Everyone should have expected a far better effort from the Golden Knights in Game 2 and we definitely saw it. With Pietrangelo back in the lineup the Knights came out swinging. Vegas put Edmonton on the defensive consistently with the Oilers giving their opponent the blueline instead of holding it like they did so effectively in Game 1. For much of the game the Oilers looked like a team that was content to return home 1-1 in the series.

Calvin Pickard and the 4th line however said otherwise and took this team on their back and kept them in the game long enough for McDavid and Draisaitl to finally come alive in OT. Edmonton now has a 2-0 lead, winning both games in Vegas and return home to an ecstatic Oilers crowd.

Let's break down the notable points of that game. High danger chances were 19-14 in favor of the Golden Knights. Vegas was relentless on their forecheck and gave the Oilers everything they could handle and more. We will talk about the scoring in a moment but the first star of this game should have been Calvin Pickard. Pickard finished the night with 28 saves on 32 shots and a 0.875% but this is one of those times where SV% does not tell the whole story. Pickard made a ton of high danger saves, any number of which could have gone in the net. The Oilers regular season backup is currently 6-0 in the playoffs.

The second period in particular tells the story. The Golden Knights had 11 High Danger scoring chances at 5 on 5 in the second period. The Oilers outscored the Golden Knights in the 2nd 3-1 at 5 on 5. Pickard made the big saves while once again Hill allowed some weaker chances.

Draisaitl(2), Brown, Hyman, Perry, Walman, Podkolzin, Nurse, Kane. In two games the Oilers have scored 9 goals and 8 different players doing it. The depth of the Edmonton Oilers continues to be the strongest aspect of their game and the reason the Oilers find themselves up 2-0 heading back to Edmonton. The 4th line in particular was the Oilers best line in Game 2, accounting for the first two goals of the game; Walman scoring the first from Arvidsson and Podkolzin, and Podkolzin scoring the second from Arvidsson and Klingberg.

Podkolzin scoring means that each of the Oilers 12 main forwards has now scored in these playoffs. In 9:27 of ice time in Game 2 he went 1-1-2 and now has 6 points in 8 games. Not bad for a million dollar player averaging less than 10 minutes a game.

The Oilers next two goals were from the Hyman-RNH-Kane trio, the first a failed clearing attempt by the Knights led to RNH getting the puck to a flying Darnell Nurse and the second a greasy goal from Kane by crashing the net. Four goals scored by players not named McDavid or Draisaitl.

Speaking of the dynamic duo... this was easily the worst playoff game of McDavid's career thus far. He was unable to do much with the puck throughout the game, was missing passes, tried to do too much himself, and his offensive zone penalty got the Knights back in the game in the third period. After years of McDavid and Draisaitl carrying the team to victory in the playoffs, this time, it was the rest of the team that carried #97 and #29.

Vegas pressed hard as the third period went on and instead of continuing to play the game that had been so successful for them, the Oilers tried to pull an LA and turtle and try to hold a lead. The third period ended 4-4 with the Golden Knights looking like a team that would not be denied that extra goal.

That continued into overtime as the first 5 minutes were all Vegas as they ran circles around the Oilers in their own zone, firing at will on Pickard with the Oilers netminder absolutely robbing Vegas and bailing his team out. Things started to go in the Oilers favor though after Nicholas Roy took an absolutely baffling penalty. Roy and Frederic were battling for puck possession as the puck flipped into the air and Roy two hand crosschecked Frederic right in the face. Roy was correctly assessed a 5 minute major and game misconduct. Edmonton would have a 5 minute powerplay to score the OT winner...

Instead the Oilers were passive for almost the entire length of the powerplay with only a small handful of legitimate shot attempts. Hill has struggled all series long to make saves and instead of testing him, McDavid and Draisaitl were looking for the perfect play. As the powerplay expired the Oilers had a couple of chances with both McDavid and Hyman ringing it off the crossbar but it felt like the Oilers had one chance to win the game and they blew it.

Instead, in the final couple minutes of the period, Bouchard makes a fantastic defensive play, pushing Stone off the puck and wrapping it around to Corey Perry who quickly dropped it off to a streaking Connor McDavid. The Oilers captain absolutely undressed #9 for Vegas who I am being told is Jack Eichel, before passing it off to Draisaitl who shot the puck in and out so fast it didn't register to me at first that it went in. Off the efforts of the Oilers depth scoring and Calvin Pickard, Edmonton's best two players rewarded their efforts by scoring the game winner.

Nothing else to talk about in this game, thanks for reading.

THE MISSED CALL

Just kidding. Let's make one thing very clear. The refs 100% missed the Arvidsson trip on Hague in OT. Arvidsson and Hague both go into the corner, Arvidsson gets his stick underneath Hague's skates and the Vegas defender goes hard into the boards. That is a penalty every day, Vegas fans are pissed and have every right to be.

Here is the thing though, there is no fix, nothing is rigged and the refs are bad for everyone. You'll notice that I haven't brought up the reffing in any of my game blogs for the playoffs. I could be talking about how the Brown "goaltender interference" call was a joke or bring up past playoff series against the Knights when Ekholm was high-sticked in the face and a 4 minute call should have been given but nothing was, or other series going on like the laughable "embellishment" call on Rodrigue. Refs are bad. For Vegas, who was dramatically the least penalized team in the NHL in the regular season, I understand this is a new concept for them to understand.

The reffing is so erratic that it can't be factored in to how a team plays. At the end of the day, the Vegas Golden Knights couldn't find that one more goal and the Edmonton Oilers did. Now the Edmonton Oilers get to come home and play in front of their fans and have the additional benefits of last line change and all of the pressure being placed on the shoulders of the Golden Knights. Plus the added bonus that you can expect neither McDavid nor Draisaitl will likely play that poorly again.

Thanks for reading.

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