The Edmonton Oilers are sitting atop the Pacific Division standings after defeating the Seattle Kraken 4-2 at Rogers Place on Monday (Jan. 27).
Mattias Ekholm, Mattias Janmark, Connor McDavid and Corey Perry scored for Edmonton. Seattle got goals from Vince Dunn and Eeli Tolvanen. Oilers netminder Calvin Pickard made 26 saves in a victorious performance, while Seattle’s Joey Daccord stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced.
With the win, the Oilers improved to 32-15-3 and now have 67 points, one more than the Vegas Golden Knights, who sit second in the Pacific Division with a record of 31-15-4.
Palmer Answers Emergency Call
Edmonton’s No. 1 netminder Stuart Skinner was away from the team on Monday after his wife gave birth to a boy, leaving the Oilers needing a backup goalie on short notice. Enter Tyler Palmer.
The Oilers signed Palmer, a 21-year-old student-athlete with the University of Alberta Golden Bears men’s hockey team, to an amateur tryout. Hours later, he was taking warmups in an NHL regular season game for the first time in his career.
Palmer, who played in the Western Hockey League (WHL) from 2021-22 to 2023-24, is having a stellar first season of U Sports hockey. The Fernie, B.C., product is tied for first in Canada West with 11 wins, while ranking third in the conference among qualified goalies for both save percentage (SV%), .912, and goals-against average (GAA), 2.21.
This isn’t the first time that the Oilers have looked across town for an emergency puck-stopper. Nearly two years ago to the day, Jan. 28, 2023, Edmonton signed then-Golden Bears goalie Matt Berlin to an amateur tryout when Skinner fell ill before a home game against the Chicago Blackhawks.
Oilers Are the Comeback Vets
Given the Oilers have one of the oldest rosters in the NHL, it wouldn’t be accurate to call them the comeback kids, but the first part of that moniker couldn’t be more accurate.
The comeback vets were at it again on Monday. Edmonton fell behind 1-0 when Tolvanen tallied just 3:37 into the game and trailed 2-1 after the first period, before scoring three unanswered goals over the final 40 minutes.
This was the seventh time in the last 10 games that the Oilers have allowed the first goal, and they’ve rallied to win five of those seven contests.
Since U.S. Thanksgiving, the Oilers are an incredible 10-4-0 when the opponent scores first. They have now won nine games when trailing at the first intermission, tied for most in the league.
Janmark’s Slump Is Finally Over
Edmonton tied the game 1-1 at 14:27 of the opening frame when Oilers right wing Connor Brown fired a shot that grazed Janmark before landing behind Daccord.
The goal was just Janmark’s second of 2024-25 and first since he fired the puck into an empty net to seal a 4-2 victory over the Calgary Flames on Nov. 3, a whopping 38 games ago.
Watching live, the goal appeared to be Brown’s; Sportsnet broadcaster Jack Micheals even initially called it as such, before Janmark did the celebratory fly-by at the Oilers bench.
While he was credited with an assist, Brown certainly could have used the goal, too, as it’s now been 19 games since the 31-year-old winger last tallied.
McDavid Gets Back to Work
After serving a three-game suspension, McDavid returned to the Oilers lineup on Monday and picked up right where he left off, scoring at 1:57 of the second period to pull Edmonton even at 2-2. He’s now scored in four of his last five games, and has five goals over that span.
Related: Connor McDavid Scores in Return Game, Oilers Beat Kraken 4-2
Edmonton’s captain was on the ice for 20:10, the most among all Oilers forwards. He finished the game with two shots on goal, and a plus-1 rating.
McDavid centered Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman, as Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch decided to put his top three goal scorers on the top line. While it’s not unusual for the three to play together at some point during a game, especially if Edmonton is trailing, McDavid and Draisaitl generally start on separate lines.
Look for that to be the case when the Oilers are next in action, on Thursday (Jan. 30) against the Detroit Red Wings, in the fifth match of their current six-game homestand at Rogers Place.
