COLUMBUS, Ohio — Now that the anticipated trade between the Blue Jackets and Boston has fallen by the wayside, the Edmonton Oilers are among the clubs expected to be in the running for Columbus defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov.
Edmonton GM Ken Holland was in Nationwide Arena on Saturday to watch his Oilers play the Blue Jackets, and his club’s performance was nothing short of a cry for help.
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The Oilers have the greatest player on Earth. Connor McDavid stamped that fact for the 100th time with a two-goal, two-assist performance including an incredible short-handed goal that had even Blue Jackets’ fans applauding.
But the Oilers have major issues defensively and major issues with their goaltending. The Blue Jackets took a 4-0 lead, blew the four-goal lead in a 10-minute span of the second period, then scored twice in the third to win 6-5 before 19,004 in Nationwide.
Jack Roslovic awakened from his latest goal-scoring slumber to score both third-period goals and finished with 2-2-4 in the game. Rookie Kirill Marchenko also had two goals, while Patrik Laine and Boone Jenner scored goals and had multi-point games.
It’s rare to praise a goalie after allowing five goals, but Jackets netminder Joonas Korpisalo had 42 saves, stopping 22 of 23 shots in the third period.
“Probably for the fans it was fun,” Laine said. “I’m sure the coaching staff’s not loving that game.”
Laine meant his own coaching staff, but imagine how the Oilers’ bench boss (Jay Woodcroft) must feel.
The Blue Jackets came into the game ranked 30th in the NHL at just 2.5 goals per game. They had just been shut out 2-0 by Minnesota on Thursday, and they’d scored more than four goals only once since Dec. 13.
But the Blue Jackets found plenty of open ice against the Oilers and paid little price for lugging the puck inside on starting goaltender Jack Campbell.
Marchenko made it 1-0 only 1:14 in the game, but it was a three-goal flurry by Jenner, Marchenko and Laine in the first 5:56 of the second that pushed the lead to 4-0. Laine’s goal was the final straw for Woodcroft, who pulled starter Campbell in favor of Stuart Skinner.
Against most NHL clubs, a four-goal lead would feel pretty safe. But nobody else has McDavid on the roster.
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Edmonton made it 4-1 on a Warren Foegele goal. McDavid had the primary assist on Leon Draisaitl’s 4-2 goal before scoring two goals of his own in a span of 1:51. All tolled, the Oilers had scored four goals in a span of 8:02 to tie the score at four.
“They’ve got the best player in the world,” Laine said. “He can make stuff happen. We had a couple of mistakes (in the second period) here and there, so we needed to regroup. We treated the game after the second like it was 0-0.”
A masterclass from McDavid 🤯 pic.twitter.com/tXb74QvD2R
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) February 25, 2023
The McDavid highlight was a short-handed goal at 12:51 to make it 4-3. The Blue Jackets had two guys back — defenseman Adam Boqvist and forward Johnny Gaudreau — when McDavid gathered the puck in his own zone and took off.
He avoided a series of pokechecks by Boqvist and Gaudreau, never breaking stride. He skated wide of Boqvist, then downshifted and powered his way around Gaudreau for a clean look at Korpisalo, scoring from in tight.
Asked if he felt comfortable with his defensive alignment when McDavid first took off down the ice, Brad Larsen didn’t hesitate.
“Never,” he said. “Nope. Not when he gets it and not when you have a forward (Gaudreau) back there.
“You’re on the high half-wall when he pulls it out. The thing with him is, he gets (up) to speed so fast. So fast. It’s another level where he’s at right now. When you have a forward back there defending it’s a little terrifying, but with him, it’s a different level of terrified-ness. He’s almost at 50 goals (48) already, which is scary.”
This has been the issue in Edmonton for a few years. With McDavid and Draisaitl, the Oilers have the best 1-2 offensive punch in the NHL. But they are in the bottom third for goals allowed, giving up 3.28 per game.
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As of Saturday, only two clubs in a playoff spot have allowed more goals per game: Los Angeles (3.33) and Buffalo (3.47).
Edmonton had seven defensemen in its lineup Saturday, including a third pair of Philip Broberg and Evan Bouchard, with Vincent Desharnais as the No. 7.
And then there’s the Edmonton goaltending. Campbell was pulled from a start for the third time this season. He has an .884 save percentage.
Roslovic gave the Blue Jackets a 5-4 lead when he scored at 9:01 of the third period off a long rebound from a Laine shot. He made it 6-4 at 14:56 when he was sprung by a pass in the neutral zone and beat Skinner off the rush from the left circle.
They were Roslovic’s first goals since Jan. 19.
It was hard to watch Saturday’s game without realizing that the Blue Jackets, maybe more than any other club known to be in “sell mode,” could fill the Oilers’ needs by the March 3 trade deadline.
But the dance goes on.
Gavrikov was a healthy scratch for the sixth consecutive game Saturday. Holland has a standing rule of (rarely) trading first-round picks for rental players, and Gavrikov — a pending unrestricted free agent this summer — is exactly that.
The deal that the Blue Jackets had in the works with Boston did not include Korpisalo, but maybe his inclusion in a deal with Gavrikov would convince Holland to give up a first-round pick (along with other prospects and picks).
The Blue Jackets would probably need to take Oilers forward Jesse Puljujarvi, the No. 4 pick in 2016, who has fallen out of favor. Puljujarvi, who makes $3 million, played just 7:31 on Saturday and is a restricted free agent this summer.
The trade deadline is Friday at 3 p.m. ET.
(Photo: Russell LaBounty / USA Today)
