Sunday Scramble: Oilers keep finding results despite disjointed play

Edmonton sports achieved the ultra-rare double over British Columbia on Saturday, with the Oilers legging out a C-plus effort over the Canucks, and the Elks punching their ticket to the Grey Cup against the Lions. 

What a fun sports night. 

The Oilers game might not have been late enough, though, with a puck drop at 9:13 p.m. local time. If you were in season mode for an NHL game, this was a sim. Could’ve been an email. 

Vancouver came to compete but could only provide so much resistance. The Oilers once again went down 11 forwards once Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got donked in the face, and Babcock even occasionally broke up Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl for a shift or two. 

In long stretches of the three games this week, the Oilers looked disjointed, and they’ve relied on their structure and the absurd scoring ability of Connor McGretzky and Jari Draisaitl to withstand. 

The Oilers played a great third period, and the Jason Dickinson, Mathieu Joseph, and Alex Formenton line came alive to play easily their best since being put together. 

Every week, Babcock walks to the bank to deposit more points in the standings. The Oilers sit first in the Pacific with a 12-3-3 record, but at what cost? Next week, we’ll do a quarter-point check-in on the team’s mini-goals. They aren’t trending well in those directions, but they are winning the games. 

I think Herm Edwards said something about that once. 

• Oilers record this week: 1-1-1 
• Oilers record vs. Pacific: 7-1-1 
• Oilers record vs East: 3-1-2 
• Oilers home record: 5-3-2 

This week: 

• Monday vs New York Rangers 
• Wednesday vs Philadelphia Flyers 
• Saturday at Toronto Maple Leafs 

Quick hitter thoughts:

Connor McDavid played 25:15 last night against the 32nd-place Canucks. As coach Mike Babcock joked in the presser, “We like to play with as few guys as possible,” in reference to Colton Dach’s illness keeping him out. This is the sixth game McDavid has played more than 25 minutes, a third of the games, averaging 23:40 on the season. That’s 41 seconds more than his career-high ice time last season. Only Macklin Celebrini is close among forwards at 23:08. In third is Tim Stutzle at 21:54. That feels like too much. Babcock knows it’s too much. More on this next week at the quarter point. 

If Colton Dach was healthy, who’ve been scratched last night? Alex Formenton has been trending toward the press box. He had a play in the middle of the second period where he flew from neutral to the offensive zone, shimmy-shaked into the corner, then threw the puck into no-man’s land behind the net to start the breakout for the Canucks. Not an unusual play for Formenton. But as I said above, that line came to play in the third period. Dickinson is hard on himself, but he’ll come along, provided he doesn’t have any injury setbacks. Overall, Dach’s absence was felt in a sleepy, languid game.

Major props to Tristan Jarry. I wrote when Devon Levi went down that this could be a defining stretch for Jarry’s Oilers tenure. He passed the test. Two shutouts, and arguably his best showing was in New Jersey, giving Edmonton a chance to win a game they didn’t deserve to. I wasn’t convinced Jarry could be relied upon like this, earning second star of the week honours. That’s a major plus for the Oilers. 

Jake Walman and Trent Frederic are on a first-name basis with the concierge at the doghouse. Walman played his second lowest ice-time in four years (excluding injury) against the Devils. He was scratched again on Saturday, and it didn’t feel undeserved based on play. Frederic played 6:58, just six seconds more than Nuge, a new season low. The thing is, when the Oilers go down a forward mid-game, Babcock essentially drops to three lines. Frederic remains a player without a role. I did like moments from the fourth line with Max Jones and Owen Michaels. Michaels streaky faceoff play is swinging back to the good lately, going 8-for-9 last night. But it seems like a long road for each to become regulars. Stan Bowman looks on with a blank face. 

It would’ve been nice to have Isaac Howard for the last two games. One could dare to dream of a line shuffle where Howard could’ve played with skill, but we know that wouldn’t have happened. Hopefully Howard isn’t out for too much longer to continue that sub-plot. 

Vasily Podkolzin is an Edmonton treasure

Russian folk hero Vasily Podkolzin didn’t need to ingratiate himself to Oilers fans any more, but for good measure, he made Drew Helleson’s head a punching bag after McDavid was bumped into the net vs. the Ducks on Thursday: 

“It’s never gonna happen to this team in this locker room,” said Podkolzin on Saturday morning about what happened. 

“We’re all great teammates here, and we’re all gonna step up for each other. I appreciate the reaction for it, but just nothing really crazy happened. You know, like it just could happen like five more times in this season, I hope it’s not. But it’s a game. You never know what’s going to happen out there. So, and then at the end of it, like anyone in my spot would do the same thing.” 

That’s a team. 

Notes across the league:

• The Chicago Blackhawks are a tragedy in motion, blown out 9-2 by the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night, and only two points better than trying-to-lose Vancouver in the standings. Their last two full-time coaches were fired early in the season. Luke Richardson was 8-16-2 when fired. Jeremy Colliton was 1-9-2. Jeff Blashill is 4-13-1. Blackhawks are trembling with the thought presented by Elliotte Friedman during Saturday night headlines, which said general manager Kyle Davidson is aggressively pursuing trade conversations. They want the house clean. But when has a Wirtz-owned team done anything to please the fans?
• Nikita Kucherov had nine shots on goal, 20 shot attempts, and the overtime winner for Tampa Bay against Minnesota last night. There were suggestions that pro scouts travelled to Tampa to watch him. Talk about one of the all-time wastes of fuel, money, and resources. What’s the report? “He’s good. Really, really good.” Thanks for the expense report, guys.
• In a brutal week for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Sidney Crosby notched point No. 1,772 to become the sixth leading scorer all-time, surpassing Marcel Dionne. He’s 26 points back of Ron Francis for 5th.
• In honour of the hometown remix jerseys looking bizarre on our screens, this video resurfaced of a rare Cooperall vs. Cooperall matchup between the Philadelphia Flyers and Hartford Whalers back in 1983. The Flyers wore them for both the 1981-82 and 1982-83 seasons. The Whalers wore them only for 1982-83. This was the third and final “Cooperall Cup” game, and the Flyers eventually won 8-4.