EDMONTON — Corey Perry sat in his dressing room stall on Tuesday, palms to the ceiling.
“Why aren’t we protecting the superstars? Why aren’t we?” asked “The Worm,” in the wake of Connor McDavid being mugged by that noted thug, Conor Garland.
“Every other league does it? They protect their superstars. Mahomes, LeBron… Go down the list!”
Two nights later, Perry, whose career as the most skilled heel to ever lace up a pair of Bauers will likely land him in the Hockey Hall of Fame, approached a scrum behind the Oilers’ net. There, he spied Vancouver Canucks sorta-star Elias Pettersson, but quickly shifted his gaze to Canucks superstar Quinn Hughes.
Perry, who has five inches and 30 pounds on the diminutive D-man, took a hard left, picked Hughes up and threw him down on his head, with total disregard for Hughes’ health or stature. The tweet that ensued was perfect:
“I was just playing hockey. That’s all I was doing out there,” Perry shrugged after a fairly easy 6-2 Oilers win over the Canucks.
This was a masterclass by Perry, still hockey’s most subtle purveyor of the game within the game. Somehow, this soon-to-be 40-year-old, who had one assist and one shot on goal, was on everyone’s lips post-game on a night when Zach Hyman scored twice, Leon Draisaitl had three points, and too many Canucks to name shorted their employer in a game the Oilers led 5-0 at the 32-minute mark.
From the moment Perry “protected” Hughes behind the Oilers’ net, he had the Canucks in the smelly palm of his glove — chasing him, challenging him, swearing at him.
“They had 12 guys coming after me on one shift, it felt like,” he said. “But, you know, it’s part of the game.”
The second period ended with a long chat between Perry and J.T. Miller. “Just asked what he had for dinner, and how everything was going. All good,” Perry reported after the game.
Right on cue, with the Canucks about to be on their first (and only) power play of the night early in the third period, Teddy Blueger threw down his gloves in a valiant attempt to avenge Hughes. To force Perry to engage.
Well, you can add the Latvian to the ranks of those who have tried and failed over the years, a list of names long enough to stretch all the way to Riga and back again.
Perry, who leads the Oilers with three fighting majors this season — including engaging tough Boston customer Trent Frederic earlier this month — kept his gloves against Blueger, negating the power play. And infuriating the Canucks, of course.
“There’s a time and place, and I felt the time and the place wasn’t right now,” he reasoned, as the West Coast internet blew up in rage.
Their Canucks were getting blown out in Edmonton, denied even the booby prize of watching one of theirs take a pound of Perry flesh.
Let’s face it: when he’s not on your team, you either hate the guy or you despise him. Take your pick.
“He’s probably the best in the league at it,” said Draisaitl, who has 11 points in five games without McDavid in Edmonton’s lineup this season. “He knows when to do what, at the right times, and he does it better than anybody else. That’s just a mature, really smart hockey play. I know it has nothing to do with hockey, but it’s a hockey play.”
What was it like playing against Perry as a younger player, when Perry resided in Anaheim?
“It was not fun,” Draisaitl confirmed. “We played them in the playoffs. He is just smart and knows what he’s doing. His hockey IQ, in-game management and with the puck is up there with the best that I’ve ever seen. We’re very fortunate to have him with us.”
This game was an example of how teams get revenge on each other in 2025. It was edgy, but there wasn’t a fight in the game.
Edmonton is the better team, it’s fair to say, and played like it despite their captain missing Game 2 of his three-game suspension.
Calvin Pickard was better early in the game than struggling Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko, and Edmonton’s top players were miles more engaged than Vancouver’s.
The Oilers are now 10 wins and 13 points ahead of the Canucks in the Pacific Division.
They left Rogers Arena last spring hoping not to have to play the Canucks in another playoff series, after the battle they fought last spring.
Now, the Canucks will have to make the playoffs for it even to be possible.
