After being down 3-0 with 5 minutes left, I imagine there were a number of fans who left Rogers Place in order to beat the traffic and get home. Unfortunate for those who left because the Edmonton Oilers decided to show up in the last 2 minutes and nearly made for an exciting comeback. Zack Kassian broke away in the final minute of the game with a shot that could have tied the game up. Sadly Edmonton walked away from Rogers without a single point.
While the score was much closer than the last time these two teams met, Toronto still controlled play for most of the game.
OILERS
RNH-McDavid-Kassian Gagner-Draisaitl-Chiasson Lucic-Cave-Currie Rieder-Khaira-Brodziak
Klefbom – Larsson Nurse – Russell Sekera – Benning
Koskinen
RANGERS
Namestikov-Zibanejad-Chytil Kreider-Strome-Fast Lemieux-Howden-Buchnevich Vesey-Andersson-Nieves
Shattenkirk-Skjei Smith-DeAngelo Hajek-Pionk
Lunqvist
4 KEYS TO VICTORY
1) No Offense Strome. The Oilers traded Ryan Strome at a time where he has anchored between Milan Lucic who surpressed every other forward offensively, and Caggiula. Strome became Spooner, who eventually became Sam Gagner. Strome is now slotted up as the Rangers second line centre and has 12 points in his last 14 games.
2) The Point Streak Survives. It looked as though Leon Draisaitl's 12 game point streak was going to come to a close, but he assisted on both of the late goals against Toronto. Leon now has 20 points in his last 13 games. He will be looking to add to that tonight and hopefully come closer to the 50 goal mark.
3) Koskinen Returns. The Oilers received solid goaltending from Anthony Stolarz against a potent Toronto team. Tonight it seems likely that Koskinen will be back from his illness between the pipes. With only one more set of back to back games this season for Edmonton, it will be interesting to see how many more times we see Stolarz.
4) Not Great At Home. Edmonton is one of four teams that has a losing record at home. Edmonton is 15-16-2 at Rogers Place this season. It should go without saying that if you have a losing record at home, you probably aren't a playoff team. LA, Ottawa, and Detroit are the other teams who have losing home records...not a great group to be in.