Player grades: McDavid, Nurse lead 4-goal comeback as Edmonton Oilers take down Jets – Edmonton Journal

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Jets 2, Oilers 4

Things looked bleak for the Edmonton Oilers for a while on Saturday night. Winnipeg Jets stuck twice in the first period on a duo of dastardly double deflections, and just like that the Oilers were facing an 0-2 deficit with the Vezina Trophy winner looming tall in the other net. In a season series packed with tight games, it appeared probable the two clubs were headed for their third straight split of a two-game set.

But the Oilers chipped away, with their top players doing the damage. First Connor McDavid cut the deficit to one late in the first. A scoreless middle frame ended with a massive Mike Smith save, setting the stage for Darnell Nurse to rocket a perfect shot past Connor Hellebuyck to tie the score early in the third. Leon Draisaitl put the hosts ahead to stay at the midway mark, converting a perfect McDavid feed on a 2-on-1. This after coach Dave Tippett had reunited his two big guns for the final frame, and the revamped first unit responded by scoring both the tying and winning goals.

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Edmonton protected the lead brilliantly from there, rolling the lines, playing a 200-foot game, and winning battles in all three zones. Finally Devin Shore hit the empty net from 131 feet to put it out of reach with 80 seconds to play.

The Oilers had the overall advantage in flow of play, outshooting the Jets 37-31 on the night and holding an 11-9 bulge in Grade A scoring chances as tracked by David Staples and myself here at the Cult of Hockey (running count).

With the sweep over Winnipeg, Edmonton made up ground on all their rivals this weekend, as both Calgary-Toronto and Vancouver-Montreal split their own two-game sets. The Oilers remain tied for first with the Maple Leafs in points with 42, and have now passed the Jets to stand second in percentage (.618 to .613). They also have won at least 3 straight games for the fifth time in the last seven weeks.

Player grades

#4 Kris Russell, 6. Another solid, safe game from the veteran rearguard, who played 15 minutes at evens with 0 goals at either end and only 1 Grade A scoring chance each way.

#6 Adam Larsson, 5. An unlucky victim on the first goal, a Jets powerplay tally where Nik Ehlers’ outside shot deflected off of Larsson right on to the shinpad of Andrew Copp, then caromed a third time off the ice before finding a hole just inside the right goal post. He was again burned on a double deflection minutes later as he was unable to tie up his man’s stick in the high slot. Solid the rest of the way, especially down the stretch with the Oil clinging to a 1-goal lead. 3 hits, 2 blocked shots.

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#13 Jesse Puljujarvi, 8. Looked right at home on McDavid’s line, be it RNH or Draisaitl on the other side. Was a force around the puck all night long, and played a key role on all three goals that mattered, mostly by winning battles that created space and time for the snipers to do their thing. Earned 1 official assist but easily could have been credited with 1 or even 2 more. 7 shot attempts, 3 on net. His only down note was an interference penalty that his teammates were able to kill off. Drew a penalty of his own to balance that equation, then had 2 dangerous close-in shots on the subsequent powerplay.

#14 Devin Shore, 6. Played just 9:14 and was destroyed by shot metrics (just 1 shot for, 6 against at 5v5). But made a beautiful pass to set up that shot, a dangerous deflection by Archibald with 3 minutes left. We dinged him for zero defensive errors on dangerous chances. Trusted enough by his coach to get  2 shifts in the last 3 minutes filling in for Kahun, and rewarded that faith by hitting the empty net from his own zone.

#15 Josh Archibald, 6. Among the unlucky victims of the Jets powerplay goal, but otherwise had a decent 2-way game. Led the physical charge with 6 hits, added 5 shot attempts with 1 takeaway. Came back to his own icing line to deliver a key hit that stymied a dangerous Jets possession.  All around the blue paint at the other end on 3 different Grade A chances, all in the third period.

#16 Jujhar Khaira, 5. Played OK, not great, in his return to the line-up. 2 shots, 2 hits, 0 major mistakes. Won 4/10=40% on the dot.

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#21 Dominik Kahun, 4. He was beaten for a couple of Grade A looks in the first, one of which wound up in the back of the net after Kahun couldn’t prevent an outside shot. OK thereafter, and had a few effective shifts with RNH and Archibald after the line shuffle. But found himself replaced by Shore for defensive purposes in the very late going.

#22 Tyson Barrie, 7. Another strong game moving the puck. 0 points for a change, but +3 on a night that Edmonton’s first unit made the difference. Made a good first pass in the build-up to the game winner. Oilers dominated possession on his watch, firing 32 shot attempts to just 12 by the Jets in 18 minutes of 5v5 play. 10 shot attempts off Barrie’s own stick, several of them on the powerplay, though he missed the target with a pair of one-timers set up in rapid succession by Draisaitl.

#25 Darnell Nurse, 9. Edmonton’s #1 defenceman did it all on this night, earning his +4 rating by making direct contributions to all 4 Oilers goals. After earlier testing Hellebuyck with a fine shot high blocker side, he scored the tying goal himself with an absolute laser of a shot that cleanly beat the Vezina winner from range and rippled the top corner of the net, glove side. His 10th of the season to tie his career high, just 34 games into the campaign. His breakout pass earned him a secondary assist on the game winner, while he won key battles on both the first and last tallies. Jumped into the play time and again to add another option on the rush. Played a team-high 26:41 in all situations, contributing to 5v5, 4v4, powerplay, penalty kill, and 5v6 game states. Now 10-15-25, +21 on the year, and leads NHL d-men in even strength goals and points, 3 ahead of the runner up in each category.

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#29 Leon Draisaitl, 7. Started the play on the game-winning goal by winning a d-zone draw, and finished it 11 seconds later with a bullet one-timer off a splendid McDavid feed as the Oilers finally hit paydirt on a 2-on-1. Had 3 shots, won 10/19=53% of his draws, and excellent shot shares whether at 2C or 1LW. Did take a penalty early in the third. Had one turnover that led to a dangerous shot, but later got his massive blade on 3 different passes in the d-zone to disrupt the Jets’ last gasp.

#39 Alex Chiasson, 5. Quiet at both even strength and on the powerplay. Did manage a dangerous tip on goal.

#41 Mike Smith, 8. Oilers’ emotional leader had a tough start, beaten in the opening period by a pair of double deflections that were basically unstoppable, although his failure to control a shoot-in was the early start of the trouble on the second one. But he slammed the door the rest of the way, delivering a pair of monstrous saves that kept his team in it at 2-1 down. One was recovery of his own puckhandling gaffe, mind, but he recover he did with a brilliant diving glove grab. Then he made a terrific emergency save off Dylan DeMelo’s close range shot on a rebound off the post with just 3 seconds to play in the middle frame, then managed to cover up the rebound.  31 shots, 29 saves, .935 save percentage.

#44 Zack Kassian, 6. Played a mostly-quiet 11 minutes with 0 shots on goal, 0 contributions to scoring chances at either end, but 4 hits and solid possession numbers. Smoked Nik Ehlers with a heavy hit from behind and was fortunate not to be penalized for it.

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#63 Tyler Ennis, 6. Skated well, was a buzzsaw around the puck, and fired 3 shots on net including a dangerous jam play that nearly clicked. Also made a fine pass to RNH for a decent opportunity.

#74 Ethan Bear, 7. Worked his tail off, won seemingly dozens of small battles and at least sawed off dozens more, many of them behind his own blueline. Beyond a single fanned pass that led to brief trouble but no shot, he moved the puck well with short, safe passes to open teammates or “good ice”. Drew a penalty that helped Edmonton run 2 minutes off the clock down the stretch. The Oilers enjoyed the majority of possession during his ~15 minutes at even strength (shots on net 8-4 EDM). Put out a few fires in his own end. His third consecutive game without a single mistake leading to a Grade A scoring chance, just an excellent bounceback from a tough game in Calgary on Monday.

#84 William Lagesson, 4. Struggled noticeably throughout the game. Oilers were outshot 8-2 and outscored 1-0 during his 12 minutes of action. Was beaten to the net front by Pierre-Luc Dubois who tipped home the second Winnipeg goal. Was on the receiving end of a couple of heavy hits, including a dangerous one when Andrew Copp drove him head first into the boards with a dirty hit that somehow escaped the attention of the men in stripes. Seconds earlier, his sucker pass led to RNH getting hammered by big Adam Lowry.

#91 Gaetan Haas, 6. Took a holding penalty in the early going and watched the Jets open the scoring from the sin bin. Played a sound two-way game otherwise, firing a dangerous shot on the penalty kill and setting up Ennis for another at even strength. 4/3=57% on the dot, including a key d-zone draw down the stretch after an icing call against his line. The willowy Swiss landed 2 official hits: one on 6’5, 210-pound Adam Lowry and the other on 6’7, 231-pound Logan Stanley. Gotta respect that.

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#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 7. Played a very strong two-way game for two periods on left wing on the big unit, and for the third centring his own second line. Best he’s looked at pivot during the recent McD+Drai experiments. Fired a team-high 6 shots on net. Around the puck all night, finally finding the scoresheet at the end when he corraled a loose puck in the d-zone corner and fed it to Shore for the empty-netter. Led the forwards with 23:06 in ice time, including over 7 minutes on special teams.

#97 Connor McDavid, 9. Another tour de force from the captain. 5 shots on goal to raise his season total to 136, exactly 4.0 per game and comfortably a career high rate. Literally skated rings around the Jets to score the goal that got Oilers back in the game, his 21st to tie for the league lead. Burst through the defence for a sudden breakaway chance, undeterred by three different opposing sticks that got a piece of him on the way in (all legally, apparently). Fought through another thicket of arms and sticks to gain the zone and create some of the chaos that led to Nurse’s goal, though no official point for that effort. Made a superb rush and pass right on Draisaitl’s tape that Leon was able to rip home for the game-winner. His 60th point of the season, Drai’s 50th, with the next highest in the league being Patrick Kane at 42.

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