POST-GAME: Foegele, McLeod & Janmark making up a confident, trustworthy third line

EDMONTON, AB – Since its assembly before the start of Edmonton’s five-game win streak, the Oilers third line of Mattias Janmark, Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele has been a trusted trio by Head Coach Kris Knoblauch and his coaching staff that’s followed through on that responsibility.

It’s a level of belief in the unit that’s been built through hard work in practice, and their attention to detail and individual confidence awarded them the opening faceoff on Wednesday where they set the tone with an early goal as part of a resounding 6-1 victory over the Carolina Hurricanes – the Blue & Orange's fifth win in a row and the first game of a six-game homestand at Rogers Place.

“A couple of things I was thinking about was one – they were outstanding in practice,” Knoblauch said of rewarding the line with the opening shift. “They worked really hard and they looked really good, so that allows me to give them confidence and the start... I think they earned my trust just with the way they've been playing and certainly, what they did in practice the week before.”

As the Oilers worked their way up the ice on their first breakout, Janmark took a hit at the blueline to negate an icing as Warren Foegele pursued the puck on the forecheck.

The left-shot winger, who plays his off-wing on the right alongside Janmark and McLeod, took the puck away from Canes' defenceman Jaccob Slavin and fired it in front to his centreman, who went five-hole on Pyotr Kochetkov to open the scoring just 28 seconds into regulation.

After that initial burst of energy from the third line, the next men up were able to build on that momentum and add another goal 13 seconds later to increase the lead to 2-0 before the opening minute had expired after Mattias Ekholm delivered Connor McDavid’s cross-crease feed at the back door into the back of Carolina's net.

Zach Hyman, the hat-trick hero on Wednesday, had nothing but praise to give for the line that helped set the tone from the opening puck drop.

“Yeah, I thought McLeod's line started the game off with a statement and I thought they were amazing the whole game,” he said. “So that really gets the team going from the first shift, and then obviously, we followed it up with another one and you're up 2-0 before you blink.”

“I think there's obviously individual confidence. I think there's team confidence and things that you can kind of build off of both, and the team's doing well. It gives you time to find your game and I thought those guys were fantastic. 

“The whole line was unbelievable tonight and like I said, set the tone from the start of the game and they chipped in throughout the whole game.”

Foegele brings a heavy and quick game to the right wing on the line, and Knoblauch said his ability to play his off-wing as a left-hander was a critical element to that unit's construction along with his play style that plays very well into its hard fore-checking elements.

Janmark was a highly-regarded player by the coaching staff upon Knoblauch’s arrival in Oil Country as head coach, so when the Swede brought his trusted presence to the line with McLeod and Foegele, their line really began to take off.

“Super smart player,” Foegele said of Janmark. “I don't think he gets enough credit here. His details, they're sharp, so you definitely notice that.”

The 30-year-old has recorded all five of his points this season in the last three games, including his first career three-assist night in Wednesday’s win over Carolina. Janmark dived in front of Jesperi Kotkaniemi’s slap shot in the second period to make the block that led to Foegele burning the Finnish forward in the neutral zone and picking up his break-away tally, including Janmark's third assist.

“That's just a good play,” Janmark said. “It's a play you try to make every game no matter whether you're scoring or not, and the fact that it ends up as an apple is a plus. But yeah, you just try to play the same way every night and then some nights I can probably play this game 100 times over and I wouldn't have three points on the night. But you’ve got to play the same way no matter what.”