`A HUGE STATEMENT'
Oiler show grit against Habs
It was, as far as Ethan Bear was concerned, a game to frame, a game in which every Edmonton Oiler throughout the lineup announced something special to one another.
Personally, for Bear perhaps, it announced something in terms of his return to the form he discovered last season. It earned him an in-game promotion to the top defensive pairing in place of Tyson Barrie.
And that's not to mention
Bear scoring his first goal of the season at 10:49 of the third period to break the seal and turn a 1-0 Montreal Canadiens lead into what became a 4-1 triumph that has a chance to be the most significant night of the regular season for Dave Tippett's maturing 27-15-2 team.
While he certainly did reference his own situation, Bear was responding to my post-game question.
Did he believe Monday's first of a two-game set against the Habs — a game that required the most playoff-like performance of any game they've played during this 56-game unique Canadian division season — had a chance to be looked back upon as The Game?
Did he believe the game that involved an exceptional amount of physical play, intensity and required an unmistakably visible will to win throughout the lineup, made the aforementioned announcement to each other?
“Absolutely,” he said.
“I think it's a huge statement. “It just showed that we're not going to give up, that we believe in each other and that we're going to support each other. Teams that do that tend to go far in the playoffs.
“Right now I think we have a good group, a good dressing room and a motivated group. That's fun to be a part of. I'm not going to take it lightly. I'm going to work hard for these guys and I think everyone else is going to do the same.”
That, to me, illustrated a remarkably good feel for a kid who had just played only his
121st NHL hockey game.
The Canadiens came to town as the one playoff positioned team that had managed to give Edmonton even more trouble than the first place Toronto Maple Leafs that won six of nine against the Oilers.
Montreal won four of their first five versus Edmonton going into Monday night's game at Rogers Place and had managed to neuter the Connor Mcdavid-leon Draisaitl Dynamic Duo.
Neither No. 97 or No. 29 had managed a goal against the Habs while the league's top two point producers had been restricted to four assists through the five games plus the first 50 minutes of the sixth.
Mcdavid wore his will to win on his sleeve this night and ended up with a goal and two primary assists to show the way during the dramatic late turnaround in which, once they broke through, they found the killer instinct not to allow the Canadiens to collect their 10th loser point of this shortened season.
The game featured 39 Edmonton hits including four by Mcdavid.
And they weren't regular season bumps. There were no lack of Stanley Cup playoff game leave-a-bruise, send-you-sprawling-to-the-ice body blows.
“We're coming down the stretch here and these games are starting to show that playoff mentality,” said Mcdavid.
“I liked the way everyone stayed with it and we got contributions from everyone up and down the lineup.”
It was the eighth consecutive win at home for the developing hockey club that has had a great deal of difficulty at grasping the concept of home ice advantage.
“You have to defend home ice. I know there are no fans in the building and obviously that makes a difference but the advantage still should be to the home team. You sleep in your own bed, eat your own food and should have the advantage,” said Mcdavid.
“We've done a good job of taking advantage of that advantage lately. That hasn't always been the case. I think we've done a good job at being a good road team and we've kind of flip-flopped. I don't think we've become a bad road team by any means but it's important to defend home ice and we're doing that now.
“The game was so intense. There was so much energy in the building even without fans I can only imagine what it would have been like with some crazy Edmontonians getting up for us. It would have been special. We're obviously missing them lots.”
Head coach Dave Tippett suggested other than a nagging early game tentativeness it is now almost total buy-in for each other.
“They want to play well down the stretch. And I give them credit. They realize that games are going to be hard and that if we expect to improve as a team we're going to have to embrace that. When your team plays that hard and has that will to win, it shows there's improvement in the group and you keep building on that.”
Doing it once doesn't do it.
But the Oilers are 9-2-2 in their last 11 games. And the two regulation losses were “rescheduled loss” games in which the game film goes directly into the garbage can.
The game film from this one goes on the mantle.