Draisaitl, Oilers take ‘good step’ with complete win against Capitals

WASHINGTON -- The Edmonton Oilers knew they weren’t going to solve all their problems with one game, but they needed to begin somewhere.

So, maybe a complete 5-0 victory against Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena on Friday will be a steppingstone.

“Obviously, one good game for us,” forward Leon Draisaitl said, “but this league is about obviously doing it over and over and over again.”

Edmonton (6-12-1) relies heavily on its stars, and they delivered Friday. Draisaitl had two goals and an assist, Connor McDavid had four assists and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and two assists to help the Oilers salvage the finale of their four-game road trip after they lost to the first three to the Tampa Bay Lightning (6-4) on Saturday, the Florida Panthers (5-3) on Monday and the Carolina Hurricanes (6-3) on Wednesday.

“You need your top players performing if you're going to win on a regular basis,” Edmonton coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Obviously, you want your third and fourth lines chipping in, helping with the offense. They can do it periodically and help you win games, but in the long run you need your top guys going, and they certainly played really well.”

The Oilers also received a rebound game from goalie Stuart Skinner, who made 25 saves in his first shutout of the season. Skinner was pulled after giving up four goals on 12 shots in the opening 14:48 at Carolina on Wednesday.

“Sometimes it’s harder than maybe it looks,” Skinner said of bouncing back after being pulled. “Sometimes you know exactly how you’re going to show up the next day. For this one, it was just being able to rest, kind of throw that one away and just knowing who I am, knowing my game and just sticking to it. I think that was big for me.

“It’s nice after getting pulled in the first few minutes to get a shutout. It really feels good.”

Edmonton thought it was headed in the right direction with three straight wins before it left for this trip, including its first two games under Knoblauch after he replaced Jay Woodcroft as coach Nov. 12. But the Oilers let 2-0 leads slip away to the Lightning and Panthers before falling behind 4-0 against the Hurricanes and could not recover.

So, Knoblauch talked before the game Friday about the importance of putting together a full 60 minutes. That meant not being satisfied after taking another 2-0 lead in the first period with goals 1:14 apart from Evander Kane (14:10) and Nugent-Hopkins (15:24).

“That’s what we talked about in here, just building off of it,” Draisaitl said. “We've played a lot of really good 20-minute hockey games this year, but in this league that's unfortunately not enough. I thought tonight all around was really good.”

Edmonton’s power play, which was 1-for-15 over the previous four games, was 3-for-4 with all three goals coming in the second period. Defenseman Evan Bouchard scored on a point shot at 3:44 to make it 3-0 before Draisaitl scored twice from the right circle, at 4:48 and 18:37, to make it 5-0.

Washington (10-5-2) had allowed one power-play goal (25-for-26) in going 9-1-1 in its previous 11 games, including five straight wins before Friday.

“That was the third time this road trip that we were up 2-0, and we didn’t let up,” Knoblauch said. “We still continued to push hard. I think the Tampa Bay game we had a power play to extend our lead and put them out of the picture, but we were unable to do that. Tonight, we had that two-goal lead and had the power play and we capitalized.

“And after that, it's pretty hard for Washington to get back in it."

The Oilers also killed off all five Capitals power plays after their penalty kill was ranked 25th in the NHL at 74.6 percent to start the day. Washington was limited to six shots on goal on those five power plays, making things easier for Skinner.

Edmonton’s goaltending has been much maligned this season; it entered Friday tied with the Minnesota Wild for 30th in the NHL in allowing 4.00 goals per game. So, getting its first shutout of the season was a boost not only for Skinner, but the entire team.

“Huge props to the guys in front of me,” Skinner said. “I will say on the PK there were some huge blocks, especially in the third period where we’re up 5-0 and we could easily not be in the lane. So, it takes a lot of guys for the guys to get some blocked shots.”

The Oilers return home to face the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday (9 p.m. ET; SN, BSSC, BSSD), beginning a stretch when they play eight of nine at Rogers Place. Edmonton is 3-4-1 at home this season, but the next three weeks provide an opportunity for it to regain a foothold on its season -- if it can take advantage.

The next step would be playing another complete game against the Ducks.

“We’ve got a lot of guys in here that care a lot.” Draisaitl said. “I think sometimes that's a little misunderstood towards the outside, which obviously is unfortunate. We care a lot. We want to win in here. Has there been times or games where it hasn't gone our way as a leadership group? Yeah, of course. Have we been at our best all year? Absolutely not.

“But we have a lot of pride in this room, and tonight was a good step.”