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Golden Knights 0, Oilers 4
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In what was arguably their biggest game of the season, Edmonton Oilers made a full team effort on Saturday afternoon to close the Vegas Golden Knights 4-0. It was their second consecutive win with the same score after the Oilers beat the Nashville Predators at Music City on Thursday. The 4 points secured by Edmonton in less than 48 hours provide a much-needed breathing space in what was a crazy run to the playoffs. Suddenly the Oilers are in a great position, in second place in the Pacific with a 6-point lead over the Los Angeles Kings, 7 ahead of the Vegas, and the 3 teams with 6 games to play. (The results of the Kings match on the West Coast are pending late Saturday night.) It certainly helps that the Oilers removed the season series of both opponents, winning 3 of the 4 games in each case.
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With the Oilers having a tie-breaker advantage over the Kings, they need just 6 points in their last 6 games to gain a home advantage in the first round of the playoffs against the survivor between LA, Vegas and a delayed charging in Vancouver. On Saturday, they used the ice at home for good, recording their first shutout at the “friendly limits” since 2019, with their last 6 limestones all on the road. Mike Smith was great in the win, but he had a lot of help from his friends. Vegas beat Edmonton 39-36, but our preliminary analysis here at Cult of Hockey had the Oilers hold a significant 16-5 lead in Grade A shots, with a handful of games on both ends of the ice that they do not have. still revised (running count).
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A great team performance with positive points for all hands.
Player ratings
2 Duncan Keith, 6. He played a solid defensive game, burning for a few second-class shots at first, but very shortly after. Move the elf well. He blocks 7 shots to lead both teams.
5 Cody Ceci, 8. Drive body D in shifts (26), ice time (22:40), full power ice time (19:01) and short-term ice time (3:39). No outrageous mistakes, several good defensive stances and a huge goal when he hit a shot on Puljujarvi’s heavy screen and caught a favorable deflection from an opponent’s stick. That made the score 2-0 in the first minute of the third and the Oilers went a long way from there. Some minor defense issues but nothing glaring.
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6 Kris Russell, 8. He scored his first goal in more than 3 years when he jumped into the high slot to extract Kassian’s late feed. And it was also a big goal, the final winner of the game who opened the scoring late in the first and stood as the only account of the game in two periods before his friends ran away in the third. He played 12:08 as the nominal 7th defender, spending time on both sides of the card. He was shot in 2:10 on the (perfect) penalty and did not fall victim to any Grade A shots throughout the day. 3 shots, 2 blocks, 2 blows.
10 Derek Ryan, 6. 10 steady minutes with uniform power, 90 good seconds in PK. Chip in an assist in the short hand goal, officially credited to the RNH. Appeared in good spots in the offensive zone in the normal.
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13 Jesse Puljujarvi, 7. Another Oiler with a steady two-way effort. No points, but he contributed immensely to Ceci’s goal, he looked at Logan Thompson in Vegas’ goal, while he was involved with Braden McNabb, who accidentally passed by his own goalkeeper. Participated in 4 Grade A shots by the Oilers, without any mistakes against. He becomes a master in making short passes that find McDavid in good positions.
18 Zach Hyman, 6. Some good close-range shots, and the usual trench warfare, including being at the end of a heavy control by Zach Whitecloud. No discount for the extremely stinging penalty imposed on the third. fortunately his comrades had his back and killed him.
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22 Tyson Barrie, 6. Skated well, threw a good defensive stick in times, stayed away from problems. 2 shots into the net, 1 of them a bomb once Thompson fought.
25 Darnell Nurse, 7. Tower of power with 5 shooting attempts, 3 hits and many battles won. He was impressed in a sequence when he repelled a dangerous rebound from the low box, then made a second strong play along the wall to completely win the rebound and trigger the breakout. He won an assist on Ceci’s goal and could have another with a nice pass that Yamamoto hit from the crossbar. He played “just” 20:54, but scored 3:18 on the penalty spot.
27 Brett Kulak, 6. Quietly effective with decent shot divisions and zero major problems behind his own line. Credited with 6 hits in the game.
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29 Leon Draisaitl, 6. He had very little offensive play, including a rare 0 shot in the net, but played a strong defensive game. He made a key stop in the lost seconds of the middle frame, after Bouchard and Keith got their signals crossed. The dot dominated at the rate of 18/27 = 67%.
37 Warren Foegele, 9. He has raised the levels in his strong game in recent weeks, giving perhaps his best game of the season to date. Strong in all three zones, skating straight with the elf and winning battles when he got there. He played two key games in the first goal, first bowling over a defender deep in Vegas territory to gain possession, then jumping into a loose buck high in the belt and starting the four-way game that ended in Russell’s goal. It does not make sense for this effort, so he took matters into his own hands in the third by scoring 3-0 without help. It started with a good read and interception high in the defensive zone, followed by a 150-foot sprint that left the defenders through and ended with a high-speed deck and deposit. 4 shots on goal, team high 7 attempts, 2 hits, 1 takeaway.
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41 Mike Smith, 9. He continued his super-hot roll with his second consecutive shutout, becoming just the 7th goalkeeper in NHL history to do so at the age of 40+. He was busy all day with 39 saves including at least 12 in each season. He faced more Grade B shots than A, but repelled several difficult high-caliber sniper games along the way, including 6 from Max Pacioretty, 5 from Jack Eichel and Alex Pietrangelo, 4 from Jonathan Marchessault. He did a great job fighting through the screens. He also took care of the fold, cutting twice dangerous passes and once making an excellent poke check on the edge of the blue. Rock hard handling of the elf, except for a shot bounce that almost led to disaster, but it did not. 39 shots, 39 saves, 1,000 percentage saves and continues with an amazing 5-0-0, 0.80, 0.976 in the last fortnight.
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44 Zack Kassian, 6. He had a generally strong game, starting as an “extra forward” winning 11 minutes with various players. Remarkable mainly in a good way, with 5 hits. He seemed to freeze when McLeod put him in a great position next to the net, but he recovered well with Russ B’s Plan B feed in the high slot, winning the main assist in the first goal of the game. He tied 1 full point for the unnecessary penalty he scored in a neutral zone, with 6 minutes left in the third, a major offense to Keegan Kolesar where he grazed twice the depth of Vegas forward before finally connecting in his third round. The good news was not only that his friends killed him, but they scored 4-0 at the end of the match.
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56 Kailer Yamamoto, 6. He had nothing offensive (0 shots, bad shots) but he was still a thorn in the side of the Golden Knights throughout. He had a great change in Edmonton’s first penalty kick, stealing the elf twice inside the Oilers blueline and killing time with a good rush and later, a safe clean-up and change. A good shot was made from the crossbar early in the second. Busy around the elf all afternoon, he licked and kept hitting. He got some friendly fire when Bouchard punched him with a heavy shot that (twice) sent him limping into the tunnel, but he returned for the third. 4 hits, 2 takeaways.
71 Ryan McLeod, 6. The only Oiler under 10:00 ice time (8:50), found a way to make an impact. He made a nice pass to Cassian and won a side assist to the winner of the match. Strong momentum and shot with one hand in the penalty, in which he contributed 2:01. Not the best elf management with 4 gifts. Some weird decisions with the elf in what seemed like good shooting positions.
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