EDMONTON — There is pressure here in Canada, in case you haven’t noticed.
Pressure in Toronto, where the skin is so thin that the coach can’t even tell the truth without having to backtrack the next day. Pressure in Ottawa, where a Senators team that doesn’t necessarily have to make the playoffs had darned well better hang around the race into March, at least.
And a little bit of pressure in Vancouver, in case you haven’t noticed, where the Canucks return home Saturday from quite possibly the worst five-game, season-opening road trip ever travelled by a National Hockey League team.
Here in Edmonton the skillet was heating up as well, underneath an Oilers team that was 1-2 after a Tuesday loss to Buffalo and facing a Carolina Hurricanes team that — in the eyes of most everyone — is likely a better team than either the Sabres or the Oilers.
With a six-game homestand to open the season, a 1-3 start would have meant two more days of doubt, angst, worry… You know, the typical emotions of the Canadian hockey fan.
“Being 2-2 is nothing to write home about, but we’ll take it,” said Connor McDavid, after a fabulously entertaining, back-and-forth, 6-4 Oilers win on Thursday. “We don’t want it to be as scrambly as it has been, but that is hockey in October. There are mistakes made, but you have to find ways to get wins. They count just the same now as they do later in the year.”
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Mistakes?
The only mistake that matters at this time of year was if you somehow weren’t watching when two of hockey’s premier offensive outfits met for the first half of their season series, two lineups laden with players that can take an October game and make you wonder how much fun it would be if they met again come springtime?
This was the new NHL, with two teams that have high-end skill peppered throughout their lineup.
For Carolina, Martin Necas was absolutely blazing up and down the ice, while Sebastien Aho — quite possibly the most underrated player in the entire league — was elite in everything he did on a three-assist night Thursday.
And Andrei Svechnikov? He looked like a young Vladimir Tarasenko, rifling home a hat trick with that elite wrist shot, a helpless Jack Campbell scorched from distance in a manner seldom seen anymore.
On the Oilers side, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins jumped up from his role as a third-line centre and played left wing next to Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman — a line that produced eight points. Nugent-Hopkins gave his team a four-point night (1-3-4) and set up the shorthanded goal that, in a way, was the difference in a game that featured two power-play goals and two even strength goals by each team, capped by McDavid’s empty netter.
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“We all knew it. We saw it coming,” ‘Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour said of the shorty, scored by Ryan McLeod on a two-on-one with Nugent-Hopkins. “We went sniffing in there and they made a good play. That’s what Edmonton does for you, they make you pay.
“To me, that was the difference in the game. We both had good power plays going and we gave up a shorty. That’s the game.”
The Hurricanes could afford to lose — they came in at 3-0.
Edmonton, not so much. Their game has improved over the past two outings, but it was time for a result.
The Oilers opened the scoring for the first time all season. From there, the game went to 1-1. Then 3-1 for Edmonton. Then 3-2. Then 4-2. Then 4-3….
“That’s what happens when you play against a good team. They don’t give in,” said Zach Hyman, who deflected home the opener for his first of the young season. “They force it, they push it, and they’re able to capitalize on their power play. But I think on the flip side, good teams respond and push back themselves. We were able to do that multiple times in the game.”
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Campbell let in four and played great — that’s just the kind of night it was.
Entertaining? These are two teams that have plenty of bullets and don’t mind getting in a gun fight.
Defence? Yeah, that’ll be important down the road.
But on a desperate night in October, the Oilers got just enough defence and goaltending to allow five goals to stand up — then added an empty-netter (McDavid’s fourth point) just in case.
“I thought we did good things in that Buffalo game. If it is not for a really good goalie, I think maybe we are winning that one,” McDavid reckoned. “Tonight, I liked a lot about our game, but there are still things to improve. It is October hockey. We want it to be better, but it is going in the right direction.
“It is a positive.”
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