Nugent-Hopkins steps up to deliver Oilers win without McDavid, Draisaitl
This Oilers team loves a chance to prove they’re not a two-man squad. Delivering a hat trick in a 5-3 win over the Kraken, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins did just that.
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EDMONTON — It’s been a thing around the Edmonton Oilers for most of a decade, an almost addictive reliance on Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl that has at times left the rest of the forwards sitting on the bench in crunch time.
There they sit when the game’s on the line or a goal is required, wondering whether to order some popcorn or just enjoy the view of two walk-in Hall of Famers carrying the load — again.
And so it was that on Saturday, on just the third occasion in their collective careers that the two had missed the same game, it was put up or shut up time for all who have ever groused — in private or in public — about an institutional lack of opportunity for non-generational players in Edmonton.
Alas, the Oilers walked the walk minus their two best guys, scoring five times — two on the power play — in a 5-4 win over the Seattle Kraken.
“Whether it was Skins (Jeff Skinner) or Nuge scoring goals, or the guys on the fourth line stepping up and giving us some quality shifts, up and down the lineup we did a good job,” said defenceman Mattias Ekholm, who wore an ‘A’ in the absence of two team leaders.
“It’s nice to see guys that don’t really usually get those minutes, maybe (play in) those certain situations, and they got him tonight, and they did a good job.”
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Ryan Nugent-Hopkins delivered a hat trick — his fourth career hat trick and first in six years — hitting for the cycle with goals at even strength, on the power play and shorthanded (into an empty net).
Can he recall the last time he walked out of the Oilers dressing room to start a game as the team’s first-line centre?
“I do not,” Nugent-Hopkins smiled. “But I didn’t remember my last hatty either. It was 2019? Felt like that long ago…”
You’d have to go back to 2013-14 when a 20-year-old Nugent-Hopkins centred a line with Taylor Hall on the left wing and Jordan Eberle on the right. Somehow, Nugent-Hopkins has managed to remain an Oiler for all these years, while Eberle — playing career game No. 1,050 for his third team Saturday — got an ice-level view of the Nugent-Hopkins Show as a member of the Kraken.
Nugent-Hopkins is en fuego, with 4-5-9 in his last four games. He’s killin’ it after a slow opening three-quarters of his season.
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As his team’s third-line centre on many nights, his hat trick with the top two centres lost to injury was a metaphor for an Oilers team that loves a chance to prove it’s not just a two-man squad.
“We obviously believe in ourselves and our group no matter who’s in or out of the lineup,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “We understand that when you lose two of the best players in the world that you’re going to feel it. But I think the way that you play as a team shouldn’t matter too much, who’s in and who’s out.
“Obviously we want them in, of course. But I thought the guys did a great job of stepping up and playing our game.”
Minus the NHL’s most productive duo, the Oilers’ first power-play unit was comprised of regulars Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman and Evan Bouchard, plus Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson. When the second unit scored the game’s first goal on a lovely snipe by Adam Henrique, it was more like a third-unit goal, truth be told.
Later, Nugent-Hopkins wired a wrist shot through a Hyman screen, marking a pretty good night for a the power play. It was like winning at Indy with the replacement engine.
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Head coach Kris Knoblauch could see the extra jump his lineup had. Which is ironic, considering he is just another in a long line of coaches who has been seduced into relying too heavily on McDavid and Draisaitl at times — at the expense of his depth forwards.
“Absolutely, they’re excited,” he said of his guys having a chance to prove themselves on a night like this one. “They’re engaged more, they look at the shifts coming up and they know they’re going to be playing regularly, rather than defaulting to two of the best players. You feel better about yourself and you contribute.”
Down the hall, Seattle head coach Dan Bylsma didn’t love the fact his team gave up five to an Oilers roster in its current state.
“Their power play was a different structure tonight, given they had different players,” said Bylsma. “Both those situations we need a shot block in both cases and both cases Joey wasn’t able and capable of seeing the shot.
“Tonight we were facing a team that didn’t have their top two guys and the power play and penalty kill becomes the story of the game.”
