Normally for my intro, I would go into detail about Tim Hortons crappy lids, the snow, Sportsnet’s technical issues, bad commercials, Law and Order: SVU, etc. Not sure what I specifically had in mind for tonight but there is too much stuff to cover to do that now.

As I was sipping my Booster Juice relaxing prior to this game, Jussi Jokinen was traded for Michael Cammalleri. I had to quickly slap together a piece for instant analysis and then I had to grab a pen and paper to take notes for tonight’s game. The Golden Knights (Was this really the best name they could think of?) came into Rogers arena to play the Oilers. This is what happened:

First Period:

The Oilers start this game strong. For the first five minutes they control the play, and get a few shots. Unfortunately, the best chance in this sequence is ex-Oiler David Perron taking a shot that beats Cam Talbot. It slides through his five-hole but luckily stays out of the net. During this sequence, Yohann Auvitu trips up Perron and the Vegas Golden Knights get the first Powerplay of the game. We’ll get to see if our PK has turned a corner.

Our Penalty Kill is awesome. It’s killed off without the Knights getting a shot, and right before it expires, Jujhar Khaira takes the puck, goes 2-on-1 with Oscar Klefbom. Khaira completes the pass, Oscar buries it and it’s 1-0 Edmonton. Our first short handed goal of the season.

I honestly had a lot of notes through this period. It’s just, I don’t really see a need to talk about chances I saw due to the sheer amount of actual goals.

We get a Powerplay of our own, Hopefully it’s as good as our PK.

It struggled at first, the top line not generating too much but the second unit makes it count. Ryan Strome sends it behind the net for Patrick Maroon who quickly passes it to a wide open Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in front. 2-0 Oilers.

This is fun. A 2-0 lead, we’ve controlled the play, our special teams look good. We’re actually taking a lead into the 1st intermission.

Wait.. We’re not done. Maroon puts one in from Leon Draisaitl and Drake Cagguila.

Ok 3-0 after one period. Beautiful.

Second Period:

We start off with Drew Remenda talking about Mark Spector’s “Terrific Piece” about the Oilers scoring woes. The article was basically throwing shade at Klefbom and I don’t think it’s going to age well.

Khaira is working his ass off here, he wins a battle in the corner and gets out front for a good shot. No goal but it’s encouraging.

Vegas is terrible in their own end. I mean, they’re probably also terrible in the other team’s end too, but they haven’t given me a chance to evaluate that yet.

Also, is Maxime Legace’s name really pronounced “Leg-uh-say”? Manny’s wasn’t. Or maybe it was and we were just saying it wrong all these years. That or the Sportsnet guys are wrong. They haven’t figured out “Yessa” for Jesse Puljujarvi yet. They’ve only half transitioned to “Yessee” so it’s not out of the question that they’re wrong here, too. Moving on.

The Oilers maintain control of the play and Matthew Benning deflects a Klebom shot into the net. I have no idea what Benning is doing in the slot like that, but I’ll take it. 4-0 Oilers.

Vegas scores immediately after the Oilers goal to keep it from being a laugher. It’s Pierre-Edouard Bellemare from Tomas Nosek and Nate Schmidt. Did I mention this was an expansion team?

I’m getting pretty bored here. The teams might only be 3 goals apart, but it’s a large three goals. Edmonton is finally playing the way they’ve been expected to.

Just as the Period expires, James Neal makes one of his patented dirty plays by taking a run at Benning behind the net. He gets called for roughing, and the Oilers will start the 3rd on the Powerplay.

3rd Period:

Powerplay GOAL!!!. Connor McDavid from Leon Draisaitl. It’s a weird one. Connor gets a cross crease feed but is behind the net. He kinda throws it out front, it bounces around and then a Vegas player puts it in his own net. We need goals like this more often. 5-1 Oilers.

It looks like Maxime Legace is hurt on the play. This would be amazing if they have to put their emergency backup in net. Dylan Ferguson from the Kamloops Blazers looks ike he’s ready to go in. I so badly want this to happen. Damn, Legace says he’s fine. We’ll have to wait.

Darnell Nurse leaves James Neal wide open during the McDavid goal announcement, He beats Talbot and it’s 5-2.

It starts getting silly now. McDavid comes in to the zone, shoots and scores. 6-2 Oilers.

Nuge scores. 7-2 Oilers

Legace actually leaves the ice and Dylan Ferguson comes in. This is amazing.

McDavid completed the hat trick but the refs said Maroon interfered. Instead of it being 8-2, the Oilers will have to kill a penalty.

They did. Then Letestu makes it 8-2.

That’s game.

Notes:

• The Oilers twitter didn’t get all the Gifs of the goals out fast enough. I’d have embeded them all, otherwise.
• Jujhar has looked pretty damn good lately. I really hope that continues.
• We had 3 powerplays, and we scored on ALL of them.
• We had 4 penalty kills and we killed ALL of them. We scored while killing a penalty just for good messure.
• Vegas is a really bad team. I know it’s been said, I know the PDO screams it at anyone who looks, but my god you have to see this with your own eyes to understand how bad that team is.
• Dylan Ferguson will never forget this night. He played in the NHL and even made a save. Congrats to that young man.
• We’re the only western conference team to beat them.
• Klefbom had an outstanding game. I’ll take more of that please.
• Sportsnet went the whole game without any technical issues. I guess they figured that buzzing sound for the first two periods of the Capitals game was enough for a few games.
• I’m not ready to say “Problem Solved” but damn, that was a good game by everyone.
• I just remembered that we’re getting Cammalleri to help make our PP even better.
• LET’S GO OILERS!!!