The expected result occurred in Alberta on Thursday night, with the Edmonton Oilers, who’ve now won 15 in a row, winning 3-0 over the Blackhawks, who’ve now lost 19 straight games on the road.
After a scoreless first period, Connor McDavid cashed in on an Edmonton power play at the 1:37 mark of the second to put the Oilers ahead 1-0:
Later in the second, MacKenzie Entwistle earned a breakaway by blocking a point shot in the D zone and was rewarded with a penalty shot when he was hooked on said breakaway. He did not score on either opportunity, though:
It felt like a matter of time before Edmonton put this game to bed, and that inevitability arrived in the third period when McDavid found a gear that only he has to open up a passing lane to Zach Hyman for this goal:
McDavid added an empty-net goal to pad his fantasy stats a bit more and that was that.
Notes
- Since this week seems to be “say nice things about Alex Vlasic week” here at SCH, let’s continue the theme. He was on the ice for 8:31 against one Connor McDavid. During that time, there were only two shots on the Chicago net and three scoring chances for the Oilers. There was only one high-danger chance against. Seth Jones was out there as well, so Vlasic cannot take all of the credit, but that’s a pretty good set of numbers to post against McDavid. Consider that the Hyman-Draisaitl-McDavid line, in 15:37 of 5-on-5 ice time overall, had a 66.67 percent share of shot attempts and a whopping 76.27 percent share of expected goals, and it’s indicative of how much Vlasic (and Jones) limited that line when matched up against them.
- The same could not be said for the moments when McDavid’s line was out there against the Phillips/Tinordi pairing so let’s not get into that.
- Chicago’s best line this evening, by the numbers, was the Foligno-Kurashev-Raddysh line with a 64 percent shot attempt share and a nice 69.27 percent expected goal share. No goals, though — which is a common refrain these days.
- It’s cool that MacKenzie Entwistle is willing to put his body on the line to block shots in the D zone and then get rewarded with a breakaway (and ensuing penalty shot) for those efforts. But it’s also indicative of his likely fourth-line ceiling that neither of those opportunities resulted in a goal.
- We’re probably stuck in this misery until Bedard gets back at some point in February, aren’t we?
- Will continue posting this after every game until it stops being true:
Game Charts
Three Stars
- Connor McDavid (EDM) — 2 goals, 1 assist
- Calvin Pickard (EDM) — 27 saves, shutout
- Petr Mrazek (CHI) — 31 saves on 33 shots
What’s Next
The Blackhawks wrap up this four-game road trip on Saturday night against the Calgary Flames at 9 p.m.