EDMONTON — There is some irony that an Edmonton Oilers team that started the season so slowly it got its coach fired, is at the same time the best first period team in the National Hockey League with 31 goals. The fastest starters, this bunch of tardy gentlemen.
But there were the Edmonton Oilers on a Sunday night against Anaheim, down 1-0 early, then 2-1, against one of a group of teams they’ll have to work their way past in the Western Conference standings if the season is going to extend past mid-April.
For the past month, an early 2-1 deficit most often continued south, getting uglier and uglier as the night wore on. But two nights after the Oilers had pounded the Washington Capitals 5-0 down in D.C., Edmonton grabbed hold the game and won it in a romp, dusting the Ducks 8-2.
“The first 10 or 15 minutes for sure, was a little sloppy. (But) I thought they did a heck of a job in the last 50 minutes,” observed head coach Kris Knoblauch. “We gave up 11 shots in the last 50 minutes of hockey, so I think they were playing pretty responsible from then on.”
All the right things happened in this one, if you’re an Oilers fan.
The obvious — eight goals — was the offence created in Edmonton’s biggest outburst of the season. But the powerplay scored a couple, Connor McDavid lit it up with a goal and five points, and the Oilers rolled into a scheduled day off on Monday feeling pretty good about the areas that make this team tick.
Oilers’ McDavid walks in on the three-on-one and fires his seventh goal of the season
“It’s nice to be able to break through and get our offence going a little bit,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who had a goal and went plus-4. “Early in the season the puck wasn’t going in. We were trying hard and trying to get around it, but I think it does help the confidence when they start going in.”
Ya think?
An eight-goal explosion is exactly what this club needs, with Vegas in town on Tuesday night.
Across the way, the Ducks were reeling. They’ve lost six straight.
“A lot of our guys are not used to seeing McDavid or Draisaitl, and that team’s fast, so we’ll learn from it,” said Ducks coach Greg Cronin. “We’re on a bit of a losing streak, we’ve got to figure out a way to get out of it.”
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Zach on Attack
Zach Hyman scored two more goals Monday, and now has 12 goals in 20 games.
After scoring a career-high 36 last season, he’s on pace to perhaps reach 40 for the first time in his career.
“Goal scorers, no matter who you are — Ovechkin , Stamkos, Matthews — they’ve got an exceptional shot,” began Knoblauch. “Maybe (Hyman) doesn’t have that natural ability to score from the perimeter or outside the dots, but as good as they are at scoring goals it usually (happens) around the net.
“Zach’s been going to the net and not getting tied up. He’s getting inside position, and not allowing defenceman to lift his stick. And he’s been rewarded.
“And,” the coach added, “it doesn’t hurt playing with Draisaitl and McDavid. They find him a lot.”
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Back To Fine Form
It just never seemed right to have to scroll to Page 3 or 4 to finds Connor McDavid’s name in the NHL scoring race. But there he sat, somewhere in the 100’s, for much of the first 18 games of the Oilers’ season.
Was he healthy? Couldn’t be…
Had he lost his confidence? How can that happen to a player of this pedigree.
McDavid and Oilers far from ‘dead in the water’ after two straight dominant performances
Whatever it was, McDavid busted out with his first three-point night of the season in Washington, with a four-assist night. Then, another 1-4-5 on Sunday against Anaheim, and a player who stood 39th in league scoring when he awoke Sunday morning went to bed in 16th place and climbing.
“Confidence is obviously a bit part of it,” said McDavid, who has 12 points in his last 4 games. “Our whole team is playing better and I think that is why you are starting to see guys have success. It is not just a light switch that one or two guys can just turn on — it takes a whole group.
“Our group has been playing better of late and you are starting to see guys have a little bit of success. Guys are making plays and it is just going in.”
It was the 39th three-plus assist game for McDavid, who passes Jari Kurri for third place in that category in the Oilers record books. He trails only Mark Messier (41) and, of course, the great Wayne Gretzky, who only accomplished that feat 143 times.
It was McDavid’s ninth career five-point game. No active NHL player has that many.
“I’m not sure what turned it around,” said Knoblauch. “He’s an elite athlete — he was going to figure it out.”
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Evander Kane had a goal, an assist, and 10 hits in 18:47 of ice time. Through this whole team slump he has been one of Edmonton’s most consistent players … With two assists it was the first multi-point game of Vincent Desharnais’ career … Cam Fowler went minus-5 for the Ducks … the Oilers have a scheduled day off on Monday and hoist Vegas for the first time since last year’s playoff series loss on Tuesday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.
Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.
Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.
The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.
DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.
RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.
Takeaways
Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.
Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.
Key moment
The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.
Key stat
Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.
Up next
Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.
VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.
To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.
Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.
“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.
“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”
The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.
The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.
First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.
Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.
No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.
“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.
Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.
“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.
This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.
The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.
“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”
Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.
Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.
“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”
The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.
Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.
“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”
LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.
“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.
The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.
Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.
“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.
“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”
Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.
Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.
Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.
Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
