TAMPA, Fla — It’s a tough night for aftermarket ticket sales here in Tampa, as the Connor McDavid-less Edmonton Oilers meet a Tampa Bay Lightning team that’s minus several of its top players.
“Stamkos is out. Cirelli is out. Kucherov is out. McDonagh is out. Rutta is out,” is how Lightning head coach Jon Cooper opened his morning press conference.
That’s Steven Stamkos, Anthony Cirelli, Nikita Kucherov, plus defencemen Ryan McDonagh and Jan Rutta, all announced as lower body injuries. McDavid is out with a quadriceps injury in his left leg, so that means Edmonton’s second leading scorer, and Tampa’s top two scorers, are all absent from tonight’s contest, which opens a three-game road trip for Edmonton.
“You’ve heard me say this before,” began Cooper. “The 22 guys who make your team out of camp aren’t the guys you’re going to play with the whole year. You need depth in your organization.
“It’s playing to a system and ultimately, playing hard. We can’t change,” he said. “You can’t expect someone who scores five or six goals in this league to score 50. But one of our staples is … it’s really not how many you put in the net. It’s how many you keep out.”
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What it also provides is a chance to see who rises to the challenge. A night where a young guy might get a little more of a chance to stake his claim on a roster, with the playoffs around the corner.
“It might be an opportunity to get a little power play time, or a couple of offensive zone starts,” said Oilers rookie defenceman Caleb Jones. “Look at Yamo (Oilers winger Kailer Yamamoto). He’s on the power play last game and he gets one. There’s a guy right there who gets an opportunity to jump up on that unit, and he takes advantage of it.
“We’re going to need that mentality of guys stepping into bigger roles and doing the job. It was Yamo last game, and we’ll see if it’s someone else tonight.”
With McDavid out against Chicago on Tuesday, Leon Draisaitl piled up four points in a 5-3 win. In theory, McDavid’s absence should change the matchup, meaning Draisaitl will see Tampa’s No. 1 defenceman, Victor Hedman, on every shift, rather than Cooper having to make a matchup choice between McDavid’s or Draisaitl’s line.
Did Draisaitl notice a difference versus Chicago on McDavid’s first game on I.R.?
“I’m not a coach. I don’t pay too much attention to the matching and that kind of stuff,” he shrugged. “I think that if you play the right way — you play hard and you play good — then you can be on the ice against anyone.”
This two- to three-week absence of McDavid comes at a crucial point in the season. It’s a chance for Draisaitl to show the hockey world — or those in the hockey world who may not be aware —- that he can carry a team offensively, with or without McDavid.
“You’ve seen the way that happens in Pittsburgh. When one (of Evgeni Malkin or Sidney Crosby) is out, the other one gets more attention,” said Oilers head coach Dave Tippett. “It’s a big challenge for Leon. He’s really engaged right now, and he wants this challenge. He wants to make sure we keep moving along, and we keep getting our points.”
There is some temptation for Tippett to move Ryan Nugent-Hopkins off of Draisaitl’s left wing to centre another line with McDavid out. It’s a temptation the coach is resisting, for now.
“Leon’s line has just been so good, it’s hard to break them up,” he said.
Yamamoto, the right-winger on that line, marvels at Draisaitl’s patience with the puck.
“He’s probably one of the best in the NHL at holding on to the puck. His passing is ridiculous — some of the plays he makes I don’t even see myself, until he makes them,” said Yamamoto, who has a special bond with Tampa centreman Tyler Johnson, a fellow Spokane, Washington native.
“His Mom, I grew up with her teaching me how to skate, and I grew up playing hockey with him. Still skate with him in the summers now,” said the five-foot-eight, 153-pound Yamamoto. It’s a coincidence that Johnson, who is eight years older, would also be an under-sized forward who has had to battle through the stereotypes to make his way in the NHL.
“He’s a Spokane kid who went to high school with my sister,” Yamamoto said. “Him going to the (WHL Spokane) Chiefs kind of just paved the way for me, and I followed his footsteps.”
Mike Smith starts in goal for Edmonton, against Andrei Vasilevskiy for the Bolts.
