PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers at Jets

News and notes from inside the Oilers organization.

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WINNIPEG, MB – Advantage: Edmonton.

In the first of back-to-back games between the Edmonton Oilers and Winnipeg Jets on Friday night, it was the Blue & Orange who took the first leg of the home-and-away series with a confident performance in a 6-3 victory at Rogers Place on Friday night.

“I thought our effort was great. Work rate was where it needed to be,” Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. “The ability to draw as many penalties as we did was a credit to the way we were skating tonight, and we built a big lead and found a way to get the win.”

The Oilers had a trio of two-goal scorers with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Leon Draisaitl and Kailer Yamamoto each adding a pair in the victory that was Edmonton’s second in a row after a tight 3-2 loss to the Boston Bruins back on Monday evening at Rogers Place.

“We made a couple of errors and there’s always areas of improvement, but I was happy that our team dug in today and found a way against a tough opponent,” Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. “As I said (Friday) morning, that opponent has won 35 games this year not by accident. They’re a good team, and what I like is that we have a quick turnaround against this team tomorrow.”

Edmonton tagged on goals early in each period — twice on the power play in a 2-for-9 evening for the League’s best man advantage against the second-best penalty kill — making the task of breaking down a locked-in Oilers team a difficult challenge for the Jets, who dropped their fifth-straight result and is now 0-4-1 in their last five games.

” I think obviously with early power plays, you want to get momentum at least and I thought we did a good job of that and just kind of built our game from there,” Nugent-Hopkins said post-game. “At the same time, Stu made some good saves for us to make sure that we could get going and get our offence rolling. I thought it was a pretty solid 60 minutes.”

Nugent-Hopkins’ second goal of the evening was his 30th of the season, setting a new career-high for the Burnaby, BC product as part of his third four-goal game of the campaign. Connor McDavid had a ‘quiet’ night, recording three assists but being unable to score two-or-more goals in the sixth straight game, while Kailer Yamamoto’s two tallies in 40 seconds of the second period were the Oilers fastest two goals on home ice since Taylor Hall did it in eight seconds against the Islanders on Oct. 17, 2013.

Video: POST-RAW | Jay Woodcroft 03.03.23

Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring from his regular right-circle spot on the power play inside the opening two minutes before finding a puck-sized gap over netminder David Rittich’s left shoulder for his 38th of the season in another strong showing from the German at both ends of the rink.

“What a shot, hey?” Woodcroft said. “It was an amazing sequence like you said, but the shot from that angle? All-world. I’ve been saying this here over the last little while — I really like where Leon’s game is at. I think he’s skating. I think he’s taking pride in doing some hard things and his effect on our win tonight wasn’t only on the score sheet.”

The Oilers have played some solid hockey since adding defenceman Mattias Ekholm to the lineup earlier this week from the Nashville Predators, putting in a full-team effort in a 5-2 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday before carrying their momentum into Friday’s win over Winnipeg.

The Oilers are 2-0-0 to begin their nine-game stretch against teams with a winning record that doesn’t include a slim-margin defeat to the League’s best team in the Boston Bruins at the beginning of the week that brought everything but two points for the Oilers.

To Woodcroft, the Oilers positive stretch goes further back than the start of the calendar year. 

“You know what? I keep going back to Christmas time,” Woodcroft said. “We got the result tonight, which was nice, but I think we’ve been playing some nice hockey here since Christmas. Time. I think in the last 20-to-21 games, we’ve lost three in regulation. That means you’re doing a lot of things right.”

NOTHING NUGE ABOUT IT

It’s been quite the week so far for the man Oil Country calls ‘Nuuuuuuuuuge.’

Quite the year you could say, too.

The 29-year-old spoke to the media post-game from the Oilers dressing room after his four-point performance on Friday with a swollen upper lip from a high stick to the face from Kevin Stenlund just before the six-minute mark of the opening period. 

“Yeah, it’s just a little weird. It’s just a little swollen,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “It’s not too cut up actually. It’s just swollen a little bit difficult. No stitches, no teeth gone, so just a fat lip.” 

The game prior, it was number 93 stepping up in defence of a teammate in Yamamoto to drop the gloves with Maple Leafs defenceman Justin Holl and earn the decision in the tilt with a strong right hand and uppercut that ended the fight and drew applause of the masses in attendance at Rogers Place.

Nugent-Hopkins scored once unassisted and again on the power play to reach 30 goals and 77 points in 63 games this campaign — a new career-high that’s a far cry from his 11 goals and 50 points that came in the exact amount of games last season.

 Video: POST-RAW | Ryan Nugent-Hopkins 03.03.23

The onus this season for the 29-year-old former first-overall pick of the Oilers in 2011 has been placed on burying his chances and making the most of the opportunities provided to him thanks in part to names like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman, who can all say with exception to Hyman (for now) that they’re 30-goal scorers in the League this campaign. Hyman is currently perched on 29 goals, which is a new career-high for the Toronto product as well.

Add in Nugent-Hopkins’ penchant for playing a two-way game, and you get one of Edmonton’s most impactful, but also most improved, players of the season.

“Obviously I wanted to bear down a little bit in front of the net after last year,” he said. “Guys are just finding me with great passes. I know that I need to step up a little bit offensively and help produce and still try to play that two-way game, but I think it just goes to show the way that we’re rolling as a team right now and individual stuff kind of comes from a team playing well. “

A new war wound and career-high for goals encapsulate the impact that Nugent-Hopkins is having on the ice this season for the only NHL team he’s ever known in the Oilers, and what he’s hoping to bring down the stretch and into the playoffs.

“Yeah, it kind of sums up his year, doesn’t it?” Woodcroft said. “I see somebody competing at a very high level, and I saw it again (Friday). He takes one to the jibsand he wants to get right back out on the power play. The back check on the one in the second period with a little help from Ekholm I thought was pretty good, and he’s playing with passion at a competitive level that I think is contagious.”

YAMS RAMPING UP 

The goals and opportunities for Yamamoto against the Jets on Friday night were flowing like never before this season, and it couldn’t have happened at a better time.

“I know I should have had like four or five I think in that second period, but I’m glad I got two of them to go in,” he said.

“It’s been a while.” 

Friday was Yamamoto’s first three-point performance of the season, but also, his most composed effort in the 39 games he’s suited up for during a 2022-23 season for the Spokane, Wash. product that’s been very stop-and-start by having to miss 23 games over two separate Injured Reserve stints with an upper-body ailment. 

“We can’t forget he’s only been playing with us for a few games here,” Woodcroft said. “He’s had kind of an injury-riddled year, so it’s nice to have him back in lineup here. I can move him around. I feel good about that.”

The bench boss was happy to see a few go in for the 24-year-old and thinks the defensive game is going to follow close behind with each passing game.

“I still think there’s more there. I’m happy for him that he got a couple of goals. He probably could have had a couple more, which is great because he’s finding himself in those chances, but I still want him to continue to play without pause in his game, and sometimes that’s from the offensive zone back to the defensive zone. 

“I think you get that the more you kind of get back up to speed and into your own personal rhythm.”

 Video: POST-RAW | Kailer Yamamoto 03.03.23

After the game, Yamamoto was complimentary to his linemates and the performance that his Oilers team put together to stifle a Winnipeg team that’s won 35 games this season and owns the best record against Western Conference opponents at 24-9-2. 

“It’s huge,” he said of the timing of his three-point night. “Anytime you’re playing with Leo and Nuge and they’re both going, it’s pretty easy for yourself to get going as well, so I’m happy I got two on the board and an assist, but it was a good team win.”

Yamamoto exemplified his strong forechecking and takeaway ability that’ve been well-documented as favourite attributes of teammates like Draisaitl and McDavid, who love playing alongside the winger due to his tenacity.

He’s also effective shorthanded, which adds another to his list of contributions that can help him make an impact even when the goals aren’t coming. 

“He’s a penalty-killer, and he’s a pest to play against because he plays hard and he plays inside you,” Woodcroft said. “Usually when bigger players see someone smaller get the puck, it annoys them because they think they should win that. But he wins those a lot on will and determination.”

Yamamoto was deployed on a line with Nugent-Hopkins and Draisaitl on Friday night and the trio will hope to recapture some of the form that made the line so effective for stretches over recent seasons.

“Absolutely. That year when I first came up, we had some really good chemistry, so it definitely brought me back to those good old days,” he said. “But yeah, just working on it every day. They’re amazing players when they’re going. It’s so easy to play with. 

“I think that he’s been doing a lot of good things throughout this year and obviously battling through some things,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “So I thought (Friday) was overall a great game for him, but it started on the forecheck and him being tenacious on pucks.”

LINEUP NOTES

With Stuart Skinner starting the first of back-to-back games, it’s expected that Jack Campbell will guard the net when the Oilers rematch the Jets on Saturday night.

Winnipeg netminder Connor Hellebuyck, who was lifted in the second intermission of Friday’s match after allowing four goals on 24 shots, should counter Campbell in the Winnipeg crease in hopes of responding with a better performance in the finale of this home-and-home set. 

Newly-acquired centre Nick Bjugstad travelled with the Oilers to Winnipeg to begin this four-game road trip and could draw into the lineup to make his Oilers debut and subsequently play his 600th NHL game on Saturday night.

Winger Evander Kane also travelled and will skate with the team as he works his way back from an upper-body injury.

— Jamie Umbach, EdmontonOilers.com

OILERS vs. JETS

WATCH: 5:00 p.m. MT; televised on Hockey Night in Canada

Oilers Team Scope

The Edmonton Oilers took the first leg of the back-to-back, home-and-away series with the Winnipeg Jets in commanding fashion on Friday night with a 6-3 victory.

Kailer Yamamoto, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Leon Draisaitl all recorded a pair of goals, while Connor McDavid posted with three assists to stretch his sublime league-leading point total to 121 points in 63 games despite failing to continue his goal scoring streak after recording two goals in each of his last five games. 

Draisaitl scored his 37th and 38th goals of the season and now owns an 11-game point streak.

The Oilers sit level with the Seattle Kraken for third in the Pacific Division with 76 points (34-21-8), but have one less win and one more game played.

Jets Team Scope

By the time the Jets answered back, it was too late.

Axel Jonsson-Fjallby, Mark Scheifele, and Brenden Dillon scored in the third period, but the damage by the Oilers had already been done to down the Jets to hand them their fourth-consecutive defeat (0-3-1). 

Winnipeg’s second-ranked penalty kill could only stem the tide for so long against nine minor penalties that slowed the takeoff of the Jets.

“I haven’t coached a team, I think, that was so undsicplined and took so many penalties,” Head Coach Rick Bowness. “So, (if) you play a third of the game shorthanded, they’re going to make you look bad – and they made us look bad.”

“How many did we have? Nine?” Jonsson-Fjallby added. “It’s hard to win a hockey game.”

Winnipeg owns the worst records in the NHL since January 24, 2023 (4-9-1) and have fallen in the Western Conference standings because of it as they currently occupy the final Wildcard spot five points ahead of the trailign Calgary Flames.

By The Numbers

Draisaitl scored his 24th power play goal of the season to equal his own franchise record for most PP goals in one season, matching the mark he set in 2021-22… He is the eighth player in NHL history with back-to-back 24 PP goal seasons… Only two active players have scored more than 24 power-play goals in a single season: Chris Kreider (26 in 2021-22 w/ NYR) and Alex Ovechkin (25 in 2014-15 w/ WSH)… McDavid collected his 57th power-play point, tying Wayne Gretzky (1981-82) for the single-season Oilers record… This is the first time since 1989-90 that the club has had at least three 30-goal scorers… in the 1989-90 season ,there were four players with 30+ goals for the Oilers (Mark Messier, Jari Kurri, Glenn Anderson and Esa Tikkanen)… 

Injury Report

OILERS – Oscar Klefbom (shoulder) is on IR; Mike Smith (undisclosed) is on IR; Ryan Murray  (undisclosed) is on IR; Evander Kane  (upper body) is day-to-day.

JETS – Pierre-Luc Dubois (lower body) is day-to-day; Mason Appleton (upper body) is day-to-day; Cole Perfetti (upper-body) is on IR; David Gustafsson (upper body) is on IR.

— Jamie Umbach, EdmontonOilers.com