{"id":419922,"date":"2026-01-19T20:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T20:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/419922\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T20:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T20:16:08","slug":"ryan-nugent-hopkins-scores-game-winner-on-his-big-night-connor-ingrams-shutout-and-zach-hyman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/419922\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scores game-winner on his big night, Connor Ingram\u2019s shutout, and Zach Hyman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scores game-winner on his big night, Connor Ingram\u2019s shutout, and Zach Hyman<\/p>\n

After beating the wheels off the Canucks<\/a> on Saturday night, the Edmonton Oilers were back at Rogers Place Sunday to take on the St. Louis Blues in an attempt to finally sweep a back-to-back set. They did exactly that, blanking the Blues 5-0<\/a> in a game that never really felt close once things got going. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins opened the scoring with the game-winner on his 1,000th career game, which somehow made an already dominant night feel even better. Great night at Rogers Place.RYAN NUGENT-HOPKINS\u2019 1000TH GAMEI was lucky enough to be in attendance for last night\u2019s game, and it was pretty damned to sit and watch Ryan Nugent-Hopkins\u2019 1000th game ceremony and the respect he gets from the people in the seats. I found myself eavesdropping on conversations around me, and the consistent message was how amazing it is that RNH is still here after the hell of his first handful of seasons in Edmonton. Whether it was a quick memory about No. 93 or simply being blown away that he looks exactly the same as the day the Oilers<\/a> drafted him, you could tell how much love this city has for the guy. The NUUUUUUUGE<\/a> chants were loud and constant, the video tributes were unreal, and the whole night was a nice moment for everyone in the building to give the guy the love he deserves.Being the first player in franchise history to play 1000 games in an Oilers uniform is an accomplishment that we shouldn\u2019t take lightly. This team has had so many fantastic players come through over the years, but not once has a guy locked into our city to the level that Nugent-Hopkins has. Through thick and thin, RNH has stuck with the Oilers<\/a> and has done so without so much as a peep of complaining, and the result is that he\u2019ll go down as one of the most loved players in franchise history. Of course, it doesn\u2019t hurt that on the night when he was honoured for a major milestone that he opened the scoring with ended up being the game-winning goal. Classic Nuge wrister to the blocker side? Check. Becoming only the 10th player in NHL history to score in his first NHL game and also his 1000th NHL game? Priceless. Here\u2019s to 15 more years, buddy.I\u2019M GETTING EXCITED ABOUT THE GOALTENDINGListen, I\u2019ve admitted to you all that I\u2019ve slowly started to fall in love with Connor Ingram<\/a>, but Sunday\u2019s shutout might have been the tipping point. Even though it was only his ninth start as an Oiler, the guy has looked so calm and composed in the crease that it\u2019s been a breath of fresh air almost every time he plays. Outside of maybe the one tough start against Boston, Ingram has been everything that we could have hoped he\u2019d be and probably more. He\u2019s been solid, he\u2019s been steady, he\u2019s made huge saves on a nightly basis, and he\u2019s doing it all with consistency. That\u2019s such a blessing to have in the crease. And this guy is supposed to be the backup? I think I might cry.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s just because we\u2019ve gotten used to chaos between the pipes over the last few years that Ingram\u2019s poise is making me feel this way, but it really has been wonderful to watch him come in and likely wrestle a job away. And only a day after Tristan Jarry picked up his first shutout as an Oiler, Connor Ingram thought it looked so much fun that he wanted to try it himself. Back-to-back shutouts? In this economy? Crazy. According to our own Jason Gregor, this was only the third time in franchise history that the Oilers have had consecutive shutouts by two different goaltenders. Obviously, Jarry and Ingram handled that this weekend, but before them, you have to go back to Stuart Skinner and Jack Campbell in the spring of 2023, and Jussi Markanen and Tommy Salo way back in December of 2002. There have been a lot of goalie tandems between 2002 and this weekend. I don\u2019t want to get too ahead of myself, but this is the most excited I\u2019ve been about the Oilers\u2019 goaltending in a while.<\/p>\n

ZACH HYMAN SHOULD BE ON TEAM CANADAZach Hyman<\/a> was an absolute menace again on Sunday night, and at this point, it\u2019s honestly getting hard to come up with new ways to describe the goal heater he\u2019s on. In 17:59 of TOI, Hyman put together a casual three-point night (2G, 1A), put four shots on goal, blocked a shot, had a takeaway for good measure, and finished with a +3 rating. The crazy part is that the two goals give Hyman 17 goals in his last 20 games, which is the kind of sentence that felt fake as I was typing it out. The man is on fire. He\u2019s now up to 19 goals<\/a> in 31 games on the season, and it truly makes me laugh that he was somehow able to miss six months with that wrist injury only to come back as if nothing had ever happened. Somehow, the puck just keeps finding his stick like it\u2019s magnetized or something.And honestly, the fact that this guy didn\u2019t get the nod for Team Canada<\/a> at the Olympics is blowing my mind more as the goals go in. I get that these heaters don\u2019t last forever, and I\u2019m not pretending he\u2019s actually going to score 70 this year, but I genuinely don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever seen a run quite like this. This isn\u2019t just lucky bounces or cookie time bonuses. These are hard goals, greasy goals, playoff-style goals, scored next to the best player on the planet because Hyman knows exactly where to be and when to be there. The chemistry is significant, the production is stupid, and every night we\u2019re watching something special unfold in real time. If this is what being \u201cleft off the Canadian roster\u201d mad gets us, then I kinda hope they keep pissing him off. I love this man.PRESENTED BY SOUTHVIEW ACURA\"\"<\/p>\n

At Southview Acura, luxury isn\u2019t just what you drive, it\u2019s how you\u2019re treated. Family owned and operated, we\u2019re proud to offer an exceptional selection of new and certified pre-owned Acuras, backed by a service experience built on trust and precision. Whether it\u2019s your first visit or your next, our team is committed to excellence every step of the way. Visit Southview Acura today, where luxury meets reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scores game-winner on his big night, Connor Ingram\u2019s shutout, and Zach Hyman After beating the wheels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-419922","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419922","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419922"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419922\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419922"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419922"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419922"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}