“Sometimes it’s easier to get really whacked across the face, instead of kind of pitter-patting around for another couple of weeks, win one, lose two — and you never really find it. Sometimes a slap in the face is just what you need.†— Leon Draisaitl, on losing 9-1.
EDMONTON — The first game on the long road back started with a mismatch of a fight, when Trent Frederic challenged as tough a fighter as there is in the National Hockey League, Columbus’s Mathieu Olivier.
It went badly for Frederic, but in a hockey dressing room the result of that fight is irrelevant.
“Huge credit to Freddy, taking on that guy,†said Connor McDavid, the Oilers captain who singlehandedly refused to allow the Columbus Blue Jackets out of Rogers Place with two points Monday. “I canâ€t say enough good things about it. Not a lot of guys take on that guy.â€
“I have to give a huge shout-out to Freddy,†Jake Walman said a few minutes later, unsolicited, after the 5-4 overtime win. “Thatâ€s a tough opponent, a big boy. Thereâ€s very few guys who would do that type of thing and step up for this team and Iâ€m proud of him for that.â€
The fight had nothing to do with a game where McDavid kept the Oilers close enough to be able to use the giant break they received with 57.9 seconds to play — a puck deflected into the Columbus net by Olivier that tied the game at 4-4.
But Fredericâ€s fight was the beginning of what theyâ€d been asking for around here for a long while: that everyone take a long look at their game, figure out what it is they do to help around here, and bring it.
Frederic isnâ€t going to fight NHL heavyweights every night. But he did on this night, and in doing so he showed his teammates what heâ€s willing to do to help his team find their game.
Sound dumb? Yeah, if you donâ€t spend time around hockey players, it sounds dumb.
But if youâ€ve got a clue what happens inside an NHL room — how they search to find something extra in November, when theyâ€ve played well into June for two years — you know that Frederic took a few for the team Monday because the team needed something extra.
Thatâ€s why, after winning a game on Jack Roslovicâ€s overtime goal, they were talking about Frederic post-game.
A team that needed something — anything —after that 9-1 debacle against Colorado on Saturday, got it first from Frederic, then later on from their captain, who scored twice in the third period on brilliant solo efforts.
“Just a guy who took over for a couple of shifts,†marvelled Roslovic, who has become Edmontonâ€s best winger since his arrival. “And itâ€s not even those shifts, it was the whole game. Itâ€s a body of work that happens through 60 minutes, not just one miraculous play.
“Itâ€s his effort throughout a whole game that leads to one extra inch of open ice and thatâ€s when he becomes who he is.â€
McDavid was incredible. But the way the Blue Jackets coughed this one up may have been even more miraculous.
With Edmonton trailing 4-3 and shorthanded, the Blue Jackets could have just employed a four-corner offence and wasted the clock. But instead, defenceman Denton Mateychuk mishandled a puck, Walman stole it and sent a pass towards Draisaitl, Olivier got a stick on the pass and it went end over end, top shelf on Columbus goalie Jet Greaves.
Total fluke for Columbus. Total relief for the Oilers, who played OK Monday, but no better than OK.
“Itâ€s a tough one when you put in that many good minutes and itâ€s a crazy bounce at the end and they get a tying goal,†Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner said. “I think we were in complete control of the game right from the start and itâ€s tough to swallow when that happens and then (they) get the overtime winner.â€
Added Columbus head coach Dean Evason: “That puck has no business going in.â€
Somehow, the Oilers got the break they really didnâ€t deserve Monday. Or perhaps, they earned it by hanging around, refusing to quit, and not letting Columbus find their way to the final buzzer with the lead theyâ€d held for most of the final 40 minutes.
On the back of the Monday Night Miracle, the Oilers head out now for a season-long seven-game road trip, winding through the Eastern Conference over the next dozen days.
Theyâ€ll need some wins early, in places like Philadelphia, Columbus and Buffalo, as theyâ€ll be hard to find at the tail end of the journey in Washington, Tampa and Florida.
“You don’t need every guy playing at their absolute best. This is not the time for that,†Draisaitl was saying, when asked about their team game. “But you need a B-plus game from everyone. And if you have a B-plus game from most guys, and some guys are playing great, then you start to look like a team. You can build some momentum.
“You know, you have heroes every night. It changes. Not everyone plays their A game every single night.â€
Some nights the heroes are guys like McDavid, and sometimes theyâ€re a combination of opponents — like Mateychuk and Olivier.
When youâ€re coming off a 9-1 loss on Hockey Night in Canada, any hero will do in a pinch.
Discover more from 6up.net
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.