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Edmonton Oilers right wing Corey Perry collides with Columbus Blue Jackets goaltender Daniil Tarasov as Cole Sillinger attempts to clear the puck, during second play, on Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

• Oilers are coming off a two-game winning streak, including a 3-2 victory against the Red Wings.
  
  
• Goaltender Calvin Pickard had an excellent showing against Detroit, saving 25/27 goals.
  
• Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl recorded two goals and an assist against the Red Wings, including the game-winning OT goal.
  
  
• Blue Jackets defensemen Zach Werenski has scored six goals in the last 10 games.
  
  
• The Columbus Blue Jackets have a good track record against the oilers, going 8-3-0 in the last 11 games.

OILERS PROJECTED LINEUP

Nugent-Hopkins - McDavid - Hyman
Podkolziin - Draisaitl - Arvidsson
Skinner - Henrique - Brown
Janmark - Ryan - Perry

Ekholm - Bouchard
Nurse - Stecher
Kulak - Emberson

Skinner
Pickard

BLUE JACKETS PROJECTED LINEUP

Sillinger - Monahan- Marchenko
Chinakhov - Fantilli - Pyythia
Riemsdyk - Kuraly - Labanc
Aston-Reese - Danforth - Olivier

Werenski - Provorov
Christiansen - Severson
Johnson - Harris

Merzlikins

Tarasov

BY THE NUMBERS

Edmonton Oilers

Power Play — 13% (27th)

Penalty Kill — 60% (32nd)

Faceoffs — 55.0% (3rd)

Goals For avg — 2.33 (30th)

Goals Against avg — 3.22 (15th)

Columbus Blue Jackets

Power Play — 15% (26th)

Penalty Kill — 80% (13th)

Faceoffs — 50.6% (15th)

Goals For avg — 3.86 (12th)

Goals Against avg — 3.43 (12th)

DRAISAITL ICES HIS OWN CAKE WITH BIRTHDAY GIFT TO EDMONTON OILERS

Instead of blowing out the candles on a cake, it looked like Leon Draisaitl would have to spend his birthday explaining how the Edmonton Oilers blew another game.

The Oilers didn’t just limp into Sunday’s tilt with the Detroit Red Wings, they rolled in a coffin, showing zero signs of life in a first period that should have been the end of them.

“We got outplayed quite badly,” admitted Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch. “We only gave up 13 shots, but the shot attempts were 28. If you give up 28 shot attempts in 20 minutes, all five on five, you’re not doing much.”

They weren’t doing anything. If not for goaltender Calvin Pickard, the Oilers would have been doomed. Instead, they were only down 1-0 at the first intermission.

“We didn’t make it easy on ourselves after the first, but I just had that feeling we were going to score and tie it up,” said Pickard, who stopped 12 of 13 shots in the opening period. “We took over and played really well in the second and third.”

That’s when Draisaitl began the celebrations. He scored the tying goal to make it 1-1 in the second period, assisted on the tying goal to make it 2-2 in the third, and then he put the icing on his own cake by scoring the winning goal 18 seconds into overtime.

STUART SKINNER SETTLING IN AS EDMONTON OILERS PREPARE FOR DETROIT RED WINGS

Edmonton Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner’s game today looks light years better than it did two weeks ago when he got the hook in that opening night 6-0 crash and burn loss to Winnipeg Jets.

Skinner, who got the hook after giving up five goals on 13 shots in half a game to kick off the season, has a .915 save percentage and a 2:38 goals against average in his last five games as the Oilers head to Detroit to kick off a three-game road trip. He’ll probably get the start there, with Calvin Pickard going in the back-to-back Monday night in Columbus before they finish in the resurgent Predators in Nashville Wednesday.

win over Pittsburgh Friday but he stoned Erik Karlsson, Noel Acciari, and Kris Letang and had to get through two third-period Penguins power plays for his fifth career shutout.

It was only the second time in eight games the Oilers haven’t given up a shortie, and they dug in to make sure Skinner got the perfect night.

“You saw their effort, even when there were 12, 15 seconds left, we were doing everything we could to keep them out of our zone,” said Skinner. “That gives you a lot of pride in the group. We want to do well on our PK. I know the guys were obviously fighting for me but also fighting for a couple of kills, too.”

Forwards

1. Connor McDavid: 9 GP, 3G, 7A, 10 PTS

2. Leon Draisaitl: 9 GP, 6G, 4A, 10 PTS

3. Jeff Skinner: 9 GP, 2G, 2A, 4 PTS

4. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins: 9GP, 1G, 3A, 4 PTS

5. Mattias Janmark: 9 GP, 0G, 2A, 2 PTS

Defenceman

1. Brett Kulak: 9 GP, 2G, 1A, 3 PTS

2. Mattias Ekholm: 9 GP, 1G, 6A, 7 PTS
3. Darnell Nurse: 9 GP, 0G, 2A, 2 PTS
4. Evan Bouchard: 9GP, 3G, 3A, 6 PTS

Goalie

1. Stuart Skinner: 6 GP, 2-3-1, .890 SV%, 3.06 GAA
2. Calvin Pickard: 2 GP, 3-2-1 .875 SV%, 2.91 GAA

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Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl celebrates with left wing Zach Hyman after scoring the winning goal against the Detroit Red Wings in overtime on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2024, in Detroit. Photo by Duane Burleson /AP

By Bruce McCurdy

It was far from a thing of beauty, but Edmonton Oilers found a way to get the job done in the Motor City. Twice they fell behind by a goal, trailing for some 46 minutes of the 60, but as has so often been the case, their top players combined to produce just enough offence to carry the day, 3-2 over the Red Wings in overtime.

Just 18 seconds of extra time were required to seal the deal with a rare 4v4 tally (due to an expiring penalty early in the sequence). It was the third of the night in which all of Leon Draisaitl, Connor McDavid, Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm were on the ice. That quartet combined for 9 points, 3 of them by Draisaitl and 2 each for the others. On this night at least, the “Nuclear Option” proved decisive in a good way.

Backup netminder Calvin Pickard also delivered the goods, especially in the first period during which his team was mostly on the back foot. Pickard kept things within reach until, eventually, his mates responded with some offensive support.

Don’t believe me? Check out this flow of play chart from Natural Stat Trick that reflects the Oilers producing just 28% of the shot attempts in the first period, but then 72% in the second and 70% in the third. Overall the visitors enjoyed a 70-51 edge in shot attempts including 34-26 in actual shots.

By our own video analysis at the Cult of Hockey, it was the hometown Red Wings who had a 13-12 advantage in Grade A shots and 8-5 in the most dangerous of those, the 5-alarm shots (preliminary running count). This was anybody’s game and the Red Wings, playing their third in four days, were certainly full value for their one point. The Oilers on the other hand can bank their two and get the heck out of Dodge.