your whole team hug you is heartwarming too.
Montoya came into the game three minutes in after starter Cam Talbot got a mercy hook from coach Todd McLellan after his team was asleep and gave up two goals on three shots. Montoya,
I’m just there to stop the ones I should and maybe make one I shouldn’t.
who likely expected to sit on the bench in a ball cap as a cheerleader, stepped in and stopped all 18 shots in a 4-2 win as the Oilers stopped the bleeding after three straight road losses to kick off their fivegame road trip.
“My memories here? Wayne was my coach and that was the coolest thing ever,” said Montoya, who had also relieved Talbot in Dallas to start the trip, stopping all 14 shots in 35 minutes of work.
“My first game ever in the NHL was for Wayne Gretzky and the Coyotes and I got a shutout and I still have the stats sheet with his name on it and the puck. My longtime memory,” he said.
Montoya’s newest thrill is helping the stumbling Oilers rally after an awful start against the NHL’s worst team, which was coming off its five-day bye.
“This team’s welcomed me and you just want to go in and give them a chance,” said Montoya, who might have gotten the start here if this was last year, when the Oilers were rolling. Instead, McLellan went with his No. 1 guy, citing the fact Montoya had just one full practice with the team since being acquired from Montreal a week ago for a draft pick.
“Unbelievable for Al, for him to be thrown in there and play almost the whole game. That definitely takes a lot. I’ve never been in that position, but I can’t imagine it was easy,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who had two assists a few hours before he turns 21 in Vegas Saturday.
“Lots of character with this team, the way we hung in, battled back and got the two points,” said Montoya, who robbed Brendan Perlini just after coming in for Talbot, then got a leg across in a scramble on Edmonton native Jordan Martinook in the third after Darnell Nurse’s first two-goal game had given the Oilers a 3-2 lead.
Is it easier or harder coming into a game just after it started, rather than halfway through?
“I dunno. Maybe it’s easier to come in earlier, but it’s a crapshoot. But I’d just come off the warm-up, so I didn’t think about it,” said Montoya. “I’m just there to stop the ones I should and maybe make one I shouldn’t (like off Martinook). You want to make an impression and they (teammates) took care of the rest.”
McLellan admits he was doing a slow burn after another bad start, but he didn’t think it was Talbot’s fault, as he got the hook out for the fifth time this season. He did it to slap the team upside the head.
“He had three shots. The first went off the crossbar (Jakob Chychrun) and he couldn’t see it and they got the rebound into an empty net after we lost the original faceoff and didn’t do a good coverage job. Then the other D -zone mistake results in a tap-tap 2-on-1 (Christian Dvorak to Josh Archibald),” said McLellan.
“This wasn’t a pull Cam Talbot night because he wasn’t playing well. I wanted to wake the group up.”
“Al came in and settled things down. The one on Perlini when he split the D in particular was big. We stuck with it and we’re leaving with some smiles,” said McLellan.
“This was a real good example of a veteran calming everybody down. He relaxes, makes some good goalie touches behind the net. He knew when to freeze pucks and get us a rest.”
“In the end, we were resilient and came back to win a game,’’ said the coach.
“Yeah, it would have been easy for us to say ‘here we go again.’ Our start wasn’t, uh, good,” added Nurse.