New Nashville coach John Hynes admits he’s learning on the fly as he tries to get a read on his players after just 10 days on the job, while his Edmonton counterpart, Dave Tippett, has had three months to figure out his club’s propensity for laying eggs at home while winning on the road.
With just 10 wins at Rogers Place in 21 games, and coming off a fever-pitched loss in Calgary, nobody was sure how the Oilers would do against the Predators in the Western Conference playoff race, where eight teams were within four points of each other.
But, on the coldest night of the year, before the smallest home crowd of the season with many deciding to watch this one from their couch with a cheap beer, the Oilers were hot enough to beat the Predators 4-2.
It was the first time in two months they’ve won two in a row here (New Year’s Eve vs. the Rangers and this one) and the first home win for goalie Mike Smith, who out-duelled Pekka Rinne, for his first home win since Nov. 14 against Colorado.
“It was one of those games where we found a way to win. Smitty was really good (30 stops), and while the guys were chugging a bit in practice Monday on their first time back from the (10-day) long road trip, we had some energy. I wanted our team to check with success all the way through the ice and we did that,” said Oilers coach Dave Tippet, whose club now has 55 points, tied with the Flames for second in the Pacific, two back of Arizona who’ll be here Saturday.
Smith, who has won four straight games overall, gave up a fantastic lacrosse goal by Filip Forsberg and one by rookie Colin Blackwell in a four-minute span in the first period, but that was all they got as he beat Rinne, who hadn’t lost to the Oilers in almost six years (March, 2014), winning the previous 12 straight meetings.
Leon Draisaitl had two (power play, empty-net) and set up Ryan Nugent-Hopkins off a face-off while Connor McDavid had three helpers, including one to Josh Archibald for the winner midway through the middle frame.
“I think he’s only played with Connor three times this year and he has two goals,” said Tippett.
The coach had little trouble sliding the 170-pound energy player and penalty-kill specialist into suspended winger Zack Kassian’s spot on the No. 1 line.
“Connor makes the game easy for guys. I mean, that pass he gave me, I just had to find the back of the net,” said Archibald, after his fifth goal of the season. “I’m used to playing with (Riley) Sheahan, where we’re a grind line and work pucks down low, where Connor likes to carry the pucks in. When you score with Connor, it’s one of those things you can check off the list.”
With the Oilers getting past the Predators for only the second time in the last 15 games, they got Smith’s A-game, which is has been there for a couple of weeks now.
He matched saves with Rinne and he was one better, with the Predators netminder on the bench for an extra skater when Draisaitl ended it.
“Six years … oooh, that’s pretty good,” laughed Smith of Nashville’s previous streak. “I have tremendous respect for Pekka. I’ve grown up playing against him throughout my career. Know him off the ice, a great guy to be around and obviously a great goalie.”
He got plenty of help up front, especially in the third, as the Oilers battened down the hatches.
“We showed a lot of maturity then and at times this year we’ve gone the other way. I thought we really grew as a team tonight, going into the third period on home ice after a long road trip,” said Smith. “I think we took leaps and bounds forward, playing against a desperate team.”
SVECHNIKOV HAS COMPANY
Carolina winger Andrei Svechnikov has been the NHL poster boy for the lacrosse goal this season with two insane plays on David Rittich and Connor Hellebucyk , but Forsberg’s first-period effort (his ninth goal in 15 career games against the Oilers) was every bit as dazzling. One of his eight shots on the night.
The right-shot winger circled the net with the puck on his blade and casually flicked a backhand past Smith, who almost got it with his mitt before the puck bounced off his ribs and over the line.
“I thought I played it pretty well, he got lucky. I mean, I saw him pick the puck up and it hit my glove, then my body. I need to eat a couple more hamburgers, I guess, so I get a little more fat there,” joked Smith.
Forsberg would have happier if he goal had come in a win, but it’ll be on every highlight package.
“They had a winger on the wall, which teams usually don’t and he took off after the draw so it left a lot of room and I just tried to get it up and off quick and it worked,” he said.
You certainly didn’t see goals like that 10 years ago, five years ago, even last year.
“It’s fun to watch when it’s not you in net but when it ends up being you, you feel like more of an idiot. But while we’re all talking about that goal, in the end, it doesn’t matter. We came out on top,” said Smith
Forsberg, continuing with the magician stuff, deftly drew the puck back into his feet on a rush midway through the second and threw a sleight-of-hand shot towards Smith, and also later on a 10-footer as Forsberg rolled his eyes in dismay.
NO HARM, NO FOUL
Nugent-Hopkins shrugged when he didn’t get voted into the St. Louis all-star game and skills contest by the fans as a Pacific Division add-on. Instead, Canucks 20-year-old defenceman Quinn Hughes got the nod.
A beach somewhere awaits.
“I’m going to get away,” said Nugent-Hopkins, who has been picked to one all-star game in 2012, but ended up sitting out with a bad shoulder. “Hughes has had a great year, especially for a rookie.”
This ’n’ that: The Oilers have won two straight at home since a Nov. 8 win against New Jersey and the No. 14 win over Colorado … The game featured the last two goalies to score a goal: Smith and Rinne … Jujhar Khaira was a healthy Oilers scratch for the second straight game and fourth in the last 10, as winger Patrick Russell drew into the lineup with Zack Kassian suspended. Russell had sat for six in a row and was on a line with Gaetan Haas and Joakim Nygard … Russian-born Predators winger Yakov Trenin, who played junior in Gatineau, Que., was born the same day and same year as McDavid, Jan. 13, 1997, although miles and miles away in Chelyabinsk. The NHL rookie Trenin, who bravely fought Man Mountain Zdeno Chara this month, was a boxing trainer back home.
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