Three takeaways from the Edmonton Oilers overtime win against the Vegas Golden Knights

The Edmonton Oilers took Game 2 of their second round series against the Las Vegas Golden Knights last night with a 5–4 overtime win.

There is one word that came to my mind when watching the Oilers last night and that’s tenacious. Not just because of all the comeback wins but because last night they simply did not go away. Every time a Vegas defender looked over their shoulder there was a white jersey bearing down on them. They just didn’t have time to breathe.

The first half of this game was frankly a little bland, Vegas had the only goal and Edmonton, while not committing any grave sins, really weren’t doing anything noteworthy either.

Flip to seven minutes into the second period and this game was electric back and forth hockey that didn’t let up till Edmonton snatched the win in over-time.

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl came up huge combining for the OT goal after being held off the scoresheet all game long. As overtime wore on it felt like McDavid, as the leader of the team, had to be the one to make something happen. He did not disappoint, with the added bonus of making Marv from Home Alone (Jack Eichel) look like a 10-year-old at power skating first learning how to cut a C into the ice.

Here are the stories of the game:

Calvin Pickard holds it down between the pipes

Calvin Pickard has played every game since Game 3 of the first round against the Los Angeles Kings. He has faced some scrutiny because, despite his winning ways, he wasn’t been the deciding factor in any of them, his numbers haven’t been spectacular.

Pickards numbers from last night still weren’t spectacular, an .875 Sv% and four goals against, but he was the best player on the ice last night. It was not the volume of his saves that was noteworthy but rather the quality and the timing. Pickard denied what seemed like sure goals to start the second as well as throughout the third period, to say nothing of OT. Keeping the Golden Knights from going up 2–0 and getting too much momentum as well as putting a damper on an outright Vegas comeback as they surged in the last 12 minutes of the third.

Now to say something of overtime. Vegas was absolutely pouring it on at the start of OT with probably five deadly chances that should have been guaranteed goals, but Pickard stood tall and was as cool as a cucumber throughout. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one watching from between my fingers, in pure disbelief that the game wasn’t finished five times over. Make no mistake, Draisaitl might have scored the winning goal, but this win belongs to Calvin Pickard.

Relentless forecheck from Edmonton

Perhaps the most encouraging part of Edmonton’s game was their ability to consistently impose their will on Vegas throughout the last half of the second period and first half of the third via a suffocating forecheck. The Vegas defencemen, generally known for being great puck movers, were doing a poor job of it last night, lolly-gagging behind their own red line like a five-year-old at the grocery store candy machine, hoping their Mom will take pity on them. Any first pass was heavily contested and Edmonton forwards were always in the right place to intercept.

Evander Kane’s goal, Edmonton’s fourth, was a direct result of a turnover forced by Zach Hyman. Brett Howden coughed the puck up and Hyman made the right play to pass it back to Kane, a textbook goal.

Some of these Vegas errors were self inflicted like on the Darnell Nurse goal. Draisaitl did pressure Brayden McNabb but he gave it up to Ryan Nugent-Hopkins pretty easily. That’s what sustained forechecking will do for you though, defencemen will start hearing footsteps and make bad passes even when they have the time and ability to hold onto the puck.

Oilers have depth scoring

Last night was one of an extremely rare set of games wherein McDavid and Draisaitl are held off the scoreboard for all of regulation. Even less common, the Oilers won the game.

The Vasily Podkolzin, Mattias Janmark, Viktor Arvidsson line and the Kane, Nugent-Hopkins, Hyman line were both standouts and controlled the Edmonton scoresheet in regulation. In a game where McDavid and Draisaitl just couldn’t make the pieces fit, they stepped up in a big way. This is a reminder to everyone that this is a much deeper team than they are given credit for, as well as a huge confidence boost to the so called depth scorers.

Game 3 takes place Saturday May 10 and will see Edmonton come home with a huge 2–0 series lead. Just a reminder that teams that go up 2–0 in a series historically win the series around 86% of the time.