The Edmonton Oilers wrapped up their five-game homestand with a 2-2-1 record by defeating the St. Louis Blues 3-2 at Rogers Place on Wednesday (Feb. 28).
Connor McDavid had the game-winning goal in overtime and Zach Hyman scored twice for the Oilers, who rallied after goals from Pavel Buchnevich and Robert Thomas staked the Blues to a 2-0 lead before the game was five minutes old.
Both goalies were busy, as Edmonton’s Stuart Skinner made 34 saves while Jordan Binnington stopped 35 shots in a losing cause for the Blues.
With the victory, Edmonton improves to 35-20-2 this season and pulls within one point of the Vegas Golden Knights for second place in the Pacific Division standings.
McDavid Wins It in Overtime
All the talk in Oil Country has been about the wildly divergent offensive production of McDavid, who is on pace both to score his fewest goals in seven years and to become only the fourth player in NHL history with 100-plus assists in a season.
Related: McDavid Piles up Assists but Oilers Need Their Star to Score More
This dichotomy had been most pronounced over Edmonton’s 10 games prior to Wednesday, a stretch that saw McDavid rack up 23 points – all of which were assists.
Only once previously in his nine NHL seasons had McDavid gone 10 games without scoring, and he was seconds away from establishing a new career-worst goalless drought on Wednesday. Then he went full superstar mode, taking the puck from inside his own blue line, winding his way around a couple Blues, and ultimately chipping the puck over the shoulder of Binnington with just 25.3 seconds remaining in sudden death. The goal sent Rogers Place into a frenzy, lifted the Oilers to victory, and snapped McDavid’s slump.
“There was no one to pass to,” McDavid joked while talking to media after the game. To his credit, Edmonton’s captain remained good-humoured throughout this stretch whenever asked about his lack of goals.
McDavid also assisted on both of Hyman’s goals, because of course he did. The Oilers captain now has 22 goals and 72 assists this season, ranking third in the NHL with 94 points.
Hyman Hits 40 Goals
With two goals on Wednesday, Hyman extended his scoring streak to six consecutive games, but more significantly reached 40 goals this season.
Not only does Hyman become just the third Oilers player since 1990-91, joining teammates McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, to score 40 times in a season, but he’s also the second quickest to 40 goals among all Oilers players since 1988-89: Hyman scored goal No. 40 in his 56th game, McDavid reached 40 in 48 games last season.
Hyman now has the second most goals in the NHL this season, trailing only Toronto Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews, who is running away in the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy race with 52 goals.
In Edmonton’s rich NHL history, only Wayne Gretzky, Jari Kurri and McDavid have scored more than 55 goals in a single season. Hyman is now on pace for 56 goals. Think about that.
With each passing game, Hyman’s 2023-24 campaign just becomes more incredible – and his All-Star snub becomes more egregious.
Oilers Start Slow Again
Buchnevich’s goal at 4:49 of the first period made the score 2-0 in favour of the Blues, who had two goals before Edmonton had two shots. The slow start was an all too familiar scenario for an Oilers team that has now given up the first goal in nine of its 12 games since the All-Star Break. And what’s worse is that over these last dozen games, Edmonton has not once taken a lead into the third period.
On Wednesday, the game was knotted 2-2 after 40 minutes, after Hyman scored at 18:16 of the first period and 4:54 of the second to pull the Oilers even. During his post-game scrum with the media, Edmonton’s newest 40-goal man was asked about his team chasing the game once again.
“We don’t want to do that all the time, but we were fortunate,” Hyman responded. “(Skinner) played really well, kept us in the game and we were able to find a way to win.”
Edmonton has proven it can play from behind. After all, the Oilers have managed to win six of these last 12 games despite not leading after two periods in any of them. For the 2023-24 season, they rank third in the NHL for wins both when trailing after the first period (eight times), and trailing after the second period (seven times).
Such resiliency is the hallmark of a championship team. But as the old phrase goes, if you play with fire, you’re going to get burned. And the further the Oilers march into the playoffs this spring, the more likely they are to run into a heavyweight that doesn’t let its opponent up from the canvas.
The Oilers are next in action on Saturday (March 2) afternoon when they visit the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena. They then return home to face the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday (March 3) night.
