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EDMONTON, AB – Hold this 'L' for us, would you?

The Edmonton Oilers earned retribution against the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night by defeating their Pacific Division rivals 6-2 at Rogers Place, exacting revenge for their captain Connor McDavid and getting payback for their defeat on the West Coast this past weekend.

"A big team win," Zach Hyman said. "With Connor out, everybody needed to step up, and I thought it was a good four-line performance. All the D contributed, and then Picks played great, so it was a good team win. Coming off two losses, you want to nip it in the bud I thought we did a really good job."

Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman had big nights, posting three points apiece in the victory and helping the Blue & Orange jump out to a 3-0 lead in the opening frame with goals along with forward Adam Henrique's seventh goal of the campaign.

Draisaitl had a goal and two assists, extending his NHL lead for goals with his 35th of the season while pulling to within one point of Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon for the League lead with 74 points in 48 games.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored one of Edmonton's two power-play goals on four opportunities on Thursday to go along with an assist before winger Kasperi Kapanen rounded out his team's performance with his sixth goal of the season during the third period.

Centre Noah Philp recorded his second career NHL assist as one of 11 different Oilers who found the scoresheet, while goaltender Calvin Pickard held down the Oilers crease with 24 saves to earn his 12th victory of the campaign.

"It was a great game from us," said Corey Perry, who had a vintage performance with an assist and getting under the skin of the Canucks. "We found a way to put the puck in the back of the net tonight and capitalize on our chances."

The Oilers continue their season-high six-game homestand at Rogers Place on Saturday with a matinée matchup against the Buffalo Sabres.

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      The Oilers return to the win column with a 6-2 victory vs. Vancouver

      FIRST PERIOD

      The Oilers didn't hold back.

      "I thought we were dialled in the right from the start," Perry said. "It was all business for us. Two points were at stake, and I thought coming out and getting those early goals really set the table for the rest of the game."

      After being tagged for three goals in the opening frame on Saturday during their previous meeting, the Oilers exacted revenge with a clinical first period that saw them take a 3-0 lead into the first intermission – starting with an unbelievable backhand feed from Leon Draisaitl to find Zach Hyman at the Vancouver bench from below the goal line.

      Public enemy No. 1 Conor Garland got shaken down by Darnell Nurse in the corner, popping the puck loose for Draisaitl to pick it up and avoid the pursuit of two Canucks before tossing a world-class feed 150 feet to Hyman at the far blue line.

      Playing his first game without the bubble face shield that he wore for almost six weeks (16 games), Hyman took it on the first bounce off the boards and leaned in against defenceman Filip Hronek, cutting to the inside and shovelling his 16th goal of the season five-hole on Thatcher Demko for the 1-0 lead just under six minutes into Thursday's contest.

      "It was more natural and easier to breathe, and when you look down, you can see the puck and there's not a barrier there," Hyman said of shedding the bubble. "So that helps for a split second or whatever it is, and it's been a long time."

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          Hyman cuts in & finishes off Draisaitl's beautiful stretch pass

          After Calvin Pickard made a terrific pad stop to deny Brock Boeser on a rebound near the period's midway mark, the Oilers were back on the offensive when former Oilers defenceman Vincent Desharnais was in the box for cross-checking to award his old team their second power play.

          Edmonton went 0-for-3 on Tuesday against the Washingon Capitals with captain Connor McDavid out of the lineup serving the first of his three-game suspension, and after failing to generate much on their first look on the man advantage, the Oilers needed all 1:59 of their second power play to make this one count.

          Ryan Nugent-Hopkins cradled the puck as he came around the Canucks' net before firing a perfect pass to Draisaitl in the right circle that the League's leading scorer deposited under the glove of Demko for his 35th goal of the season with one second remaining in Desharnais' minor penalty.

          Draisaitl extended his point streak to eight games while he now has multiple points in each of his last four contests, pulling him even closer to Colorado's Nathan MacKinnon for the league lead in points to go along with his NHL-best total for goals.

          "I'm happy with all our players," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "I thought they played a really good game, and anytime there was a breakdown, Picks came up with some big saves. But you look at the lines, Leon's has three points tonight. Rico's line spent a lot of time in the offensive zone. Hyman gets two goals, and then the fourth line, Philp sets up one goal and Kappy gets the one at the end. I thought everyone was contributing."

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              Draisaitl deposits his 35th goal right as the power play expires

              Celebrations inside Rogers Place hadn't finished dying down before Adam Henrique found twice just 20 seconds later to complete the scoring in a response period from the Blue & Orange for Saturday night's defeat started out in Vancouver.

              Defenceman Mattias Ekholm picked up a pass from Corey Perry along the boards and threw it behind the Canucks' net to Henrique, who quickly barged into the crease and beat Demko five-hole to grow the Oilers lead to 3-0 before the intermission.

              Perry has points in back-to-back games (1G, 1A) and continues to star in a depth role for the Oilers, along with being the same pest he's always been for opponents.

              "I played a playoff series against him when he was in Montreal. He was always tough to play against," Hyman said. "He wants to win just about as much as anybody in the League. That's why he's had so much playoff success and just elevates his game and scores. He scores big goals at opportune times and like I said, his game translates well to the playoffs. He's in front of the net, scoring in the hard areas, and he's been doing it for more than more years than anybody."

              Henrique posted his first regular-season goal against the Canucks with the Oilers and his first against their Pacific Division rivals since Feb. 19, 2022 when he was a member of the Anaheim Ducks. The tally was also the 34-year-old's 10th career goal versus Vancouver.

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                  Henrique makes it 3-0 just 20 seconds after Draisaitl's marker

                  SECOND PERIOD

                  Just 1:59 into the middle frame, Hyman deflected home his second goal of the game off a terrific feed from centre Noah Philp following a giveaway by the Canucks in their own zone, awarding the 26-year-old from Canmore his second career NHL assist.

                  "They were great tonight," Draisaitl said of Edmonton's third and fourth lines. "Obviously, you need guys to score and you need that secondary scoring. It seems like whenever we're looking for it a little bit and searching for it, guys step up and obviously, that's what makes a good team."

                  Philp’s only other career point came earlier this season on Halloween against the Nashville Predators, and with Hyman's two goals to go along with an assist on Thursday, the winger passed Taylor Hall for 18th on Edmonton's all-time goalscoring list.

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                      Hyman deflects in Philp's pass for his second goal on Thursday

                      "It was awesome," Hyman said of Philp's pass. "He's a great player. He gets up the ice really well, and it was a great heads-up play to find me there and not just shoot it."

                      "When you're early on in your career, every little play and point means a ton, so I thought it was a great play by him."

                      Almost half a period later, Desharnais was in the penalty box for the third time when his interference on former Canucks winger Vasily Podkolzin resulted in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins sniping Edmonton's second with the man advantage at the end of a nice exchange with Draisaitl and Bouchard, lifting his side to a sizeable 5-0 lead on his 13th goal of the season.

                      The Oilers were 2-for-4 with the power play and are 25-for-156 (16.0 percent) on the man advantage when McDavid isn't playing.

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                          Nugent-Hopkins snipes Edmonton's fifth goal on the power play

                          The Oilers were reminded that even a five-goal lead isn't safe after the Canucks struck twice in a 2:39 span to make it 5-2 before the intermission.

                          Brock Boeser scored his first goal in Edmonton since May 6, 2021 when he beat Pickard glove side from the left circle off the rush before defenceman Filip Hronek wired a slap-shot from the blue line that went in off the post to draw the Canucks within three with 4:54 left in the second period.

                          Vancouver had another point shot before the break that hit the crossbar, along with Hyman having a great look at his hat-trick set up by a nice pass from Henrique foiled by a quick glove save by Demko, who faced 27 shots from the Oilers through 40 minutes of play on Thursday.

                          After both teams exited to the dressing rooms, Corey Perry and J.T. Miller had a long discussion with one another before both forwards vacated the playing surface, setting up a concluding period that was poised for a fiery finish.

                          "I was just playing hockey," Perry said of his vintage performance on Thursday. "That's all I was doing out there... I just asked him what he had for dinner and how everything was going, so that was it."

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                              Leon talks after recording a goal & two assists on Thursday

                              THIRD PERIOD

                              The referees were having none of Vancouver's antics in the final frame, and neither were the Oilers, who showed their veteran poise to close out the Canucks and claim revenge for Saturday's loss on the West Coast.

                              "If you're the team with the lead, you want to stay away from that and I thought we handled it really well," Draisaitl said.

                              Following the conversation between Perry and Miller prior to the intermission, it was Teddy Blueger who evened up what would've been a Vancouver power play by going after Perry and dropping his gloves, but the veteran wasn't about to get goated into a tussle with someone he didn't want to fight.

                              "That started in the second period," Knoblauch said. : There's a lot of talk. In fact, I heard it after the second period when I was walking off, and there was yelling at Corey about fighting. Maybe some conversation that I can't talk about right now just based on word use. But obviously, they were looking for him and he got under their skin. They were looking for a fight."

                              The Oilers preached picking their spots pre-game, and the 39-year-old's textbook display of not getting caught up in the moment and squareing up play at four-on-four served as a big moment in the match.

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                                  Corey speaks after a 6-2 victory over the Canucks on Thursday

                                  "There's time and a place, and I felt the time and the place wasn't right now," Perry said. "They had 12 guys coming after me on one shift there, it felt like, but it's part of the game and it is what it is."

                                  Draisaitl commended Perry's game management as some of the best in the League.

                                  "He knows when to do what at the right time, and he does it better than anybody out there," Draisaitl said. "So that's just a mature, really smart hockey play. I know it has nothing to do with hockey, but it's a hockey play."

                                  Defenceman Mark Friedman earned a 10-minute misconduct a few minutes later for going back at Perry, but the officials were quick to manage the game by sending him to the box. Mattias Janmark and Carson Soucy would find themselves taking coincidental minors for roughing less than a minute later off an icing.

                                  With still over a period of hockey to play, there was still time for the Oilers to add to their lead through forward Kasperi Kapanen, who broke up the right side off a clearance made by defenceman Ty Emberson before the Kuopio, FIN product buried his own rebound to make it 6-2 with 9:39 left in regulation.

                                  Edmonton's big win on Thursday night snapped a three-game losing streak to the Canucks on home ice, serving as a big two points in the Pacific Division standings and retribution for losing their captain to suspension on Saturday night.

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                                      Kapanen closes out a 6-2 win for the Oilers in the third period