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Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. 9. His electric passing helped drive this win. One goal and four assists. He whiffed on a pass/clearance, part of the ugly on the first Vegas goal. But he pounced on a misplayed puck, this one in the Vegas end, and fired home a shot over Quick’s glove, going top shelf where Momma keeps the cookies, as the legendary Edmonton skills coach Jim Fleming likes to say. Revved it up again with a gorgeous diagonal dart to feed McD, who relayed it to Draisaitl for Edmonton’s third goal. He made a swell stretch pass on Edmonton’s fourth goal and another fine pass down low to McDavid on Edmonton’s sixth. GAS: +2, -1.
Nick Bjugstad, 6. He put an outside wrister off the post in the first. He charged the net and drew a penalty late in the second. GAS: 0, 0.
Mattias Janmark, 6. He did some good work ragging the puck on a late second period Vegas PK. GAS: 0, 0.
Derek Ryan, 7. Made a sharp, short break-out pass to kick off the Virtuous Cycle leading to Nurse’s goal. He tipped a Nurse shot on net in the second. GAS: +2, 0.
Klim Kostin, 6. He snapped a Grade A shot on net early in the second. Solid when given a chance but got beat on for a 5-alarm shot by a Pietrangelo deke in the third. Was in on the garbage time mess of the fourth Vegas goal, playing some matador defence in the n-zone. He rocked Nicolas Hague after Hague tried to rock McD, so plus one for that. GAS: +1, -3.
Darnell Nurse, 8. He was all over this game in a good way. All kinds of solid plays on the attack especially. He charged into the Vegas zone in the first and got off a hard high slot shot. He allowed Chandler Stephenson to sneak in behind him for a 5-alarm power play shot late in the first. He pounded in an outside shot through a Vegas screen, making him the 12th Oiler to have 10 goals this year. GAS: +4, 0.
Brett Kulak, 7. Solid game. Took a tripping penalty early in the third, the jumped out of the box to gobble up the puck, streak in and rip an outside wrister off the post and past Laurent Brossoit. One of the culprits on the final meaningless Vegas goal. GAS: 1, -2.
Stuart Skinner, 5. He got beat on the first Vegas goal, giving us all those lovely “Here we go again” feels. He got beat again on a short-handed breakaway. Not his fault but a save on a breakaway would have been nice, considering goalies are expected to stop two out of three of them. Finally came up with a huge save, thwarting Stephenson late in the first. He was slow to cover a puck that popped into his crease and Amadio popped it in the net on the third Vegas goal. He got saved by the post late in the second but that’s hockey! He thwarted Roy on a jam shot in Edmonton’s blue house early in the third, then later thwarted Pietrangelo with a nifty poke check save.
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