POST-GAME: Flair for the dramatic

EDMONTON, AB - Trailing with 9.6 seconds on the clock in regulation with an offensive-zone draw, the Edmonton Oilers pulled another one out of their locker to continue their affinity for the dramatic and turn a late deficit into a 4-3 overtime victory over the Florida Panthers.
"We're trying to use our eyes and find ways to get wins," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "We did it in dramatic fashion in New York and we did it in dramatic fashion here today against a good Florida Panthers team, a well-coached Florida Panthers team, that gave us everything we could handle."
The Blue & Orange summoned a sensational third-period comeback on Saturday at Madison Square Garden against the New York Rangers and pulled off another incredible reverse of fortune at Rogers Place on Indigenous Celebration Night, beginning with Evan Bouchard equalizing with 4.4 seconds on the clock after some dogged work from the Oilers with the net empty.
"I wish I could tell you that was a set play," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "I mean, that wasn't a set play -- that's our top players making a play at a critical juncture in the game on what we would call our weak side because we didn't have a right-hander out there to take that faceoff.
"But if you go down and look at that play, there's a lot of skilled little things that happened to make that work."

Leon Draisaitl did everything he could to contest the offensive-zone draw in the right circle before the Oilers attackers on the ice that included Connor McDavid and Zach Hyman relentlessly worked to generate a last-ditch opportunity to tie the game in the make-or-break moment
The puck fell to the stick of the captain, who spun around with a desperate pass toward the centre of the offensive zone hoping he'd find a man open. His prayers were answered with the dropping Bouchard poised nicely in between the circles to pick up McDavid's pass and wire his third goal in two games top shelf past the solid Florida netminder Spencer Knight with just 4.4 seconds remaining, sending the home crowd into raptures and forcing overtime.
"Yeah, it was kind of a sloppy draw," McDavid recalled post-game. "Obviously Leo dug in and gave us a chance and I kept it alive. I'm guessing [Bouchard's] over there, and thankfully he was over there."
The last time Edmonton scored an equalizer this late in the game, you have to go all the way back to January 24, 2013 when Nail Yakupov gave us one of the all-time greatest knee slides in Oilers and NHL history.

Bouchard celebrated his tying goal from his knees on Monday evening, just without the slide, after dropping to deliver the one-time feed from McDavid to break Florida hearts, force overtime and continue his stellar two-game scoring stretch.
"Obviously, Bouch doesn't miss from there," McDavid said. "He's obviously playing great right now."
There aren't many things in the NHL that can be considered automatic, but the Dynamic Duo in overtime is certainly one of them.
It was only fitting that public enemy number one Matthew Tkachuk, who held his hand to his ear on the home crowd after making the most of a sloppy play in Edmonton's zone 3:49 into the first period, blew a tire to open an avenue for Darnell Nurse to send numbers 97 and 29 in on the game-winning play.
Nurse provided strong puck protection down low against two pursuing Panthers before the Hamilton, ON product sent a stretch pass 100-feet up the ice for a 2-on-1 between Draisaitl and McDavid, where the Duo connected on one of those automatic game-winners by exchanging passes and having the German whack home his 13th of the season just 22 seconds into extra time.
"Leon does a great job on the draw and snaps it back," McDavid said. "They sent two and Nursey makes a great play. Leo and I like getting 2-on-1s, and obviously, we make them pay."

A thrilling final 31 seconds of regulation and overtime in Monday's victory came at the end of a contest where both the Oilers and Panthers admittedly didn't put their best games forward. Edmonton was coming off a long three-game stay in New York and was missing four of their top nine forwards, while Florida had travelled all the way from the Sunshine State to begin back-to-back games and a four-game road trip without the services of their captain Aleksander Barkov.
"I thought for me, it was a muddy track out there this evening both ways, and we had to find a way to muck through the slop of the game so to speak," Woodcroft said. "But in the end, that game that was just played was worth two points and we felt that if we could turn it up in some areas that those two points could be ours. We went out, we had a great start to that third period, and I thought were pretty good defensively."
The Oilers were steady in their own zone limiting the Panthers, the only team in the NHL to average over 40 shots per game this season, to only 28 shots -- a lot of which came from the neutral zone and the perimeter of Edmonton's own end -- allowing themselves the opportunity to sneak away with a late victory.
With so many regular contributors out of the lineup in Evander Kane, Ryan McLeod, Kailer Yamamoto and Warren Foegele, it required a full team commitment to defending and some important minutes from some depth pieces -- including 9:56 from James Hamblin making his NHL debut and 15:46 from Mattias Janmark, who played a team-high 2:27 on the penalty kill for the Oilers forwards.

Hyman was his regular reliable person, taking the onus upon himself to help carry the load for the Oilers with three assists. Bouchard and Tyson Barrie scored from the back end, while Stuart Skinner made 25 saves on 28 shots to improve to 5-5-0 this season with a .919 save percentage and 2.80 goals-against average.
"I thought that commitment to defending the heart of our D zone helped us get the win tonight, and that is the way we're going to have to play here," Woodcroft said. "We're missing four of our top nine forwards, and I thought the players that went in to take some of those minutes gave us everything they had. They played a great game and they committed to playing the game properly defensively and allowed us to win."
Both Draisaitl and McDavid characterized the collective performance from their team as a not-so-flashy performance, but enough for the Oilers to hold on and ultimately claim an important victory to string together a small but encouraging two-game win streak.

"It was a mature game. We didn't force it," the German said. "We didn't really have our easiness in our game with the puck, but with that being said, I thought we were fairly solid defensively and didn't give up much. So yeah, sometimes you've got to win these games too."
"Yeah, it was kind of a weird one from our group," McDavid added. "I thought were kind of lethargic, but we seemed to kind of hang in there. We always talk about winning with your B- and C-game and I thought for a large part of the night we didn't have our game."
A date with the Chicago Blackhawks in the Windy City on Wednesday comes next for the Oilers before the second of a back-to-back against the Minnesota Wild on Thursday opens up a busy stretch of 15 games In 31 days during the month of December.
"We're learning," Woodcroft said. "We're in the middle of a really busy stretch of the schedule and we're learning a lot of stuff about some of our players."