The last time these two teams met McDavid was injured early and the Oilers’ goaltending was anything but solid. Tarasov returned to the net after 7 straight starts from Elvis and Tuna returned to the lineup to replace the healthy scratched JVR.
1st Period
Slightly delayed start as there was a ceremony to celebrate McDavid reaching 1,000 career NHL points earlier in the season. He is the fourth fastest player to reach that career milestone in NHL history behind only Gretzky, Lemieux and Bossy. Congrats.
Didn’t take long to get going in this one. The 4th line came out on their first shift and got to work on the forecheck. A good effort led to a Pyyhita shot that eventually deflected off Labanc and in to open the scoring.
CBJ Goal 1-0: Labanc (Pyythia, Werenski) 2:31
Edmonton to the power play after a failed rush chance, interference on Voronkov. Good looking PK, no real setup from Edmonton, noting Pyyhtia was out there on one of the units and had a nice showing.
A failed CBJ clearing attempt ends up on McDavid’s stick, he effortlessly dangled through Christiansen and Harris and fed Hyman for an easy one to tie it up.
EDM Goal 1-1: Hyman (McDavid, Bouchard) 9:46
Good back and forth action, noticeably more energy for both sides compared to the Calgary game. The Sillinger-Fantilli-KJ line was especially effective culminating in a drawn penalty with 30 seconds left in the period. No chances on the 30 second power play, but they CBJ would begin the 2nd up a man.
Fairly even period. Shots 13-9 and 5v5 xG 0.97-.5 both favored Edmonton but a nice back and forth flow.
2nd Period
Jackets started the period with a decent looking power play but could not convert. Edmonton appeared to gain some energy from the successful kill. The McDavid line immediately created a chance when a beautiful pass found McDavid alone with an empty net, but Severson got his stick in between to block the shot. Not much later McDavid yet again found the puck in the offensive zone, drew several CBJ players close before feeding Draisaitl in the slot who got it past Tarasov.
EDM Goal 1-2: Draisaitl (McDavid, Bouchard) 2:22
After a lengthy discussion on the bench Dean Evason elected to challenge for goaltender interference. There was a little contact between Tarasov and Hyman in the blue crease but not enough to waive off the goal. I’m not going to pretend I can judge whether it should’ve been interference or not. The failed challenge put the Oilers on the PP. Some more nifty passing from Edmonton leads to a power play goal and a two goal deficit for the Jackets less than 5 minutes into the period.
EDM Goal 1-3: Ekholm PP (Skinner, Nurse) 4:02
A good shift in the offensive zone ends with a poor ZAR feed to the front of the net that was cleanly broken up by Ekholm who got the Oliers started on the breakout. A flawless 3 on 2 rush from the McDavid line ended with Hyman’s second of the night getting past Tarasov.
EDM Goal 1-4: Hyman (Nugent-Hopkins, McDavid) 6:53
Good work from the first line ending a long shift on the offensive zone allowing the Fantilli line to take over without losing possession. A Severson shot from above the faceoff dot took a strange bounce off the Edmonton defender and created a nasty knuckle puck that Picard couldn’t find. The lead was cut to two.
CBJ Goal 2-4: Severson (Sillinger, Fantilli) 10:02
Fabbro with an accidental high stick drew blood from Kapanen and he was assessed a double minor sixteen minutes in. It would’ve been impossible to prevent any chances but this was a good penalty kill at a big moment in the game. Sadly, just after it looked the Jackets had calmed the storm, another failed clear leads to Jeff Skinner alone in front who out-maneuvered Tarasov to get the Oilers’ fifth of the game.
EDM Goal 2-5: Skinner (Henrique, Janmark) 18:30
Period ends with Jackets down 3. Edmonton controlled the period leading in shots 18-7 and 5v5 xG 1.78-0.43.
3rd Period
Early power play opportunity for the Jackets after Janmark commits a tripping penalty. Some good looks but Columbus couldn’t convert.
A tremendous shift from the third line 5 minutes in created good zone time and ended when Sillinger filtered a long shot through a crowd in front of the net for the Jackets third goal of the game. Harris gets his first point as a Blue Jacket with the assist on the goal.
CBJ Goal 3-5: Sillinger (Harris, Christiansen) 6:10
EDM Goal 3-6: Draisaitl PP (McDavid, Bouchard) 13:37
Period ends with no more exciting action. Edmonton with the edge that period in shots 8-6 and 5v5 xG 0.53-0.42.
Final Thoughts
Connor McDavid is very good at hockey and the Blue Jackets cannot stop taking penalties. Columbus had a good start and good moments, but the failed challenge in the second shifted the game to Edmonton and they capitalized on their chances. The penalty kill yet again ceded multiple power play goals.
Forwards: Some promise early in this game, especially the Fantilli line, but the 2nd period changed the complexion of this game. Voronkov had some fun battles with Draisaitl, but he committed two penalties in this game and got swapped with KJ in the third period. Fantilli created some offense but certainly could’ve done more defensively on Edmonton’s second and fifth goals. Sillinger is up to 8 points in his last 7 games, at least the team is still scoring even when down big. The 4th line did not play more than 10 minutes.
Defense: The Provorov-Severson pairing had a rough night. Generally Provorov has been better this season but his offensive contributions are drying up and his defensive play when joined with Severson leaves much to be desired. At least Severson is contributing some offense. Werenski-Fabbro shouldn’t be broken up, but the 2nd pair needs to be better for this team to compete with the top teams.
Goaltending: It’s been quite a while since we’ve seen Daniil Tarasov and a game in Edmonton is a tough first game back. To my untrained eye he seemed to get caught out of position a few times but I think this was less about him and more about the Oilers doing what they wanted to the Jackets in the d zone. Tarasov could’ve been better, though.
Edmonton wins the all situations shot battle 37-22 and all situations xG 4.11-1.96 per NST. But the Jackets win the season series by goal differential 9-7.
Up Next
The Blue Jackets are right back in action tomorrow night in Vancouver at 10 PM EST before ending the road trip in Winnipeg.