EDMONTON — They’ll all say this morning that they knew that Charlie, er, Connor Brown would eventually find some fortune. They’ll all say they knew it was coming. That it had to come, for such a hard-working, good guy.
But in a big Canadian hockey market that was counting on Brown to help win a Stanley Cup, the reality was that zero goals through February had left Brown all alone on that pitcher’s mound, naked but for his own remaining self-belief.
“I have far from given up hope because I know I’ve got it in me,” Brown declared three weeks ago, after a four-shot, no-goals night against Boston. “I’ve had six seasons of playing hockey in this league, three of them on pace for 20 (goals) and one of them on pace for 30. I know I can score. I just really believe … things can change in the flip of the switch.
“That’s what my experience tells me.”
Then he waited another 10 games before it happened.
Evander Kane wheeled down the left side on a two-on-one with Brown, who went hard to the net front. Kane’s pass hit Brown’s stick, or skate or whatever, and rattled past Darcy Kuemper for the seventh goal in a 7-2 win.
And the Edmonton fans gave him a standing ovation, and they threw hats. It was a collective hug for a guy who had never deserved all those goal posts, big saves, and that disallowed goal early in the year.
It was organic, and it was kind. A random act of kindness that we just don’t see enough of today, 18,347 folks who knew that one of their guys may have been feeling unappreciated.
So they appreciated him — to the point where he looked almost embarrassed, the author of the most celebrated 7-2 goal in anyone’s memory.
“It meant a lot,“ Brown said after the game. “You play in a big market like this, they’re aware of the storylines. It means a lot.
“It’s been a struggle this year, offensively. I haven’t been able to get one to go. For their support to shine through there, they’re rooting for me, it was a good feeling.”
Hockey fans can be cruel.
Here’s this guy who came billed as “Zach Hyman Lite.” Well, it turns out he’s more “less filling” than “tastes great.”
His agent Jeff Jackson, who would become the Oilers President shortly thereafter, negotiated a $4 million contract that pays $775,000 off of this year’s cap, and as soon as Brown plays 10 games, delivers a bonus of $3.225 million that will come off of next year’s cap.
“Should have made it 10 points,” joked Oilers fans, as they watched Brown skate into game No. 65 against Washington with five lousy assists on the season.
He’d grabbed a role as a top penalty killer and fourth line hustler — $4 million doesn’t buy what it used to — and nobody was satisfied by that.
Least of all Brown.
“I’ve scored 20 multiple times in my career so I would say it is a big part of my game. I was never OK with not scoring,” he said. “I wasn’t satisfied with letting the big boys carry the load and me not contribute. I’m trying to score every night. It will be that way moving forward and into the playoffs.”
In the end Brown, who tore his ACL in the fourth game of the 2022-23 season and missed the rest of the year, went 108 shots on net and 72 games between goals.
There were four players in the NHL with more than 50 shots on goal this season and a shooting percentage of zero. This morning there are three.
“It’s not easy coming to a new team and coming off an injury,” began former Leafs teammate Zach Hyman, who had a hat trick to get to 46 goals on the season, but likely answered as many questions after the game about that as he did about Brown’s first of the year.
“There are so many looks that should have gone in for him, but for whatever reason hockey is a funny game with bounces and things like that,” Hyman said. “It just took something like that for him to get one and I’m sure we will be seeing a lot more from him.”
Leon Draisaitl (1-3-4) and Connor McDavid (1-2-3) feasted on a night where the Oilers power play scored three times. The unheralded Stuart Skinner allowed goals on the Capitals first two shots, then stopped the final 23 volleys — including two show-stoppers on Alex Ovechkin — to collect his 30th win.
McDavid becomes the first player with 30 points in a 10-game span at home since Mario Lemieux from Dec. 1995 to Jan. 1996.
Edmonton is now 20-4-1 in 24 home games since November 13 after losing five of their first six home games this season. Since then they’ve been the second best home team in the NHL, behind only Colorado.
All nice stats, and all overshadowed by a guy who scored his first in his 55th game of the season.
Even he couldn’t get over the love that rained down at Rogers Place Wednesday night.
“I scored a big one in Toronto at the end of the year in my rookie season for my 20th, and it was a pretty big thing,” he said. “But I think this one would take the cake. It’s amazing when you get the feeling that this town is behind me with that kind of support.
“That’s huge for a player. It’s huge for me to build off that momentum and keep it rolling.”
