Did One Intermission Speech Just Change the Oilers’ Season?

It might have taken a sluggish first period and a blunt intermission speech for the message to sink in, but the Edmonton Oilers may have finally woken up. After a flat opening 20 minutes against the Utah Mammoth, the team erupted for five even-strength goals in the second period, powering their way to a 6-3 win Tuesday night at Rogers Place.

Head coach Kris Knoblauch wasn’t impressed with what he counted as 16 turnovers on the rush, and he let his players know about it. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said the group gave themselves a “kick in the butt” between periods. “We kinda needed a bit of a wake-up in between the first and the second, we had that a bit… Knobber coming in, talking about what we did in the first, and just talking amongst ourselves, give ourselves a little kick in the butt. He [Knoblauch] wasn’t yelling, but we needed to be better,” he said. “We did it as a group.”

The Oilers’ response was immediate — tighter play, smarter decisions, and a surge of energy that overwhelmed Utah, a team riding a seven-game win streak.

The second period was all offense, as the Oilers scored two quick goals, allowed one more, then fired another three past Karel Vejmelka. In the third, it was a possession game and a shutdown effort from everyone, including better goaltending from Stuart Skinner.

When the game was all said and done, Evan Bouchard had three assists, Connor McDavid had two goals, Leon Draisaitl ended the game with a goal and one assist, and Mattias Ekholm had the same. Jake Walman and Adam Henrique finished with two assists each, and Ike Howard and Ty Emberson scored goals. Nugent-Hopkins had an assist, and Stuart Skinner made 20 saves on 23 shots.