Jay Woodcroft, his team having lost three straight and lining up in Tampa Bay on the back end of a back-to-back, proudly hung out his shingle before the game on Tuesday
“We’re open for business. We’re looking for people who want to contribute,” advertised the Oilers head coach, his team on a slide and about to drop the puck in a building where Edmonton hadn’t won a game since 2009.
Then the resumes started landing on his desk:
• Warren Foegele, who had not scored a goal in 32 games, opened the scoring with a shorty.
• Jack Campbell, who described his play this season as “pathetic” after his last start, a Dallas debacle, came up with his best start of the young season.
• The penalty killers, torched for four goals the night before in a 5-4 loss at Washington, turned in a 5-for-5 performance against a Lightning power play that had scored in three straight games.
In the end, Woodcroft and the Oilers were back in business, gutting out a 3-2 win that featured two goals called back (one for each team) and a gruesome injury to Oilers winger Evander Kane.
“There was a lot of drama in the game. It came down to the last shot block at the end of the game,” Woodcroft said. “I was happy for our guys — we dug in and it wasn’t easy. We got in at 3:30 in the morning last night (from Washington).”
“Yeah, we definitely were not in a good spot,” agreed Connor McDavid, who notched his 14th goal in game No. 13. “Got in real late last night, and obviously it was a tough one (in Washington). The boys battled hard and just found a way to win.
“I mean, that’s all it was. It’s nice to show we can play a little defence.”
The Kane injury weighed heavy on everyone’s mind, after he went down in the second period and had his wrist skated over by Pat Maroon, obviously unintended. Blood began gushing from Kane’s wrist, and he rose up, sprinted for the bench and hustled straight down the runway to the dressing room.
At that point, our Gene Principe — who was in the immediate area — heard someone calling, “Help! Help! Help!” Tampa doctors and the Oilers staff worked quickly, and Kane was said to be fine and awaiting surgery after the game.
It was an upsetting injury, and left everyone a bit shaken. Kane skated off with a look of panic you don’t often see at this level.
“His eyes were as wide as a person’s can be,:” McDavid said. “We got the sense of how alarming it was. How scared he was, and we’re all scared for him.
“To be honest, I don’t handle that stuff very well. I haven’t even seen the replay, and probably won’t watch it.”
In the short term, everyone is just happy that Kane seems to be OK. Longer term, Edmonton now has to figure out how to replace a Top 6 winger for the next month — or perhaps longer.
But back to the game, the kind of win where a good team looks in the mirror, puts its foot down, and says, “Enough is enough.”
The Oilers had won five straight, then lost three in a row. This was about details and work ethic, and guys like Foegele, Brett Kulak, Cody Ceci and Zach Hyman set a tone for everyone to follow.
“We won five games in a row there,” began Woodcroft, “and towards the end of that little streak we thought our game had the sniffles a little bit. There were things that was showing up that we didn’t love about it. It ended up biting us in the New Jersey game, and it’s taken a little while to get it back on the rails.”
Edmonton got the early goal from Foegele, a sturdy, honest effort from the penalty killers, some solid, professional work by Campbell, and the usual production from McDavid (1-1-2) and Leon Draisaitl (goal).
“Warren Foegele showed me something tonight. I was happy for him,” Woodcroft said. “And Jack Campbell, that was the best game I’ve seen him play in an Oilers uniform. That was a huge win for him personally, and most importantly is a huge win for our team.”
Campbell stopped 35 shots and weathered a late surge by the Lightning, who know a thing or two about winning. He was spectacular when asked to be — which wasn’t often — and solid the rest of the time, in running his personal record to 6-3.
“It’s much more up to my standard,” he said. “I thought the team played great in front of me, so I’m just all around really happy with the performance and ready to move on.”
Next stop Carolina.
