6 days Ago By David Staples, Edmonton Journal
Article content It was a barn fire of a game, heating things up on a winter day, with Edmonton charging to a 5-0 lead and holding on for a 6-3 win. Edmonton has now eight of its last nine games, showing their Stanley Cup quality. Both teams revved it up, as seen in their Grade A shot totals, Edmonton with 17, the Vegas Golden Knights with 17, and the subset of most dangerous 5-alarm shots being five for the Oilers, five for VGK.
Connor McDavid , 5. Some defensive boo-boos. Almost tipped one in Edmonton’s own net late in the first.
Shot out of a torpedo tube to move in and set up RNH’s goal in the first. He powered a 5-alarmer on net in the second. His n-zone turnover kicked off the Sequence of Pain on the second Vegas goal.
Contributions/mistakes on Grade A shots (GAS): Even Strength +1/-4; Special Teams 1/0 Zach Hyman, 8. Great hustle, great goal, great game. Charged hard and engaged a d-man on RNH’s goal.
He jammed in a pass from RNH for Edmonton’s second. Excellent backcheck on Barbashev in the d-slot a moment later. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 1/0 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 7.
Slammed home McD’s pass for Edmonton’s first goal. Snapped up the puck and put it on net on Hyman’s early second period goal. A few defensive lapses, which was typical of Oilers players this game.
GAS: ES +3/-3; ST 1/0 Leon Draisaitl, 8. Another great game, but tarnished a wee bit by wretched sequence. One goal, two assists.
He worked the puck well with his unheralded linemates on Edmonton’s first 5-alarmer by Podzolzin. He grabbed a loose puck and charged up ice forcefully to kick off the Virtuous Cycle of the puck on Edmonton’s first goal. He made a beautiful backhand seamer to Bouchard for wicked shot.
He blasted a hard wrister on net with Connor Brown slamming home the rebound for Edmonton’s third goal. He went to the net to slam in Nurse’s beauty pass for Edmonton’s fourth. But he made a bad o-zone turnover, then two more mistakes, starting and causing the Sequence of Pain on VGK’s first goal.
GAS: ES +7/-2; ST 1/0 Kasperi Kapanen, 7. Some solid passing on two Grade As in the first. His speedy move had set up Drai’s harpoon in the third.
GAS: ES +4/-0; ST 0/0 Vasili Podkolzin, 8. Charged in to rip a Grade A from the edge of home plate in the first, then took a pass from Darnell Nurse hard to the net a moment later for a 5-alarm backhander. Great block in the sequence leading up to Edmonton’s third goal, giving him a full bonus grade for courage.
GAS: ES +6/-1; ST 0/0 Adam Henrique, 7. Solid game. Got a dangerous early tip shot on net.
He got drawn out of position on a sequence leading to a VGK 5-alarmer in the second. He made a great pick-up of the puck off the boads and back-pass to Nurse on Edmonton’s sixth goal. Excellent on the dot.
GAS: ES +1/-2; ST 1/0 Jeff Skinner, 7. Quiet much of the game but snagged a rebound and sniped in a sniper’s snipe for Edmonton sixth goal, stopping dead VGK’s three goal comeback push. GAS: ES +0/-0; ST 1/0 Mattias Janmark, 5.
Hustle play to negate an icing led to game’s first Grade A. He shot like rocket to almost tip in Brown’s pass short-handed in the first. A few defensive mistakes, which isn’t normal for Janmark.
GAS: ES +3/-3; ST 1/0 Corey Perry, 6. Pounded home an outside shot through heavy traffic for Edmonton’s fifth. Otherwise quiet.
GAS: ES +1/-1; ST 0/0 Connor Brown, 7. He charged up ice short-handed to set up Janmark’s dangerous shot, just the kind of PK trend we love to see. He got stick-on-stick on a Mark Stone backhander to help send it over the net.
He went hard to the net to chip in Drai’s rebound on Edmonton’s third goal. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 1/0 Derek Ryan, 6. He set a screen on Perry’s goal.
GAS: ES +1/-0; ST 0/0 Evan Bouchard, 6. High event, more good than bad. Good to see him in the game after that sneaky-nasty Hartman hit.
He started iffy, caught up ice twice on what developed into odd-man rushes. Slammed one off the post late in the first. Great sliding block to thwart a 3-on-2, then made a cool back-handed stretch to kick off the odd-man rush on Edmonton’s third goal.
He was slow to cover Eichel on a second period 5-alarm tip. A culprit on the first VGK goal. GAS: ES +5/-3; ST 0/0 Mattias Ekholm, 5.
More struggles than usual than this one. He and Bouchard were both caught behind the net on the first VGK goal. Eichel cross-checked him hard into the boards in the second, but it’ll take more than that to fell the Viking.
Weirdly no penalty was called. So weird, eh? Ek rebounded, driving the puck on net leading up to Skinner’s goal. GAS: ES +1/-5; ST 1/2 Darnell Nurse 7.
Two assists, another good game. Great pass to send in Podkolzin in the first. Brilliant slot stickcheck on Dorofeyev in the second.
Beauty move to the outside and backhand pass to the inside to set up Edmonton’s fourth goal. GAS: ES +3/-3; ST 1/0 Brett Kulak, 7. He won the battle to kick off Edmonton’s fourth scoring sequence.
Quiet game, which is good for a d-man against a powerhouse opponent. GAS: ES +2/-1; ST 0/0 Troy Stecher, 3. Run ragged against the menacing VGK forecheck.
He got beat on the pinch by Kolesar in the first and had to take a penalty. He charged up ice, as he’s been doing lately, to set up Drai for a Grade A backhander in the first. GAS: ES +1/-6; ST 0/0 Ty Emberson, 6.
Solid game, low event. Good block on Eichel on an early VGK power play. GAS: ES +0/-1; ST 0/2 Stuart Skinner, 6.
Some great moments at key times, but tarnished by a few telling errors. Lots of complicated busy work early on but Skinner was up to it, then came up with two stupendous stops off a knifing seam pass to Eichel in tight. Game-changing, statement-making moment, that one, as Skinner has struggled with such stops.
He got caught deep in his net and discombobulated on VGK’s second goal. Tough play on the third Vegas goal, coughing up the puck behind the net, then falling down. But he shut down Vegas after that on a number of Grade A shots .
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