GAME RECAP: Oilers 5, Kraken 2

EDMONTON, AB - The Oilers slayed the monster they unleashed a few weeks earlier by taking down the Seattle Kraken 5-2 on Tuesday night for their fourth straight win.
Seattle had come into the contest as winners of seven straight road games, all coming after the Oilers defeated the Emerald City team 7-2 at Climate Pledge Arena back on Dec. 30, but Edmonton notched five even-strength goals to break the Kraken's streak.
"I think we're putting a lot of emphasis on defending the right way, and I thought we did a lot of really good things towards that direction tonight," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "We we're able to take two points off a divisional opponent that's in front of us right now."
Zach Hyman led the way for the Oilers offence with a goal and two assists, while Dylan Holloway had his first career multi-point game with two helpers on the evening. The Oilers saw goals from up-and-down their lineup with Connor McDavid, Derek Ryan, Warren Foegele, Ryan McLeod and the aforementioned Hyman finding the twine behind Seattle starter Martin Jones.
Jack Campbell picked up his fourth consecutive win and fifth straight in games he's started between the Oilers pipes by turning away 28-of-30 Kraken shots.
The Oilers will continue their brief two-game homestand on Thursday when they take on the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second game of a back-to-back for the Florida side.

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FIRST BLOOD

It was Seattle who 'Kraked' open the scoring early in the first period.
With Cody Ceci in the box for tripping, the Kraken power play went to work and it was Daniel Sprong who would end up finding the twine behind Campbell at the 3:11 mark of the opening period. The Kraken forward tried to feed Jordan Eberle in front with a hard pass, but the dish took a deflection off the poke-checking stick of Darnell Nurse before finding it's way into the back of the Oilers net.
The goal was Sprong's 15th of the season, and it was the first time in three games versus the Oilers this campaign that the Kraken scored the opening goal of the game.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Connor McDavid continued his march towards the century mark with another McDavid-esque goal with 5:52 left in the first period.
The Oilers captain collected a pass at the Oilers blue line from Leon Draisail and turned on the jets upwards towards the Kraken goal. Hyman held up at the blue line, setting a subtle pick on former Oiler Justin Schultz to provide enough room for McDavid to rip his 38th of the season by Jones.

The goal was part of a fairly-strong opening frame against a lately road-dominant Seattle team, with the Oilers outshooting the Kraken by a 13-7 margin after 20 minutes. The only real blemish in the period was the Oilers 21st-ranked penalty kill getting nicked for another power-play-goal against.

DEPTH DOUBLE UP

Derek Ryan won't have many goals easier than the one he scored tonight.
The Oilers veteran scored his fifth of the season after a Vincent Desharnais point shot snuck behind Jones and sat in the blue paint behind him. Ryan quickly scooted in behind the Kraken goalie for the tap-in goal to give the Oilers the 2-1 advantage and their first lead of the contest.
The Oilers doubled their lead before the period was done.
After a Draisaitl feed led to a major scrum in front of Jones, it would be Foegele shovelling the puck in while sitting on his butt in front of the Kraken crease. The goal was the fifth of the season for Foegele, who had been healthy scratched for two games after the Oilers last matchup against Seattle to make way for Woodcroft's 11-and-7 lineup deployment.
"I think Warren's game has picked up since he was scratched there for a couple of games," Woodcroft said after the game. "We said at that time it was nothing that he was doing wrong, it was just that we made a coaches' decision at that point. It was nice to see him score a blue-paint goal in the fashion that he did, and he probably could have added three or four more other ones."

"I think just mixing up different players you're playing with, but I think it just keeps you on your toes right," Foegele said about going 11-and-7. "You got to be mentally engaged in the game, and the nice thing about 11-7 is everyone gets to play more and gets involved. You can see how that's working out for us right now."
The forward's strong performance and willingness to go to the hard areas came at a good time. As the Oilers start creeping back to full strength, staying in the lineup becomes more and more difficult. The Oilers showed urgency when it came to crashing the Kraken crease on Tuesday, contributing to several of their goals.
"I think that was a good thing too, Hyman said. "D-Ryan got one in the blue paint, Warren got one in the blue paint, McLeod got one in the blue paint. You got to find ways to score and get to the net, and I think it's huge. Come playoffs, you got to find dirty goals, and we got them tonight."

PUCK LUCK

The puck giveth and the puck taketh away.
The start of the third period was a perfect showcase of how much randomness can creep into the game when it's played with an oddly-shaped object while on ice.

The bad bounces first started with a Seattle rush and what looked to be a harmless shot from the circle by Vince Dunn 22 seconds into the period. Unfortunately, the defenceman's shot careened off Campbell's glove and popped up and over into the Oilers net to cut the home team's advantage to 3-2.
A minute later, the karma would swing back in the Oilers favour. With Hyman struggling to corral a bouncing pass in the slot, Eeli Tolvanen swung his stick for the poke check and inadvertently knocked the puck directly behind his goaltender to restore the Oilers two-goal lead. Hyman was credited for his 21st of the season, despite never firing a shot Jones' way.

WELCOME BACK, EVANDER

It had been 70 days since Evander Kane last skated in a game for the Oilers -- a long time, but also an incredibly short time considering the severity of the injury he suffered back on Nov. 8 against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
In all, the Oilers sniper played 17:09 in the contest with seven shots directed towards the Kraken goal. Kane was also his normal, physical self, with five hits on the night -- the 31-year-old showed few signs of rust, leading the Oilers in both categories.
"It's not easy. He missed 30 something games, two-and-a-half months, " Hyman said about his teammate. "He came back earlier than I think everybody expected. Credit to him for putting in all that work and he didn't look at a place at all, didn't look any different. He just looked himself."
"It felt fine," Kane said post-game about returning to the lineup. "No issues tonight other than my finish."

PARTING WORDS

Head Coach Jay Woodcroft about the goals scored by Foegele, McLeod, and Ryan:
"What I liked about it is where those goals were scored, all three of them. Three guys that maybe aren't at the high end of the goal chart, but went somewhere in order to find offensive success."
Woodcroft on scratching Jesse Puljujarvi tonight:
"He wasn't in the lineup tonight. I thought our team played well and won the game. Those decisions aren't easy decisions when you start getting back to full health. The coach's job and the coaching staff's job makes it difficult because we have a lot of really good players and tonight he didn't play in the game, but I feel good about him and his game, and he'll get back in."
Woodcroft on the play of Philip Broberg:
"(My) comfort level is very high. Assessing his performance, I think he's been excellent. I think he's growing before our eyes. He was plus four tonight. I think he defends the way we want him to defend. He's quick back to pucks. He's not afraid on retrievals. He goes back and touches at first. He moves pucks quickly. He still makes the odd mistake here or there that I think is experience related and learning the league related. I have nothing but the highest esteem for Philip, how he approaches his day to day process, and how hard he tries to play the game. I think he's going to be a very good NHL defenseman for the next 15 years or so because he's got all the tools. He's in great shape. He's serious about his craft. I'm thankful he's on our team."

Zach Hyman on the Oilers battling back when down a goal:
"I think we responded well. They got the first one there, but I think our response was really good and I just like the way that we put it behind their D. You talk a lot about a team coming off a back-to-back and you want to make it a little bit harder for them. I thought we managed the puck well. We had a strong third period, mature period, just a fluky one to start but then we responded again really well after that and kind of dialed it in."
Warren Foegele talks about the type of goals the Oilers scored:
"I think a lot of goals tonight (were gritty) too. We got Clouder at the doorstep, DR the doorstep, and I think we talked about we have to go to the net more and get pucks to the net and you saw we had about four or five goals there tonight, so we have to keep doing those things."
Foegele on the Oilers getting all five-on-five goals:
"You got to find different ways to win. You can't just rely on your power play, but like I just said, everyone's contributing, everyone's working, and we just got to stay with it."

Foegele on the Oilers playing a consistent style of game lately:
"I just think we're managing the puck real well, we're not giving away goals like we did before and it's just this constant rhythm of trying to make it more difficult for their defensemen and get a good rhythm with all the forwards."
Kane on getting seven shots, but no points in his return.
"I guess I can't expect too much, but yeah, we had some looks. The team played well. We got two points against a really good team and I had my looks tonight, which was a positive and I'll just try to build off that."
"I think it was positive when you're out there in around the net getting some looks and getting some chances. We put up five goals, I think all five-on-five tonight, so that was a really good plus for our team."