Player grades: Nugent-Hopkins the OT hero, Oilers steal win in Utah

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Oilers 4, Hockey Club 3 (OT)

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Looks kinda strange, doesn’t it?

Edmonton Oilers’ opponent looked an awful lot like the Arizona Coyotes, not an untethered orphan without so much as a name, never mind a history. They’re a brand spanking new expansion team according to the wizards running the NHL.

Whatever, Edmonton’s first official visit to the state of Utah went about as smoothly as the ice and boards at Delta Center, but at the end of the night the Oil stole away under cover of darkness with 2 points in their jeans despite being outscored 3-1 in the primary game state of 5v5.

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After appearing to be skating in a sulphur hot springs for the first 30 or so minutes, the Oilers picked up the pace in the game’s second half. Vasily Podkolzin‘s goal out of the blue kickstarted a 3-goal barrage in just 6:38 that took the Oilers to the second Zamboni with the lead. That disappeared in the early minutes of the third, and the 3-3 score persisted down the stretch even as the visitors gradually took command. But overtime lasted just 78 seconds before Ryan Nugent-Hopkins put it away with a nifty steal, a won foot race and a perfect shot that beat Karel Vajmelka stick side.

By night’s end it was fairly even territorially, with the Oilers overcoming an early 22-9 disadvantage on the shot clock to finally pull ahead 32-31 on the game’s final shot. Mixed results by out video analysis at the Cult of Hockey, with the Oilers leading in Grade A shots by 14-11, but the Utahns by a narrow 6-5 count in 5-alarm shots (running count). The Oil caught a couple of breaks from the stripes on this night, notably a couple of clear missed calls in the third period.

Player grades

#2 Evan Bouchard, 5. Weird boxcars of 0-2-2, -3. Some will focus on the last part, and fair enough given he was on the ice for all 3 Utah goals and was beaten by the decisive pass on 2 of them. Didn’t have a whole lot of help either time in what amounted to a 2-on-1 scenario. The assists both came on the powerplay, where Edmonton’s long dormant unit scored twice in the same game for the first time all season, and came oh so close to connecting on their third chance as well, late in the third. Bouchard’s strong work on the point was a big part of that. Assists aside, his biggest contribution might have been a terrific play to keep the puck in at the line in the build-up to McDavid’s 3-2 tally. Contributions to Grade A Shots (GAS): Even Strength +2/-3; Special Teams +2/-0.

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#8 Drake Caggiula, 4. Played just 6 minutes during which time his only entries on the Event Summary were a pair of giveaways, one of which led directly to a Grade B shot. His shot shares (Corsi of +1/-7) yell us that much of that time was spent in Oilers territory. GAS: +0/-0; ST 0.

#10 Derek Ryan, 5. Played just 9 minutes with no goals either way but had some good moments. Won a battle to enable a good chance by Perry; later made a nice pass to Stecher for a dangerous shot. His best moment was an important zone clear to enable a line change after his line had iced the puck twice. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.

#13 Mattias Janmark, 5. Made a splendid centring pass to Henrique for an early chance. Otherwise a quiet night up and down his wing, contributing 50 good seconds to Edmonton’s one and only penalty kill. Got away with what seemed a clear trip of his own that was undetected by the zebras. GAS: ES +1/-0; ST 0.

#14 Mattias Ekholm, 4. By eye he’s been off his game this last while, and the numbers support that view. Feature number being -2 on this night. Attempted 6 shots but none of them were on goal. GAS: ES +0/-2; ST 0.

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#19 Adam Henrique, 6. Played a solid two-way time. He and RNH led the club with 1:00 on the penalty kill. The same duo produced the game winner with Nuge doing most of the work but Henrique winning a critical battle just inside the Edmonton blue line to help create the chaos. GAS: ES +2/-1; ST 0.

#25 Darnell Nurse, 7. Made a key contribution to the first EDM goal, starting the passing sequence behind his own net, then jumping into the play to turn Podkolzin’s charge into an odd-man rush, drawing the Utah defender into the middle and opening up a lane for the scoring shot. Puck was going in the right direction on his watch, with the Oilers owning a 15-7 bulge on the shot clock during the team-hiogh 22:01 Nurse played at 5v5. Led all d-men with 5 shots and 2 takeaways. GAS: ES +1/-1; ST 0.

#27 Brett Kulak, 3. Had a very difficult time of it. His pairing with Emberson got destroyed at evens with a ghastly shot count of 1 for, 15 against though somehow no goals against. Kulak did get burned, and was part of the problem, on the 2-0 when he was temporarily paired with Bouchard. GAS: ES +0/-6; ST 0.

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#28 Connor Brown, 5. Fairly quiet night, though he did chip in to the one PK. 1 shot. GAS: ES +0/-1; ST 0.

#29 Leon Draisaitl, 8. Ho hum, another goal, another assist, another 5 shots on net in another 23+ minutes of ice time. A little unfortunate not to score more, as Vejmelka flat out robbed him twice and Mikhail Sergchev once. Made a fine outlet pass to spring Podkolzin on the 2-1. Another great pass to Nurse off the rush for a dangerous look. Had a couple of iffy moments in the d-zone but also put out a few fires there, a couple by hard-working backchecks, a couple others by waving his magic wand and knocking a puck out of the air and out of danger. GAS: ES +4/-2; ST +3/-0.

#30 Calvin Pickard, 7. Beaten early (second shot against) which has become a regular thing, but once again bounced back to largely shut the door. Was a bit unlucky on the second goal when he was unable to punt a rebound past Logan Cooley on the doorstep, but not a lot of help either. First period could have been even worse without a couple of key stops, twice stoning former Oil King Dylan Guenther from close range.  Couldn’t contain Lawson Crouse’s perfectly place shot off the rush that tied the score early in the third. But delivered an enormous save not 2 minutes later when he lunged post to post to thwart Nick Schmaltz’s one-timer off a cross-seam pass, arguably the biggest moment of the entire night. 31 shots, 28 saves, .903 save percentage.

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#42 Kasperi Kapanen, 5. Rang a wicked drive off the inside of the post late in the first. Did some solid work along the boards in his own end of the ice, winning a few battles and breaking the puck out nicely. -2 on the night though neither tally was deemed to be his fault. GAS: ES +1/-0; ST 0.

#49 Ty Emberson, 3. Oilers were onthe backfoot throughout his 13:34, all of it at even strength. Shot attempts +2/-25; shots on goal +1/-15; goals somehow 0-0. His only impression on the scoresheet was taking Edmonton’s lone penalty during a wild scramble, though in isolation the punition itself was a good one that very likely saved a goal. GAS: ES +0/-3; ST 0.

#51 Troy Stecher, 7. Had a strong showing with excellent shot shares of +10/-2. With Emberson in the box was called upon to kill Edmonton’s lone penalty and playerd 1:18 of those 2 crucial minutes, which occurred just moments after the Oilers had cut the deficit to 2-1. 2 shot blocks to lead the team. GAS: ES +3/-0; ST 0.

#53 Jeff Skinner, 4. Was buzzing around early but with little to show for it. Had some more issues defensively, including turning the puck over in the build-up to the 2-0 goal. Shots were 12-7 Utah during his 13½ minutes. The effort is there but the results are not, at either end of the sheet. Now an ugly -10 on the season. GAS: ES +1/-3; ST 0.

#90 Corey Perry, 7. Played 14:45 on the night, fully a third of that (4:55) on the powerplay which sprang to life with 2 goals. Perry earned an assist on the second of those, recovering a loose puck in the zone and sending it back to Bouchard to start the next attack (which scored). Fired a high hard one which seriously tested Vejmelka in the early going. Drew the (thin) penalty called against Olli Maatta that led to the 2-2. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.

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#92 Vasily Podkolzin, 7. Scored the game-turning goal that cut the deficit in half, charging up ice with the puck, making the right decision not to force a pass through to Nurse but instead powering a hard drive that found (or made) a hole in Vejmelka. His second in 2 games, a most welcome development. Played a strong game in the trenches, leading the Oilers with 3 hits on a night the whole team had just 8. GAS: ES +1/-2; ST 0.

#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 7. Hero of the piece with the largely solo effort that decided it 1:18 into overtime, in which he stole the puck off Matias Maccelli at the Oilers blueline, won a hard race up ice to get a breakaway shot, then draing said shot with a perfectly-placed drive that beat the lefthanded Vejmelka blocker side. He was among those ebaten on the 3-3 when he got fooled by a pass in the neutral zone seconds after he started his shift during an iffy line change. GAS: ES +1/-1; ST 0.

#97 Connor McDavid, 6. Such a strange night with Bouchard-like boxcars of 1-1-2, -3. His neutral zone turnover led directly to the 1-0, later was also among the culprits on the 2-0 as well. But he made amends at the other end with some excellent plays, leading the Oilers with11 shot attempts, 6 of them on goal. Made a fantastic shot to the top corner of the net to put his squad ahead 3-2 late in the second. The powerplay unit’s best game in quite some time, with McDavid scooting here there and everywhere to create chaos and chances. GAS: ES +4/-2′ ST 0.

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