Player grades: Jay Woodcroft wins NHL debut as Edmonton Oilers slide by NY Islanders

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Islanders 1, Oilers 3

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Riveting hockey game at Rogers Place on Friday night, a battle of two franchises and historic rivals in their golden anniversary season. Indeed, of the large class of 1972 that spawned two NHL expansion teams and an entire opposing league in the World Hockey Association, only the New York Islanders and Edmonton Oilers remain in their original home, both still sporting their traditional blue and orange.

The 1984 Stanley Cup Finals this was not, but it was a splendid game all the same, chock-a-block with strong skating, high skill, heavy hitting, shots and scoring chances galore, with a heaping helping of strong goaltending at both ends of the ice. In the end the Oilers came away with a hard-fought 3-1 victory in Jay Woodcroft’s debut behind the Edmonton bench.

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Lots of interest in this one, starting with Woodcroft’s deployment of a 7 defencemen / 11 forwards set that allowed a group of young defencemen to collectively soak up the minutes of injured veteran Duncan Keith without overtaxing any of them. Up front he stuck religiously to the Centres Three model, with all of Connor McDavid (20:35), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (20:31) and Leon Draisaitl (20:25) getting essentially identical ice time, including the odd extra shift with the two extra forwards on a rotating fourth line. Also of note is that all kept their shift length in check, with McDavid leading all forwards at just 0:53 per shift, Draisaitl 0:51. Almost all of Edmonton’s key players delivered a strong performance, which will be reflected in the grades.

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It was a back-and-forth affair in which each team produced double-digit shots in all three periods. Islanders held a 38-36 edge in that category, while the Oilers had a narrow 17-15 advantage in Grade A shots as tracked here at the Cult of Hockey.

Player grades

#5 Cody Ceci, 7. Surprising team leader in time on ice with a massive 26:24 in 28 shifts, consisting of about 5 minutes with each of the 4 left shot d-men and another 3½ on the prime penalty-kill pair (with Nurse). He carried it off well, with a couple of anxious moments mixed in for excitement’s sake. Crucially, he scored the game’s first goal on a well-placed point shot through traffic late in the first. The Oilers remain perfect when scoring first at 13-0-0.

#10 Derek Ryan, 6. Chipped in 13 minutes at even strength and another 2:12 on the penalty kill. Made a number of sharp plays and good short passes to get the puck moving in the right direction. 1 shot, 2 takeaways, and 3/4=75% on the faceoff dot.

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#13 Jesse Puljujarvi, 8. A terrific performance from the Bison King, who was a major player in 2 of Edmonton’s 3 goals. He blocked out the sun, providing a 50 SPF screen on Sorokin on Ceci’s goal. Stymied early in the game, he finally broke out of a lengthy scoring drought with a goal just 3 seconds into Edmonton’s first powerplay of the night, midway in the third. He won a puck battle after a sawed-off faceoff and fired a quick shot through Ilya Sorokin. That was one of 5 shots he fired on the night, all of them Grade A, ranging from one-timers from the slot to an end-to-end rush late in the third. He also chipped in an outstanding defensive play, coming back hard to strip Mathew Barzal of the puck. Only blemish was an ugly turnover inside his own blueline in the 60th minute, which would have been a lot more nervous moment had not J.P. himself already scored the critical insurance goal.

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#16 Tyler Benson, 5. Played a little over 7 minutes on Oilers 4th line, most of it with McLeod but with a range of third parties, many of them high-skilled players. Earned a +1 when he won a battle along the defensive wall that allowed McDavid to make a scoop pass that Hyman converted on the rush. 0 shots, 3 hits.

#18 Zach Hyman, 7. Scored the eventual game winner when he raced onto McDavid’s clearing pass, used a breaking Broberg as a decoy, and fired a well-placed wrister under Sorkin’s glove and just inside the far post. Had a very similar chance minutes later but tried to pass off and the chance went to waste. Broke in again in the third, taking Yamamoto’s feed, charging around the D and firing a high shot which Sorokin barely got a shoulder on. Identified as a defensive culprit on 3 Grade A shots against, and also charged with 3 giveaways. Did lead all forwards with 2:40 on the penalty kill.

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#22 Tyson Barrie, 5. Fairly low-event night on a depth pairing, involved in just 1 Grade A shot at either end of the sheet. Decent shot shares and some nice skill plays interspersed with occasional chaos. A little unlucky to be caught out on a 2-on-0 breakaway after the puck hit the linesman and bounced favourably for the Isles, but they blew the opportunity with an off-target shot.

#25 Darnell Nurse, 7. Played his standard 26 minutes and was a tower of power for most of them. Oilers outshot the Isles 18-10 during his 18 minutes at 5v5. Several strong defensive plays and some calm puck management. Fired 4 shots on net, the best of which was a one-timer off a Hyman feed. Took out Cal Clutterbuck in a net front battle, later absolutely erased the dangerous Anthony Beauvilier in a textbook 1-on-1 stop. Had 3 hits and was a physical presence right up to the game’s last second when he took a hit from Oliver Wahlstrom, and returned the favour after Wahlstrom had given RNH a shot in the resulting mélée.

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#29 Leon Draisaitl, 9. The Big Diesel had his skating legs going all night and in both directions. Exemplified on one shift when he busted hard up the right wing boards to retrieve a stray puck in the corner, then whip a hard backhand pass that Kane barely failed to convert; seconds later, Draisaitl was busting just as hard the other way to prevent a 2-on-1, diving to disrupt the pass at the Edmonton blue line and forcing an offside whistle. Took a regular shift on the penalty kill (2:04), contributing a couple of excellent zone clearances. Saw time with McDavid in their aftermath in the best Dave Tippett tradition. That strategy paid off in a goal that was set up by both men, though Draisaitl’s key contribution to the sequence was a brilliant play in the neutral zone to take McDavid’s scoop pass in his skate and kick it up to his stick while powering through a check to enter the zone and set up the cycle. 5 shots on goal, the best of them a when he blasted down ice for a shorthanded breakaway that he couldn’t convert. Came to Smith’s aid when the goalie was felled by Jean-Gabriel Pageau on a night that the Oilers had one another’s backs throughout. Was fouled himself on at least 4 occasions, the last of which was actually detected by the see-no-evil officiating crew. 9/15=60% on the dot.

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#37 Warren Foegele, 5. Quiet night with 0 shots, 1 hit, 1 giveaway. His toughest moments came when he twice in rapid succession failed to clear the zone from just inside the defensive blueline, though nothing truly dangerous came of it.

#41 Mike Smith, 9. Finally earned his first win since October 16 and deserved it with an outstanding performance. Faced a lot of traffic and a lot of rubber, but fought through the former and fought off the latter. Made huge first-period stops off Barzal and Anders Lee in particular that kept the score 0-0, allowing Oilers own attack sufficient time to score the first goal themselves. Got a little help from his metal friends at times. Both his puckhandling and rebound control were a bit shaky at first, as Oilers fans saw throughout the home stand, but as the game went on he settled down in both departments. Beaten only by a powerplay blast that caught the shaft of Bouchard’s stick on its way to the far corner. Did a fine job selling the collision with Pageau even as the penalties were ultimately evened up.  38 shots, 37 saves, .974 save percentage, and the first Oilers netminder since Stuart Skinner way back on Nov 18 to hold an opponent below 2 goals.

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#56 Kailer Yamamoto, 7. A very strong showing and had a jump in his step all night. Fired 5 shots on net to tie for the team lead. Made a terrific pass to Hyman for an excellent chance. Took a check from gigantic Zdeno Chara, officially 13 inches taller and 107 pounds heavier, and bounced back up. No special teams role on this night, but a solid 17:36 at even strength.

#71 Ryan McLeod, 5. Nothing going on offensively, but he was solid on the other side of the puck, blocking 3 shots with 1 takeaway. Lightly used at even strength (just under 6 minutes) but saw some time on the penalty kill (1:18), as his old Bakersfield coaches Woodcroft and Dave Manson know well his capabilities on that unit. In theory he got at least some of the PK duty that would normally go to Devin Shore, who was scratched on this night to make room for that 7th d-man.

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#75 Evan Bouchard, 4. Posted excellent shot (attempt) shares, especially when paired with Nurse. 0 shots of his own however. Burned for 2 Garde A shots at the defensive end, 1 of which found twine when it rather unluckily caromed off the shaft of his stick. He and Broberg were torched for a breakaway a few minutes later. Saw his ice time scaled back to just 2:12 in the third period, 13:31 on the night.

#80 Markus Niemelainen, 6. Giant rearguard delivered a welcome dose of physicality with 7 hits, a couple of them massive. Took a penalty in the process for standing his ground, but I didn’t mind it, especially after his mates killed it off. An Islander tried to run him in return and wound up bouncing off a (tall) brick wall. Shivered the timbers of 6’5, 232-pound Ross Johnston with another titanic hit. A couple of ragged defensive moments, getting caught out of position on one dangerous rush, but contributed to a pair of Yamamoto shots with a hard charge up the middle that created space. A couple of clunky handles of the puck along the way.

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#84 William Lagesson, 5. Like Niemelainen and Broberg, played 11 minutes, although quieter for the most part. Won his share of battles, one of them a good step-up, interception and short pass in the neutral zone that set up an RNH chance. Fired a decent shot of his own seconds later that squeezed through Sorokin but just past the post.

#86 Philip Broberg, 5. Struggled with his positional play at times, mixed with some shaky puck handling. But made up for it in a big way when he saw McDavid about to collect a loose puck in the defensive zone and immediately high-tailed it up the ice to create a 2-on-1 with Hyman. Never touched the puck but allowed Hyman the space to cut into the slot and let fly for the 2-0 goal.

#91 Evander Kane, 7. Played a solid game with 7 shot attempts, 3 on net, and 4 hits. Learned a valuable lesson to expect a good pass from Draisaitl even when it seems unlikely. Took a pair of penalties, one of them an even-up call when he came to the aid of Smith.

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#93 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, 7. He too came to bat for a teammate when he stepped in quickly to challenge Wahlstrom after his last-second hit on Nurse. “Closest teammate” rule, and in my view the right thing in the circumstances. That was merely the punctuation mark at the end of a solid night’s work including over 2 minutes on the PK.

#97 Connor McDavid, 9. Played a splendid two-way game, contributing 7 Grade A shots for while burned for 0 against. All over the puck in the offensive zone with several dangerous thrusts from various angles. After having just 1 primary assist through 12 GP in calendar 2022, he picked up 2 in a row on the Oilers first 2 goals and was announced for the third as well before it was clawed back. Still deserves an unofficial assist on that one for drawing the penalty that led to the goal. Imposed himself on this game more than we’ve seen in a while, and in both directions. On one standout play after an Oilers penalty kill he took an Islander attacker all the way to the end wall and erased him from the play, then Draisaitl followed up and cleaned up the leftovers.