GAME RECAP: Oilers 8, Coyotes 2

EDMONTON, AB - Runnin' the desert dogs right out of Rogers Place.
The Edmonton Oilers exploded for eight goals against the Arizona Coyotes on Wednesday night, receiving two goals and two assists from Connor McDavid and six other multi-point efforts in a decisive 8-2 victory to get the Blue & Orange back to winning ways in the third game of a four-game homestand.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins surpassed his 2021-22 goalscoring total in only 27 games, adding an assist and scoring twice to reach 13 goals on the campaign, while Derek Ryan, Klim Kostin and Leon Draisaitl each posted a goal and assist in the victory that improves Edmonton's record to 15-12-0.
"We knew that they're a work-based team and we needed to have the mentality of just trying to outwork them early," Nugent-Hopkins said. "I thought we did a pretty good job of that and just kind of built on it."
Brett Kulak scored his second goal in as many games as one of 12 Oilers to get on the scoresheet on Wednesday, while Stuart Skinner made 16 saves in his third straight start to secure his eighth win of the season.
"I think first of all, we wanted to have a good rebound off the last game, so I think that's kind of the mindset coming in," Nugent-Hopkins added. "I think everybody was involved. Everybody was involved offensively. I thought were pretty solid defensively for the most part, and when we weren't, Stu was there to back it up."
The Oilers wrap up their four-game homestand against the Minnesota Wild on Friday night before beggining a back-to-back road trip with a rematch against the Wild on Monday at Xcel Energy Center.

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NUGE ON THE LOOSE

There's been plenty of magic off the stick of Nugent-Hopkins this season. Almost twice as much if you think about it.
It took Nugent-Hopkins just 27 games this campaign to surpass his 2021-22 total of 11 that he amassed over 63 games after opening the score on the power play 4:37 into the hockey game.
The puck arrived on the stick of Nugent-Hopkins as he rounded the left circle in Arizona's end before number 93 shot one through traffic and the legs of Zach Hyman to beat Coyotes goaltender Connor Ingram far side for the 1-0 Edmonton lead.
After the Coyotes made it a one-goal game, Nugent-Hopkins would get a second goal during the middle frame just 23 seconds later when Kailer Yamamoto broke up an attempted pass in the Arizona zone and pushed it to Nugent-Hopkins, who beat Ingram clean low blocker to restore the two-goal lead. With his 209th career goal, Nugent-Hopkins tied Paul Coffey for the eighth-most goals in Oilers franchise history.
After setting a career-high for goals (28) and assists (41) during the 2018-19 season, Nugent-Hopkins is currently on pace to beat those numbers and break the 30-goal, 70-point plateau for the first time in his career.

RYAN RUNS THROUGH

From one Ryan to another, it was Derek Ryan lifting the Oilers to their first two-goal lead of the game by using speed and strength to win a puck battle before pulling a tidy deke on the Coyotes netminder.
Devin Shore flipped the puck over Arizona's defencemen, with Ryan in pursuit of the play and outmuscling Juuso Valimaki to a bouncing puck. After then lifting the stick of rookie scoring leader Matias Maccelli, Ryan dangled the netminder in tight and put a backhand around the sliding right pad of Ingram for his third goal of the season and first since scoring back-to-back goals against the Nashville Predators and New Jersey Devils at the start of November.

Ryan added an assist on Klim Kostin's third-period tally for his first multi-point game of the season along with the Russian, who's beginning to settle into bottom-six role for the Oilers with his first goal in front of the home fans and a Gordie Howe hat-trick tonight after fighting former Oilers forward Zack Kassian in the last minute of regulation.
"Yeah, I was waiting for this moment for a lot of time, so it's an insane feeling," Kostin said. "I can't explain with my words to score in front of our fans. It's just an amazing feeling."
"I'm not looking for a fight. I just want to play hockey, I just want to enjoy the hockey, but if a fight's coming, I'm not going away."

MARVELLOUS MCDAVID

With two more goals and two more assists tonight, McDavid became not only the first player in the League to eclipse 50 points this season in emphatic fashion, needing only 27 games, but the first player in Oilers history since Wayne Gretzky in 1987-88 to record 50 points through 27 games of a season.
Additionally, another three-point game for McDavid marked the 92nd time in his career he'd recorded three points or more, which ties Glenn Anderson for fourth most in Oilers history.
The captain recorded the secondary helper on the opening power-play goal from Nugent-Hopkins before battling his way to a shot attempt on another man advantage, quickly reacting to a loose puck beneath a Coyotes penalty-killer and passing off to Draisaitl for the German to one-time home his 18th of the campaign into the top-left corner from his usual spot in the right circle.

The Dynamic Duo connected again in the third period, with McDavid wrapping around Draisaitl's cross-ice pass, before his one-timer off a pass from Zach Hyman behind the net barely trickled over the line for his 23rd goal in 27 games -- another sublime career-high for the captain.
The last time we saw a player in the NHL record 22 goals and 26 assists in the first 26 games of the season, you have to go back to 1995-96 when the pair of Jaromir Jagr and Mario Lemieux accomplished the feat together.

CERTIFIED KULAK HEATER

Look out, Kulak is on a certified 'heater'.
The Stony Plain product notched his second goal in as many games on Wednesday night with an unstoppable wrister to the top-left corner on Ingram with 1:21 remaining in the second period, giving the Oilers a comfortable 5-1 lead through 40 minutes.
It was more offence generated on the night be Edmonton's depth scoring consisting of names that aren't McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins or Hyman. Thanks to multi-point efforts from Kostin, Ryan, Barrie and Yamamoto, along with four other players to get on the scoresheet outside of the big four for the Oilers, their depth scoring combined for 12 points (3G, 9A).
"Obviously we don't get a ton of the opportunities that other guys do, so we need to make a difference in the game in other ways that don't show up on the scoresheet," Ryan said. "So obviously it's nice to score. It's nice to see some go in, but I don't think it's pressure on us to score every night. We have the high-powered offense like I said, and scoring goals is not a problem for our group. It's keeping them out of our net."

PARTING WORDS

Ryan on the importance of a complete effort tonight in response to Monday's loss:
"I think it's important for us to come out and have a full 60. I thought we played a full 60 minutes, especially that third period there. We were up a little bit going into it, but it was a professional period where we didn't let our feet off the gas. We just kind of stepped on it and kept playing. We knew they were going to take chances. We'd get our own chances if we played the right way, and I think that's what happened."
Ryan on his enjoyment playing with Klim Kostin:
"For me personally, I love playing with him. He plays hard, he plays the right way," Ryan said of his linemate. "He holds on to pucks in the offensive zone, neutral zone, and he makes good plays. Obviously, Shoresy and I are pretty direct, straight-line players, and it's nice to add some size, grit and puck protection from him as well, so I love playing with him."

Coach Woodcroft on what he likes in the Kostin-Shore-Ryan line:
"Well, I think Klim is a big body. He's a good forechecker. When he plays to a certain formula, I think he's very effective, and I think simplicity is his formula for success -- being physical, being straight ahead, straight line. He's been a good addition to our team I think, and so credit to him since he's come in. I think Derek Ryan is intelligent. He's above pucks, he knows how to play the game properly and he's a right-handed face-off option. Shore is someone who I think also has a good hockey IQ. He understands how we have to play. They've been pretty solid defensively, and I think they complement each other. They have a form of chemistry, and that's why we wanted to keep them together today."
Coach Woodcroft on each line needing an identity:
"Sure. Yeah, I think so. I think for players to have a foundation to go to, it's important because you're not going to have games like this every night and it's important not to just measure a successful game on whether or not you had six shots on net or whether or not you got on the scoreboard. I think there's other ways to help a team win, and for the coaching staff, it's important to clarify that. It's important to celebrate some of the small, little and subtle things that go into winning, and we're trying to do that."