{"id":524147,"date":"2026-03-09T08:03:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/524147\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T08:03:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T08:03:11","slug":"oilers-win-a-good-example-of-what-well-executed-defence-can-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/524147\/","title":{"rendered":"Oilers’ win ‘a good example’ of what well-executed defence can do"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS \u2014\u00a0We\u2019re the writer, and Connor Ingram<\/a> is the goalie.<\/p>\n

But I don\u2019t think I could put it any better than he did, after the Oilers played their best defensive game in a long while in a 4-2 road win at Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we did everything we’ve been talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmonton gave up two goals \u2014\u00a0a carom off of Darnell Nurse that left Ingram no chance, and a one-off giveaway on a late power play that is, at worst, easily corrected. The rest of the night, they employed a relatively new defensive posture, and used that age-old hockey tonic \u2014\u00a0honest, hard work \u2014\u00a0to limit Vegas to just 26 shots.<\/p>\n

A win in this building, against those Golden Knights\u2026 Certainly, this could be something to build on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think it was,\u201d defenceman Mattias Ekholm said. \u201cI thought we played a really well-executed defensive game tonight. (Ingram) was good in net for sure, but I think he saw most of the pucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re never going to be perfect, but if we can keep it to one or two (goals against) like tonight, I love our chances. One thing I know about this team: it doesn’t take a lot to get hot or turn things around, so that\u2019s exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

On a night where the Anaheim Ducks dropped a 4-0 decision to St. Louis, the Oilers won in regulation to turn the screw on the top of the Pacific. It was the perfect night to be near perfect, beating an old rival in their own barn.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur division is maybe not the best, but it’s so tight now,\u201d said Ekholm, whose Oilers are two points back of Vegas and three back of Anaheim, with 18 games left to play. \u201cThere are so many teams right there \u2014\u00a0young teams that want to get in for the first time in a while, and some veteran teams that are expected to be there, that maybe are underperforming.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo every game counts here. Good start to this road trip.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another sign of things perhaps starting to turn for Edmonton came on what turned out to be the game-winning goal. It was a series of good breaks for Edmonton \u2014\u00a0and bad ones for Vegas \u2014\u00a0that started when Rasmus Andersson had an easy outlet pass, but lost the puck when his stick snapped in two.<\/p>\n

Evan Bouchard collected that puck, the Oilers muffed their chance, and Jack Eichel collected the puck with free ice to carry it out of the zone. Well, that was the plan anyhow.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, Eichel lost the puck in the remnants of Andersson\u2019s busted twig. Connor McDavid collected the loose puck and quickly fed Leon Draisaitl, who deftly deposited his 34th of the season for a 3-1 lead that would stand up to the buzzer.<\/p>\n

It was crazy, Hockey Gods stuff, leaving the Oilers feeling blessed, the Golden Knights cursed.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou look back in the last four or five games, one goal today (off of Nurse). How many go in off our own guys?\u201d asked Ingram, as thoughtful a goalie as we\u2019ve come across. \u201cI was talking to (Tristan Jarry) after last game. I said, \u2018It\u2019ll break eventually. This string of sh—y bounces and bad luck is going to snap eventually.\u2019 Maybe today was that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ingram made one mistake, a leaky goal on a bad-angle wrist shot that would have tied the game at 1-1. But the Oilers won an offside review, and that bad goal was erased.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s another good break. One that the battling Ingram has earned, we\u2019d say.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get one called back on the offside. We get one (off the broken stick),\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s how fickle this game is. That’s all it takes between winning and losing \u2014\u00a0a sh—y bounce you don’t control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmonton limped into this one with the worst record in the NHL over their past eight games (2-6), the worst goals against since Jan. 31 (4.75), and the third worst save percentage in the NHL (.875).<\/p>\n

But, tied 1-1 after 40 minutes, you know the dressing room talk was about winning a period and kick-starting a turnaround.<\/p>\n

\"3232 Thoughts: The Podcast<\/p>\n

Hockey fans already know the name, but this is not the blog. From Sportsnet, 32 Thoughts: The Podcast with NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas is a weekly deep dive into the biggest news and interviews from the hockey world.<\/p>\n

Latest episode<\/a><\/p>\n

Enter Vasily Podkolzin<\/a>, who grabbed a loose puck off a faceoff just over 2:30 into the frame, then outskated the Vegas D-pair of Andersson and Jeremy Lauzon all the way down the ice for a breakaway goal.<\/p>\n

The puck barely crawled over the goal line, but who cares? It\u2019s a career-high 15th\u00a0for Podkolzin \u2014\u00a0all at even strength \u2014\u00a0whose game just slowly, steadily climbs uphill.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get some luck here sometimes,\u201d he said, shyly. \u201cYeah, try to put myself in a good spot for some moments. Yeah, good luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s a Russian bear, this 24-year-old. He can really skate, really shoot, plays a responsible game, and ran over Shea Theodore in the third period Sunday. On a defensive play that Theodore uses against lots of NHL players, he just couldn\u2019t handle Podkolzin\u2019s size and strength, folding under the pressure.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe never says a word, man,\u201d Ingram said of Podkolzin. \u201cHe just puts his head down and goes to work. It’s incredible. I mean, it’s awesome to see him (have this success).\u201d<\/p>\n

The same could be said for Ingram\u2019s team, a group that\u2019s been fishing for a game like this one since Christmas, really, against a top divisional foe like Vegas.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a good example of what we can do,\u201d Ingram said. \u201cBut at the end of the day, this one’s over, let’s move on. We’ve got three more left on this road trip. It’s a two-hour rule: enjoy for two hours, then return the page.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it’s time to go to work,\u201d he declared. \u201cThat’s what we did today. If we keep this effort and just keep this mindset, nose to the grindstone, I think we’ll be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014\u00a0We\u2019re the writer, and Connor Ingram is the goalie. But I don\u2019t think I could put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-524147","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524147","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=524147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}