The Edmonton Oilers played a strong road game against the St. Louis Blues last night, outscoring the home team 3-2 in OT. The Blues had the only five-on-five goal on the night, that’s an area the Oilers have been brilliant in since mid-November. Tonight, it’s on to Chicago for a tilt against the Blackhawks.
Do the Edmonton Oilers need a new No. 1 goaltender ahead of NHL trade deadline? Here’s the story.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN FEBRUARY
- At home to: TOR (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-1-0)
- On the road to: STL, CHI (Expected 2-0-0) (Actual 1-0-0)
- At home to: COL (Expected 0-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: PHI, WAS, TBY, FLA (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- Overall expected results: 5-3-0, 10 points in 8 games
- January result: 1-1-0
- Oilers in 2024-25: 33-15-4, 70 points in 52 games
The Oilers are on a 110-point trajectory and currently sit first in the Pacific Division, up by two points with a game in hand. Tonight is a back to back, but the two cities (St. Louis and Chicago) are close. It’s a drive similar to Edmonton-Brooks, and of course the club is flying so we’re talking an hour. That said, btbs be btbs.
THE NUMBERS
It was a fine game for the Glimmer Twins, and Evan Bouchard was right there with them. When those three are rolling it’s a happy evening for all involved. I thought Connor Brown played well, Jeff Skinner was wildly effective and that Stuart Skinner contributed to the victory.
Edmonton was over 60 percent in shots and HD chances, pretty much over 60 in everything at five-on-five. I didn’t catch the reason Adam Henrique missed the game, but will guess he was under the weather. Hopefully he can play tonight, the coaching staff doesn’t use Noah Philp much at all.
Don’t look now but Corey Perry is eating everyone’s lunch on right wing, getting the cherry minutes. His skating past Binnington after the Leon goal was priceless or galling depending on your point of view. I’m so sorry Kevin Lowe didn’t make that trade 20+ years ago.
One of the areas Stan Bowman may want to look at near the deadline is PK. Edmonton is allowing 8.76 GA-60, that’s No. 23 overall. The save pct is .823 (No. 26), with Skinner at .844 (No. 25 among Gs with 100+ minutes in the discipline). I suspect it’s a team issue as opposed to Skinner, but we don’t know what Stan Bowman is thinking in this area.
At five-on-five, Skinner is No. 10 in save percentage (.923) since November 10. That’s in 22 games and over 1000 minutes, I suspect that’s enough sample to rely on but your mileage may vary.
A final point to make: Leon. Wow. What a player, what a season.
It’s Wednesday on the Lowdown and that means we get to visit with Bruce McCurdy from the Cult of Hockey at the Edmonton Journal. We start at noon and go to 2pm on Sports 1440, Bruce hits the air at 1pm. We’ll chat about all things Oilers and review last night while looking forward to tonight. We’ll get a look at the ‘Hawks, too, and Declanations is all about the NBA today. I’m at Lowetide on twitter, in the comments section here and on the Sports 1440 text line at 1.833.401.1440 directly. We can be heard at sports1440.ca; iHeartRadio, Radioplayer Canada, it’s available post-show on apple and spotify, and we tweet it out on X.
Skinner 1-1-2 +2! Klingberg +3!
It looked like a bunch of sick players – Henrique, Nuge, Perry and others played fewer minutes tonight and others looked tired if not sick also. Great effort, lots of mistakes of fatigue and then the skill won out in the end. McDavid looks like he was giving max effort and truly gassed at the end. Draisaitl was spectacular in both ends of the rink, all game long. Pickard is a joy to watch. He battles and is agile. Great fun to watch this game. Unless you are a Hawks fan.
One other positive note:
McDavid just moved past Kane and Ovechkin into sole possession of most career overtime points at 42.
He’s now one back of Malkin and 5 back of Crosby for the all-time lead.
Draisaitl is 2 behind Connor at 40, followed by Klingberg at 25, if you’re curious
*3rd most. Sorry. But you get it, he’s on pace to smash the record
I hope Oilers stay 3rd overall in the NHL.
No pressure like Presidents Trophy winners.
Almost certain to open at home every series. And play game 7 at home if necessary.
Skinner with over 15 minutes. Good to see.
NEWS FLASH:
Calgary Puck hates the Oilers.
The league can stop pumping Bedard any minute now.
He is not a star. Let him try to develop a game that revolves around more than a gimmick shot which goalies have figured out.
lol really
Yes.
He’s not star-good. Not at this level.
He was better than McDavid tonight.
Sadly that was a low bar tonight. Bedard wasn’t as good as Jeff Skinner tonight
Says a lot more about #97s play than anything else.
15-31-46 -24 does not align at all with his billing.
If his name were Bedardov, the combined -68 would have people (wrongly) running him out of the league.
The media got right out of control before he was drafted and remain there. Smaller guy, skating nothing special, has a good shot. Caufield at centre, if he stays there
Lots of “down votes” on this/these opinions of Bedard. He is quite good but not great thus far. He is certainly no where near McDavid, Draisaitl, MacKinnon level good. So apart from just down votes what are the arguments against these sorts of assessments – again thus far in his career? And of course recognizing he is on a pretty lousy team.
I am thankful that the infraction was of the automatic/un-ignorable variety. There were several very deliberate choices beforehand to ensure the home town fans got good entertainment value for their dollar.
Brilliant choice by Bouchard to fire it off a Chicago stick.
A win is a win, particularly on the back half of a back to back. Skinner/Draisaitl were excellent, McDavid with one of his worse games in recent memory but pulls the team pulls it out in OT.
4 point lead in the pacific, 7 back of WPG for 1st in the west.
Here’s hoping they get some rest, look sharper Friday night against the Avs, and head into the 4N break on a 3 game winning streak.
Truly a blessed time to be an oiler fan when we’re all wringing our hands after winning both ends of a back-to-backs for the second (?) time this season
Character win.
lol
Cartoon character win (Goofy? Dopey?)
Tweety vs Sylvester
Being an Oilers fan is recommended only for people with good cardiac health.
Anyone notice McDavid skate past Hyman after the goal? He did the same to Connor Brown last night. Not suggesting anything just struck me as weird both times. Hyman chased him down though lol
Looks a bit disengaged for him lately
Not the greatest performance, but they got the result they want.
The more I watch of Apex Predator Oilers the more I feel their biggest struggle going ahead is going to be more of the Broberg-Holloway issue. Not giving enough players big-enough roles.
Hyman from his office and that’s all, folks.
Great pass by 97
I think that was the ugliest win of the season…..
The last few games have been a dog’s breakfast.
PK needs work.
A Brad Gilbert special
That’s what makes it impressive when you can win ugly. I think the short off-season effected a lot of the players and if they can sleepwalk through wins it takes the pressure off to do otherwise.
Forged in the crucible
McDavid has not been sharp tonight.
That worked!
Except for now
Passing has been off all night. Tired players? Flu? Choppy ice? Been frustrating to watch.
He won’t put #53 out and that’s a mistake 4-on-3 in OT.
Edit – thankfully doesn’t matter. Attaboy Zach.
I think I’d rather just stay 3 on 3 after watcing the PP tonight
or not…
Hyman!!
Oilers must have thought the Hawks were going to play gazelles to their baby lions tonight.
Just shoot the puck!
CHAOS REIGNS!!!!!
Oilers early season issues creeping back.
They weren’t winning then.
In the Lowe+MacT times Oilers would play the Chicago role all night, usually with similar results.
Flashbacks of Oct Nurse the last few shifts. Playing goal, staring at pucks
Oilers have had a hard time closing out games all year. Makes me anxious as the playoffs draw closer.
I feel like the oilers have to have more OT wins than most teams in the league, and fewer regulation wins than other division leaders/top teams…
Time for some McDavid
Picard deserves a win tonight.
He’s played well
And then he takes Podkolzin off the line…what is this guy doing?!?
extra face off guy late in 3rd
If the Oilers lose, we can blame special teams. Brutal PK and anemic PP.
Oilers seem to like going to OT a lot… always.gotta do things the hard way
Yikes. Nurse and Emberson makin choices in the D zone.
Bedard has once again outplayed McDavid
How did we turn complete control of the puck into that?
I have no idea why Knoblauch threw the playbook out at 3-1 and benched Skinner.
Or why Nurse suddenly thought going backwards was a good idea.
So dumb.
He didn’t bench Skinner. Likely an equipment issue. Skinner was out with Drai the next shift lol.
It was 2 shifts.
Donato has had a strong game for CHI, wouldn’t mind seeing him in an Oilers jersey later this year.
Brutal shift by Emerson and Nurse.
Awful defensive zone play – just like on that PK, many chances to clear, controlled and via dump – none completed.
McDavid and Nuge invisible in the 3rd. Just put the Draisaitl line out over and over
The coach took it apart immediately after the 3-1 goal, gave up the lead, then brought it back.
I don’t know what happened but it looks like he lost his mind.
Why is Skinner suddenly not playing??? Wtf…
wow. PK couldnt kill a prairie chicken on the highway with a Mack truck on a clear day. The kill is having a tough run.
Well, at least they built a 2 goal lead before the PP GA …
4 straight unsuccessful PKs…
oh dear
What’s this now? Two minutes for being run backwards into the goalie?
Pang: “I know I’m part of the union… but not much Podkolzin can do.”
Well… You knew we’d get called for looking at someone funny at some point.
Honestly, I love Jinner. Guy has been a pro all season. Seems up beat in interviews. Has made an effort to improve his game. I hope he scores a series winner.
Game management bullshit.
Kling +3!
Leon Beliveau/Draisaitl shows what he’s made of.
McDavid happy to ride shotgun for his friend.
I think it’s funny when Oilers fans pine after one shot scorers. Meanwhile Drai keeps plugging along as one of the best goal scorers in the last decade.
Leon is #3 in the NHL since 2015/16 in goal scoring. Ovi (unsurprisingly) tops the list by a healthy margin, then Matthews and Leon are neck and neck before the next tier.
Rounding out the top 10: