Kane’s natural hat trick leads Oilers to comeback win

Kraken 3, Oilers 4 (OT)

If the Edmonton Oilers were writing a script for the first 50+ minutes at Rogers Place on Wednesday, surely the working title would have been “How Not to Win a Hockey Game”. The Oilers made a steady stream of mistakes both with and without the puck and beat a steady path to the penalty box in the process. As the clock wound down into the single digits, the visiting Seattle Kraken held a 3-1 lead that felt like (and easily could have been) 5- or 6-1. Thankfully the combination of Stu Skinner, a splendid penalty kill unit, and some old-fashioned puck luck around the Edmonton net kept the score within range.

The stunning comeback was Edmonton’s third win in a row and another important step in climbing out of the 2-9-1 hole in which they started the season. At 5-9-1 they still have a long ways to go, but at least there appears to be a way forward.

Seattle held a 36-31 edge on the shot clock and a 21-14 advantage in high danger shots, while our own analysis at the Cult of Hockey had the visitors leading 12-11 in Grade A shots and 8-5 in the subset of 5-alarm chances (running count). The Oilers had just 38% of the expected goals but, crucially, 57% of the actual goals, a pleasant change after seeing too many games from the early season go the other way. This is what the figure filberts call “regression to the mean” and we’ve finally started to see some of it.

Player grades

#2 Evan Bouchard, 6. He had a wretched first 40 minutes, starting on his first shift with a horrible turnover to Oliver Bjorkstrand for a clear 5-alarm chance. That was the first of several turnovers behind his own blueline. Earned an unlikely assist on Edmonton’s first goal when he blocked a shot that bounced straight to Draisaitl and then on to McDavid on the counterattack. Lost a strength battle to 153-pound Kailer Yamamoto in the corner on the second Seattle goal, then allowed a pass on the 3-1. Drilled Draisaitl with a point shot. But bounced back hard thereafter. Set up Kane’s first goal with a good move up the side boards and a bullet pass that the big winger tipped home. Delivered another splendid point shot that RNH tipped just wide. Made a fine play on the overtime winner with a fake shot that froze a defender before slipping a pass to Hyman in the corner. In the end he “outscored his mistakes” with a boxcar line of 0-3-3, +2. Contributions to Grade A Shots (GAS): Even Strength +3/-5; Special Teams 0.

#5 Cody Ceci, 6. Active on the attack, and even jumped in on a first-period breakaway that he couldn’t bury. His biggest moment might have been an emergency defensive play that chipped the puck away from what appeared a certain goal. GAS: ES +2/-2; ST 0.

#10 Derek Ryan, 5. Played a quiet 11 minutes where his greatest contribution by far was 3½ clean minutes on the penalty kill, most of any Edmonton forward.  He and the Oilers dodged a mighty bullet when he took an uncharacteristic penalty on that unit 200 feet from his own net early in the third, only to have it cancelled when Bjorkstrand retaliated. A long 3-on-5 at that point might well have been decisive. GAS: ES +0/-0; ST 0.

#14 Mattias Ekholm, 5. Very active game but not a particularly steady one. 4 shots, 3 blocks, 2 takeaways, 1 giveaway, 1 hit and 1 assist in 22:37 of action. Was among those beaten on both the second and third Kraken goals, failing to suppress the goal scorer in each case, and was especially lost at sea on the latter of those. Earned credit for a crucial won battle to maintain zone possession on the 3-2. GAS: ES +1/-2; ST 0.

#18 Zach Hyman, 6. Fairly quiet game with 2 shots, 2 blocks and 2 minutes for “low-sticking” on a ducking Yanni Gourde. Had a bad turnover that led to a 2-on-1, but Ceci snuffed out the danger. Came up big in OT with a strong shift that culminated with a splendid cross-seam pass to Kane for the GWG. GAS: ES +2/-0; ST 0.

#21 Adam Erne, 2. Played just 7:18 on a fourth line that struggled to move the puck north, and when it did, went offside on the zone entry. Brought some physical play with a couple of hits, but crossed the line and took a seriously bad penalty with just 9 minutes left when he elbowed Pierre-Edouard Bellemare in the chops, and was lucky to get away with just a minor. Expect Department of Player Safety to come calling tomorrow. GAS: ES +0/-0; ST 0.

#25 Darnell Nurse, 6. Oilers ice-time leader in both all-situations (25:46) and on the penalty kill (4:03). Jumped into the rush for a great chance that was thwarted by a fine defensive play by Justin Schultz of all people. But did his best work defensively with 5 shot blocks, 3 hits, and some splendid penalty killing. Made a game saving stop of Jaden Schwartz’s attempt at the empty net, then delivered a fine 2-way shift in overtime. GAS: ES +3/-2; ST +0/-1.

#27 Brett Kulak, 4. Played just 12 minutes on a night the third pairing had its problems, getting badly outshot in the process. Among those beaten on the first Seattle goal. GAS: ES +0/-1; ST 0.

#37 Warren Foegele, 4. Rare off-night for the worker bee forward, whose line was significantly outshot and outscored 0-2. Was in the neighbourhood but unable to contain the goal scorer on the 3-1. 0 shot attempts or hits. Did chip in 2:10 on the PK. GAS: ES +2/-1; ST 0.

#57 James Hamblin, 3. Centred an ineffective fourth line that was outshot 1-6 and outscored 0-1 during his 6:44. 0 shot attempts or hits. GAS: ES +0/-0; ST 0.

#62 Raphael Lavoie, 3. Had a tough time with the puck inside his own blueline, with one malfuction at the junction setting the stage for a great Seattle chance that somehow failed when a snakebitten Brandon Tanev missed the wide open net. Just 1 shot attempt, a deflection that sailed over the crossbar, in a team-low 5:52. Oilers were outshot 0-7 during that time and outscored 0-1. Brought a little physicality with 3 hits. GAS: ES +0/-1; ST 0.

#73 Vincent Desharnais, 4. His pairing with Kulak spent most of its time in the Edmonton end with poor shot shares. While Desharnais wasn’t burned on any Grade A Shots, he came within an inch of the all-time blooper reel when his attempt to kill time during a delayed penalty very nearly resulted in an own-goal. Thankfully, it wound up on the “good” side of the goal post. No official hits but he delivered plenty of grease in defending the net front. Saved his night with some standout penalty killing in nearly 4 minutes of action. GAS: ES +0/-0; ST 0.

#74 Stu Skinner, 7. A third consecutive solid game from the young stopper, who appears to be seizing the #1 role in November for the second season in a row. Made a stellar save off Bjorkstrand just a minute in. Gave up all 3 goals in a tough middle frame that saw numerous breakdowns, 2 that took favourable bounces off of shin pads and the third by a man left all alone in front with time to make a move. A couple of greasy rebounds along the way. Did his part on the penalty kill. His full-stretch glove grab of Eeli Tolvanen’s labelled wrister with 2 minutes left in regulation was a game saver. 36 shots, 33 saves, .917 save percentage.

#91 Evander Kane, 9. Smoked Vince Dunn with a big hit in the early going. He was up and down for 40 minutes, but rose to the occasion in a major way down the stretch. Scored the game’s final 3 goals in a span of just 9½ minutes to snatch victory from the proverbial jaws of defeat. Netted all of them by going to the net front with his stick on the ice. Tipped home Bouchard’s hard pass with 6 minutes left to give Oilers life. Dragged them all the way back by controlling, then burying Draisaitl’s areial pass into the blue paint with just 45 ticks on the clock. Then put the game away with a fabulous shift in overtime, winning first the faceoff and then 2 subsequent puck battles to keep the heat on, finally getting open for Hyman’s pass and ripping it upstairs for the natural hat trick that essentially stole 2 standings points for the Oil. His sixth hat trick in just 126 games as an Oiler including playoffs. GAS: +4/-1.

#97 Connor McDavid, 7. Scored a nifty breakaway goal from a Draisaitl feed to open the scoring. Fired 4 shots on net, landed a couple of hits. His hands aren’t all there just yet, but his 8/11=73% on the faceoff dot are a very encouraging sign after recent struggles in that discipline. Was flying on jet fuel during his lone overtime shift. GAS: ES +5/-1; ST 0.