The Edmonton Oilers fell flat out of the starting blocks Thursday night.

While they would get the first shot on goal of the game, an Evan Bouchard wrist shot from 64 feet out that was turned aside, the Boston Bruins would score on their first shot, as Elias Lindholm shot from the sidewall pinballed past Stuart Skinner.

A good start was needed against the B’s, and this wasn’t it. Adding insult to injury, it would take the Oilers nearly 14 minutes — yes, you read that right — to get another shot on goal. Boston, meanwhile, would once again score shortly thereafter, with bruising bottom-six forward Mark Kastelic driving through the defence and to the net, scoring on a backhand shot.
“It looked like we were ready to go,” said Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “I think the first goal against took a lot of energy out of us.

“We were ready for the game and then (they get) that early goal. It’s no fault to Stu. I know it looks terrible, but it gets deflected and goes upstairs. So nothing much he can do about that.”
It was about as lifeless of a start to a game as the Oilers have had all season, but the team left it there, turning the game on its head in the final forty minutes. Bubble boy Zach Hyman would get the Oilers on the board halfway through the second period, and with just over two minutes left in the third, Connor McDavid did Connor McDavid things, driving wide on Nikita Zadorov jamming the game-tying goal home.

Come overtime the magic continued. Amid a line change Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Leon Draisaitl got sprung on a breakaway, with the former trying to find the latter, failing to get a shot away. But a loose puck sitting out front of the net was corralled by Nugent-Hopkins, who quickly spun and got the puck to Mattias Ekholm, who buried the game-winner.
And while the story was about them mounting a comeback, there were two keys for the team: Stuart Skinner bearing down to the tune of a .923 save percentage, saving 1.36 goals above expected, according to Natural Stat Trick, and Draisaitl continuing his dominance with assists on all three Oilers goals.

Now up to 900 career points in thanks to it, he’s also skyrocketed up the scoring charts, sitting second in the league with 50 points, just two back of Nathan MacKinnon, while his 23 goals pace the entire NHL. After a slow start to the year in which he had nine goals and just 16 points in the first 14 games, his last 18 have seen him rack up 14 goals and 34 points. Only McDavid, who has 35 points in those 18 games, has more in that stretch.

Skinner, meanwhile, is on a tear of his own as of late. In seven games since the Oilers returned from their bye week, he’s posted a 5-2 record with a .917 save percentage, but if you remove his numbers from the stinker against the Panthers earlier this week, that save percentage skyrockets to a .941.

And in his last 10 games, he’s only had two games where he posted worse than a .923 save percentage.

“I thought he played a really good game and it’s not easy for a goalie to let in that first shot so early in the game,” Knoblauch said. “It usually deflates a goalie and usually it’s not their best, but I’ve seen many times with Stu — just composed and puts together a pretty good game. Tonight, he came up with some big ones, as you mentioned the breakaway saves, there’s certainly other ones, too.”

Two points against the Bruins cap off a gauntlet of opponents: the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Minnesota Wild, the Vegas Golden Knights, and last night, Boston. Edmonton, however, had no issue reminding the rest of the league how good they are, going 4-1 against them outscoring their opponents 23-13.

“Tough stretch, of course, really good teams coming in here, all in the top-1o, top-12,” said Draisaitl. “It tells me we can beat any team on any given night, and it should give us a lot of confidence going forward.”

Things lighten up for them as 2024 turns to ’25, with Edmonton facing the San Jose Sharks and a red-hot Ottawa Senators before the Holidays, and games against the Los Angeles Kings, Anaheim Ducks, Utah Hockey Club and the Ducks again into the new calendar year.