MORE TO OILERS’ RECENT SUCCESS THAN MCDAVID
Hot goalie Koskinen latest among several unexpected contributors
Perhaps even more encouraging than Mikko Koskinen’s shutout victory Thursday is the fact the Edmonton Oilers rolled over the Chicago Blackhawks on a night when Connor McDavid didn’t do anything spectacular.
The Oilers captain had one assist in 18 minutes of ice time, which, for him, is pretty much the equivalent of a three-game drought.
Yet the Oilers were never in any serious trouble against Chicago and eventually pulled away in the third period to make it a 4-0 rout and nip their one-game losing streak in the bud.
For a team that had major question marks in the areas of depth and secondary scoring, being able to win when McDavid has an average night is a big step forward, thanks to some unlikely contributors.
Tobias Rieder has seven assists in the past six games, PTO success story Alex Chiasson has five goals in the past six games and Drake Caggiula has four goals in his past four games. And it doesn’t hurt when one of their other backup singers, Koskinen, is 2-0 with a shutout.
“You need that,” said Leon Draisaitl, who had one assist against the Blackhawks to give him 14 points in 12 games. “They’ve done an amazing job of it whether it’s Drake or Toby or Chaser. They’ve chipped in wherever they can and they’ve been really productive. Good teams have that.”
When the Oilers reported for training camp nobody was quite sure they did have it, or that they were even going to be a good team.
Some of those concerns were eased a bit when Kailer Yamamoto, Jesse Puljujarvi and Ty Rattie lit it up in the pre-season, but when the games started counting the first two dried up and a few nights later Rattie got injured. In the first two weeks of the season McDavid’s line was getting very little help at all.
The captain won a couple of games all by himself, but everyone knew it wouldn’t last. Getting next to nothing from your top three right-wingers is a death sentence.
Usually.
“We felt good leaving the exhibition season heading over to Europe, but it kind of went dry for a little while,” head coach Todd McLellan said. “I think we were playing with a little apprehension to start the season for whatever reason and that hurt some guys.
“But we’re back to finding different guys to contribute in different ways. While we’re doing that let’s find as many wins as we can because sometimes it will go dry. It ebbs and flows all season for every team.”
It’s flowing now. There are still some forwards who can’t quite find the handle yet, but they are getting a little extra time to figure things out thanks to the recent surges elsewhere in the lineup.
“You have to have that next man up mentality,” Caggiula said. “Different guys are playing in different roles and they are answering the bell and stepping up. Connor carries a lot of the load most times, but good teams find depth and find scoring throughout the lineup.
“Other than the first few games of the season I think we’ve been doing a pretty good job of that.”
Chiasson knows as well as anyone the importance of foot soldiers playing a part in winning the battle. He went all the way with Washington last year and saw first-hand the impact the middle of a lineup can have on a team.
“I hate to keep going back to last year, but you learn a lot from playoffs,” he said. “Our best players have been great for us, Nuge, Leon and Connor. They’ve provided offence every night.
“And in the last two weeks or so we’ve also been able to create goals and chances from other guys in the lineup. You need that in this league. Your best guys are going to be your best guys, but if you’re going to be a team in the playoffs and a team that competes, you need everyone to chip in.”
We felt good leaving the exhibition season heading over to Europe, but it kind of went dry for a little while. TODD MCLELLAN