Oilers blow out Golden Knights with statement win in Vegas

May 7 2023, 2:09 am

When your team is led by Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, life is good. Both Edmonton Oilers superstars scored twice in a 5-1 rout of the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 2.

The series is now tied 1-1. Game 3 takes place in Edmonton on Monday.

Draisaitl in particular is in the midst of having a postseason for the ages. He scored twice in the first period, giving him six goals in just the first four periods of this series.

The German superstar now has 13 goals in eight playoff games. No one scored more than 13 goals in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs last season.

“At this point, nothing surprises me what he does,” Evan Bouchard told reporters postgame. “With what, 13 goals in 8 games? That’s something that not a lot of players can do.”

McDavid made his presence felt as well by scoring two goals of his own in the blowout. He now has five goals in 15 points in eight postseason games.

Bouchard scored the other goal for Edmonton, his third of the postseason.

“The power play is clicking. I think that’s helping my confidence grow with the puck.” Bouchard told reporters postgame.

The trio of Draisaitl, McDavid and Bouchard are absolutely torching opponents on the power play right now.

Edmonton went three for six in the power play in this content.

Unbelievably, that 50% power play success rate actually brought down their postseason average so far.

The Oilers entered the game clicking at an unreal 57.1% on the power play.

After Game 2, Edmonton has now scored 14 power play goals on 25 opportunities in eight games. That means they’ve scored on 56% of their power plays.

No team in NHL history has ever been this lethal with the man advantage.

The NHL record for most successful power play in postseason history (minimum 10 games) is 41.4%. That was set by the Colorado Avalanche during their 10-game postseason run in 2020-21.

The best postseason power play ever by a team that won the Stanley Cup belongs to the New York Islanders. They scored on 37.8% of their power plays back in 1980-81.

In goal, Stuart Skinner bounced back after a mediocre performance in Game 1. He stopped 24 of 25 shots for the victory.

He had a shutout going through two periods as the Oilers held a 5-0 lead through two periods. Ivan Barbashev scored the lone goal for Vegas early in the third period, although the latter half of the game in general was more about the rough stuff than it was about a potential comeback.

Trevor BeggsTrevor Beggs

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