EDMONTON — Looking down from 30,000 feet at an Edmonton Oilers team that has scored just once in its last two games — but allowed only two— they look just fine, with one game left before the playoffs begin.
Because when you’re dissecting the Oilers, it always comes down to two things: Do they have goaltending, and can they defend well enough?
Well, with Connor Ingram simply getting better and better as the season goes on, we’re getting awfully close to a point where the question, “Have the Oilers finally found a goalie?” is sounding more and more legit.
“His battle (level),” marvelled defenceman Connor Murphy, who blocked a game-high six shots in front of Ingram. “The way he can survive some scrambly plays when we’re getting a little bit hemmed in… He can find those lateral one-timers and make saves. He’s got to be your best penalty killer, too.
“Some of those one-timers he’s making, and being able to find through the screens and the high tips and stuff, he’s been very good.”
Suddenly the penalty kill is better, a major cog in any playoff run. And every mistake isn’t ending up in the net, which the D-men always like.
“He’s really coming into his own here, coming into a situation (this season) where he doesn’t know anyone and he’s trying to do his thing,” Mattias Ekholm said of Ingram. “He’s getting more comfortable, he’s got more swagger… He seems to be blocking a lot where pucks are hitting him.”
Ingram was fantastic for 60 minutes, then heroic on a Colorado power play in overtime to get the Oilers to a shootout. But he left sour that he couldn’t make a shootout save in a 2-1 loss, as five of six shooters scored goals on the red got Ingram and Scott Wedgewood, the duo that backstopped this 1-1 thriller into extra time.
“You’ve got to find a save somewhere,” said Ingram, who enters Game 82 and playoffs as the no-doubt No. 1 on a team with serious Stanley Cup aspirations. “I can’t tell you what the difference is, but right now it feels good and it’s a good time to get it going a little bit.”
“I don’t really know what I’m doing out there,” he added. “Just stop the puck.”
The goaltending position has been dramatic here in Edmonton, as everyone knows.
Who thought the solution could be a guy who was abandoned by his former franchise (Utah)? Who was coming out of the Players Assistance Program? Who started the year in the American League where he posted a save percentage of .856?
“I’ve played 50 in this league before, so this isn’t new to me,” Ingram said. “This is what you want — you want to play games, you want to be in there, you want to be in the mix. As a goalie it’s exactly what you usually want.”
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With Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman both out of their lineup — conservatively, a duo that’s good for 80 goals per year, or 30 per cent of the annual scoring of 10 NHL teams — Edmonton has finally run out of bullets on offence.
They filled a few nets early with Draisaitl and Hyman out, but these past two games the tap has run dry. The power play, without its two top finishers, has stalled.
Hyman is expected back for the season finale against Vancouver, not Draisaitl, but the one thing we all know about the Oilers is that they will find a way to score goals again.
It’s defence and goaltending that have always been the question marks here, and with the playoffs around the corner, having those two departments in good order is music to the ears in Northern Alberta.
“With the lineup we have, we have to find a way to score goals (now),” said Ekholm. “A little bit of a slump last two games, but as long as we take care of the D side, we’re still in the games. You’ve got to keep building with the playoffs coming. You have to be able to keep the goals against down.”
A 2-1 shootout loss to Colorado on Monday, coupled with regulation wins by Los Angeles and Vegas, leaves anywhere from first to fourth in the Pacific a possibility heading into Game 82 against Vancouver on Thursday night. We’ll see how games involving Anaheim, Vegas and L.A. pan out on Tuesday and Wednesday, but one thing is certain for Edmonton:
No matter what happens, a win over the Canucks on home ice in Game 82 will ensure that Edmonton does not have to take the wild card route through the Central, the one playoff journey nobody in the Pillow Fight Pacific wants to take.
And there are no shootouts in the playoffs, which the Oilers are just fine with.
Edmonton’s last shootout win was Dec. 30, 2023, and they’ve now lost six straight shootouts since.
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