The Edmonton Oilers will start their pursuit of a 3rd consecutive trip to the Stanley Cup final at home on Monday and this time, the Anaheim Geese are on the menu.
Captain Connor McDavid had 4 assists and rookie Matthew Savoie scored his first profession hat trick because the Oilers secured second place within the Pacific Division and residential ice to begin the primary round against the Anaheim Geese with a clutch 6-1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday.
“It was a very important one,” McDavid said.
“We wanted to begin (the playoffs) here at home and provides ourselves the very best probability in the primary round.”
Josh Samanski, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Colton Dach also scored and Evan Bouchard had three assists for the Oilers (41-30-12) who closed the regular season with a 7-2-2 record of their final 11 games.
“It’s exciting,” said veteran defenceman Darnell Nurse. “When our back was against the wall for the last month or two, everyone was counting us out. We got here together, got tighter and commenced to play our greatest hockey. It’s good going into the playoffs like that. I believe our group is in a very great place.”
The Oilers finished 30-5-5 when scoring first this season.
Edmonton was buoyed by the return of veteran scorer Zach Hyman and expect star forward Leon Draisaitl back throughout the opening round of post-season play.
McDavid said surviving their absences down the ultimate stretch showed Edmonton’s tenacity.
“There’s little doubt about it, it’s been an up and down yr for quite a lot of things,” he said.
“We’ve worked hard to place ourselves on this spot. With Leon going on the market it was an issue if we’d even be within the playoffs. When a player like that goes out, you never know. And we’ve had quite a few guys step up and dig in and to have home ice is vital.
“The primary round is at all times chaotic. It’s each yr. Home ice isn’t the be-all, end-all, nevertheless it actually helps.”
Draisaitl has been hard at work and practice and McDavid expects he shall be within the lineup sooner moderately than later.
“He looks amazing, he looks really, really strong,” he said. “It’s a credit to him and our staff here. I keep saying how good our staff is here and it’s the time of yr where health and injuries play a giant factor and our guys do a tremendous job making guys available.
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“It’s also a credit to Leon for wanting to be there, for wanting to be a difference maker. And he shall be. He looks great.”
Connor Ingram recorded just 11 saves to earn the win within the Edmonton net because the Oilers outshot Vancouver 35-12.
“I don’t think there’s any reason to not consider on this group,” said Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm. “I’ve seen us over the past two, three seasons, and clearly within the post-season, that we shall be a team to count on. And we’re hitting our gear at the fitting time of the yr this time.”
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After defeating the Los Angeles Kings in the primary round in 4 consecutive seasons, the Oilers will now face the Geese, who haven’t made a post-season appearance since 2018.
“We’ve had some exciting games against them,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “They’ve got an incredible lineup, quite a lot of skill, they usually’re a team that may be very popular. They’ve had a few the most popular winning streaks.
“In the event that they find their game, they may be very dangerous. They’ve so many dangerous weapons, so many guys who can rating throughout their lineup. You see what number of late comeback wins they’ve had. You may never count them out. It should be a fantastic entertaining first round.”
McDavid said that he feels the Oilers shall be the identical contending squad that made it all of the solution to the Stanley Cup final the last two seasons, only to lose out each times to the Florida Panthers.
“The expectation is similar as at all times,” he said. “We’ve got a fantastic belief in here. Playoff hockey is exclusive. It’s a skill to win within the playoffs and we feel pretty good about having that skill, having been there and won quite a lot of playoff games.
“That being said, it’s exciting for everyone and we’ve got to be able to roll.”
McDavid finished the season with 138 points and because the NHL’s top scorer he captured his sixth Art Ross title, tying him with Mario Lemieux and Gordie Howe for second most in league history behind Wayne Gretzky’s 10.
McDavid became the third player in league history to get some extent in every considered one of his team’s wins this yr with 41, Gretzky coming next with 29 in 1980-81.
Along with his four-point night, he reached 1,220 profession points, passing Jeremy Roenick, Larry Murphy and Jean Beliveau to advance to forty seventh place on the NHL’s all-time point scoring list. McDavid entered the season in 71st place.
On a scary note for the Geese, McDavid’s 1.82 point-per-game regular season rate against Anaheim is the very best total by any player against the franchise.
Bouchard picked up three assists to cap off an incredible regular season, easily winning the scoring race amongst defencemen with 95 points. He passed Ray Bourque for the seventh most points by a blueliner in a season since 1989-90, a listing led by current Oilers assistant coach Paul Coffey who had 103 that yr.
The 26-year-old is just the tenth defenceman in NHL history to record a 95-point season.
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