It did not start well.

In all fairness to Corey Perry, he was back up the ice. He just forgot his assignment to check back through the middle of the ice to start. Had he done so, he may have picked up Mark Stone before he got into a danger area.

The Oilers also managed to take a four-minute penalty, which is another area of play they need to avoid. It cost them the first goal against.

In the space of nine minutes, the Oilers did the two things I talked about in the series preview and were down 2-0 because of it.

So, what happened in the second and third periods? Well, it was some of the best team play in all three zones by the Oilers in months. When the Oilers play a structured game, their high-level skill will win them most games. That’s what happened in Game 1, and it was fun to watch.

Let’s go look at some of the play.

What Caught My Eye?

If You Work As Hard As Vegas, Good Things Happen

We have already seen the Vegas goal at 5v5. However, there were numerous examples in the first period of how hard Vegas makes it on other teams. Almost all of it comes from very disciplined, hard work.

Watch this neutral zone work by Mark Stone in the first. He sees the Oilers are going to possess the puck, so he starts moving back up the ice to protect against an attack. He steps into the passing lane. Intercepts the puck and turns Vegas to the attack again. This all started with his anticipation and work to get back into the position.

The Oilers, on the other hand, were very loose to start this game in this regard. Look at this clip from right after a face-off win.

Every team requires one of the forwards to play in an F3 role. In this case, it likely is Evander Kane because Nugent-Hopkins flares out following the win. Immediately, the Golden Knights have four players above three Oilers. The shot gets blocked and the Golden Knights are off to the races.

However, from the second period on, the Oilers set to work on shutting down this part of the Golden Knights’ game. Here are a couple of clips showing this change.

Watch Adam Henrique on this next play. Much like Mark Stone’s play mentioned above, he sees the Golden Knights are going to gain possession and sprints to get back up the ice. This allows Walman to pinch and slow down Vegas. The puck comes loose, and Henrique makes the play to transition the puck.

Here is another example that comes off a bit of a shaky forecheck by the Oilers. They have too many forwards low in the zone when Vegas wins the puck. Frederic realizes this and sprints back up the ice to create a better defensive structure.

Trent Frederic’s pressure results in Vegas having to reset in the neutral zone. Now comes the late forwards hard back up the ice. Each of Henrique and Brown clogged the middle, and the Oilers head back up the ice.

Here is one final one from the Vegas defensive zone. This is the place where Vegas generates a lot of its offence.

Watch Vasily Podkolzin. He maintains a nice F3 spot in this play. This allows him to turn and get back up the ice on a Vegas counter. Bouchard, because Podkolzin is pressing, is free to stand up on the play and just get enough of a rub to slow down the counter.

This allows Podkolzin to pressure the Vegas puck carrier early, which forces a chip up the ice. Even when the Golden Knights gain the puck at the Oilers’ blueline, there are four Edmonton defenders there. Vegas takes a weak outside shot that is recovered by the Oilers, and they transition up the ice.

From the second period on, the Oilers were brilliant in defending the Vegas counter.

According to Natural Stat Trick, Vegas ended the game with three high-danger chances after averaging over 11 per game in the regular season. Only three.

That was a complete team effort by the Oilers on the defence and it worked to perfection for the last 40 minutes.

The Oilers’ Defensive Zone

Need more evidence of the Oilers’ work on the defensive side of this game? The Connor Brown goal to seal the game was a great example.

It starts with Evan Bouchard just getting a rub on the Vegas puck carrier on the entry. It isn’t much, but it slows the play down. From here, the Oilers played mostly flawless zone plus-one, moving around in structure no matter where the puck went.

When the Golden Knights had the puck in control, all of the Oilers’ sticks were defending the lanes. When there was a breakdown of two players going to the puck carrier who had control, Evan Bouchard put his body in the lane and blocked the shot.

It was a brilliant shift to cap 40 minutes of excellent in-zone defending by the Oilers.

Behold The Royal Road

How about the offensive side of the game?

In my series preview, I mentioned that the Golden Knights aren’t a particularly fast team, but they can still play with speed. This doesn’t mean they’re slow overall, but they do struggle with lateral movement on the ice. The Edmonton Oilers, especially their defence, recognized and exploited this effectively.

How? By moving the puck side-to-side across what’s known as the “Royal Road.”

The Royal Road is an imaginary line running down the middle of the ice, connecting one net to the other. When the puck crosses this line, defenders are forced to stop, pivot, and change direction—all while skating backward. This slows them down considerably.

Meanwhile, the attacking team maintains forward momentum, creating speed and space mismatches.

Take a look at the Oilers’ first goal as an example. The play begins when the Golden Knights get caught too deep on their forecheck. Instantly, it becomes a 3-on-2 opportunity for the Oilers, provided Klingberg makes the pass.

He does. Now, watch closely how many times the puck crosses the Royal Road during the sequence. Each pass across the line opens up more space, stretches the defenders, and ultimately leads to an impressive goal.

Need more? How about the game winner?

This play starts with a great backcheck by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. He then turns and sees the Golden Knights have everyone marked on the strong side of the ice. So, he moves the puck back across the ice to Klingberg again.

He makes a great Royal Road pass to Nugent-Hopkins, and immediately the Oilers have an easy zone entry and an odd-man rush. Kane makes a brilliant pass back across the Royal Road, followed by Zach Hyman with a great finish.

This type of play has been a staple of Kris Knoblauch’s teams going way back into the American Hockey League. It has shown up at times with the Oilers, but not as much as I would have liked.

With the addition of Jake Walman and John Klingberg, the Oilers now have a deep complement of defencemen who can move the puck this way. Last night it was very effective.

One Modest Quibble

The Oilers played a strong game, but there’s one noticeable area for improvement. Vegas isn’t beating them with pure speed. Instead, they’re patient with the puck, holding onto it longer than most teams. Their strategy is simple: wait until the defending team loses discipline.

That’s exactly what happened to the Oilers last night. Too often, the Oilers relied on stick-checking alone rather than engaging physically. This doesn’t mean hitting opponents through the boards, it means making subtle, effective body contact, just enough to slow them down or separate them from the puck.

When coaching young players, we teach a simple rule: Align your outside shoulder with the opponent’s inside shoulder. This positioning forces attackers toward the outside of the ice, away from high-danger scoring areas. Keep your stick ready, positioned directly in front of you. Eyes locked on the opponent’s chest or logo, not the puck.

Why? Watching the puck pulls your head forward, throwing your upper body off balance. Vegas counts on opponents making this mistake.

Take a look at these two clips to see what I mean.

Neither of these plays should have amounted to anything. However, they did because three Oilers try to stick check from a poor position. Every time, they gave away the inside of the ice. Fortunately, neither ended up in a goal against, but there is some clean-up that needs to happen here because the puck skills of Vegas are very good.

Game 2 Notes

The third line of Vegas really struggled. This is something we outlined before Game 1. The line was 0-6 in high danger chances for in a game where the Oilers had 13 high danger chances. If the Roy line cannot contribute, it allows the Oilers’ depth more opportunities to exploit Vegas. It also allows Knoblauch to keep 97 and 29 together, although I still worry about the Nugent-Hopkins line.

I don’t know about taking Ty Emberson out of the line-up because he is very good on the penalty kill. However, the Oilers need more than seven minutes from him.

I thought Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse were brilliant as a pairing on Tuesday. Bouchard, in particular, was tremendous in all three zones. The team had a 17-7 shot share when he was on the ice. The team was also 3-1 in goals for. Evan Bouchard is clearly starting to become Playoff Evan Bouchard. This is a development.

The Golden Knights will likely get Alex Pietrangelo back for Game 2. That will help their defence group. It needed help. Each of the pairings were under water on the fancy stats, and the team struggled to defend cycles by the Oilers all night.

That’s it for the Game 1 review. See you back here on Friday after Game 2.

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