VANCOUVER — There was a point in the third period of Saturday’s blowout — at the 7:06 mark, to be exact — where the Edmonton Oilers had to become themselves again.
There’s being patient, and there’s simply not getting the job done, and this was the moment to get the job done for an Oilers power play that hasn’t pulled its weight so far this season.
Edmonton had grabbed a 4-2 lead and was awarded a power play when Viktor Arvidsson drew a holding penalty on Filip Hronek.
The Oilers that fans have been waiting to see? That team would have gone out there and salted away the game with a power-play goal, made it 5-2 and cruised home from there.
“Glen (assistant coach Gulutzan) and I were talking on the bench,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “This was the time we needed a goal. ‘If we can score here, we feel the game is sealed.’”
That’s been the M.O. around here for years now, with a power play that has always been as timely as it is efficient. But that power play hasn’t been seen much this season, if at all.
Then they dropped the puck, and just 10 seconds later, Connor McDavid was tapping home a loose puck for that 5-2 lead.
“They came out and executed right away with that goal,” Knoblauch said. “When we needed them the most, in the third period, they came up big.”
“That’s what we want to do, contribute to games, contribute to wins,” said McDavid, who had a three-point night to land at 995 career points. “We’ve done that for years and years, and I would expect that it will get going.”
Within five minutes of McDavid’s goal, Brett Kulak and Connor Brown (with his second of the game) had chased Vancouver goalie Kevin Lankinen, and after a late Canucks power-play goal in garbage time, a relatively tidy, dominant 7-3 win was the reward.
The power play went one-for-three but scored the game-opening goal just four seconds after the Vancouver penalty had expired — a de facto power-play goal — while the penalty kill didn’t give one up until Edmonton had a five-goal lead. The seven-goal outburst was a season-high for the Oilers.
“I feel like we’ve been doing a good enough job keeping the puck out of our net, it’s the run support that hasn’t been there,” said McDavid, spittin’ truths in the post-game locker room. “It’s been two or three (goals per night) with an empty-netter. It’s tough when you only score one or two a night. It was nice to give (Stuart Skinner) a little bit of run support.”
Edmonton has clawed out a 7-7-1 mark thus far, and pulls to within two points of the Canucks rather than falling six behind, had they lost. You can see their game building, and the third period they laid down Saturday — after coming out of the dressing room with a 3-2 lead — was a sign of things going in the right direction.
“We bent a little in the second, but I’m really proud of the way this group handled that third period,” said Brown. “We went out there confidently and got the job done. We showed poise and composure, made plays with the lead and piled on. It was a solid effort by our group.”
“We’re right around .500,” said Mattias Janmark, who had three assists to double his points totals on the young season. “We don’t think we’re a .500 team, so we’ve got to show it to everyone, and show it to ourselves that we’re not.”
Edmonton built a 3-0 lead midway through the game, then watched the Canucks score twice in 1:59 to make a game of it again. Knoblauch called a time-out to cool things down, much like he had when the Oilers’ 3-0 lead late in Game 7 of last spring’s playoff series had been shaved by a couple of Vancouver goals.
“There was a lot more stress on that one,” Knoblauch chuckled. “A lot more going on at that time-out than there was this time.”
From there, the Oilers were the better team. It was Viktor Arvidsson’s best game as an Oiler, while fellow free agent signing Jeff Skinner rode the pine for much of Period 3, coming in with under 12 minutes of ice time on the night.
By the time it was over, there wasn’t any doubt over which was the better team on the night. And that always means a little more when it happens in the Canucks’ building on a Saturday night.
“It certainly does,” McDavid agreed. “Any time you play a team where there is a little bit of a rivalry and you find a way to get a win, especially in their building, it’s always big for momentum. The guys should feel good about themselves heading into a big week next week.”
“(Vancouver) is a very good team, and there’s a rivalry building. You can feel that,” Janmark said. “Winning here, it’s always nice.”
The Oilers will take Sunday off, hosting the Islanders on Tuesday and Nashville on Thursday. McDavid is five points away from becoming the fourth youngest player to reach the 1,000-point plateau.
If the power play has found its stride, we likely won’t have long to wait.
