Oilers notebook: Nugent-Hopkins thrives in return to lineup against Carolina

When Carolina Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said post-game Thursday that giving 97 and 29 too much space is “death,” it was homicide by, uh, crowbar if we’re allowed to borrow Oilers head coach Mike Babcock’s favoured weapon of choice, when he talks about his team.

But, when the longest-serving Oilers centre Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the only player to have ever played 16 seasons with the team, beat Carolina goalie Brandon Bussi in the shootout, it was more death by, say, a thousand cuts. While McDavid and Draisaitl each had five points — only the second time both had that many points in the same game — Nugent-Hopkins quietly went about winning the crazy game for the Oilers, who will now see Auston Matthews and the Maple Leafs Saturday afternoon here.

In his first outing of the season, Game 1032 in his Oiler career — five more games and he’ll surpass Kevin Lowe as the all-time organizational leader — Nugent-Hopkins beat Bussi for the 6-5 victory after the beleaguered Bussi somehow managed to stop McDavid and Draisaitl in the skills contest. Not Nugent-Hopkins, though, after he played 21 minutes over 27 shifts, scored on a power play off a tidy McDavid feed, set up Draisaitl for another one, and got the game-winning goal.

His return was a panacea for Babcock, who has been in survival mode in lines 2-4 behind McDavid, Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin. He’s still searching on lines 3-4 because they were not good against the Canes, but Nugent-Hopkins fit in nicely with Zach Hyman. Nugent-Hopkins also replaced Podkolzin on the power play, back to his bumper spot.

“What a smart, smart hockey player … just so good in every situation,” said Draisaitl, who is averaging over two points a game with 21 in 10, but is 10 points south of No. 97. “His (Nugent-Hopkins’) percentage, his rate of making the right play … I’ve never seen anything like it. And along with that, his five-on-five game, his penalty-kill when he’s called on … we’re never going to replace a player like him.”

Babcock wanted to break Nugent-Hopkins in more slowly after he was hurt in the last pre-season game against Calgary with a lower-body issue. But, best-laid plans …

“I felt bad for Nuge because we were playing him too much for his first time out but we didn’t have enough other guys going, as we normally do,” said Babcock, who subscribes to the theory, like most coaches, that guys coming back from injury usually stumble with either their hands or their feet, trying to get up to speed.

But Nugent-Hopkins didn’t just survive, he thrived against Carolina.

“Nuge in the second half of the game was a star,” said Babcock.

Often you’re on adrenalin the first game back, so we’ll see Saturday.

But, Nugent-Hopkins was very good against a very good team.

“I thought there were some mental errors that I made, little details that I started to clean up when the third period came around. There’s definitely parts of my game I can improve on. I just tried to think as little as I could, just move my feet, compete. Game wore on and I started to figure things out,” he said.

“Not easy to jump back in, especially at this time of year,” said McDavid. “The game’s fast, especially against a Carolina team. Impressive to come right in and contribute. What he does for our power play is huge. He’s another weapon, another option.”

Nugent-Hopkins’ career shootout success is better than one out of three, 35 per cent since 2011. He’s scored 17 times on 48 attempts. He routinely goes third in the shootout rotation, no matter the coach, and he’s had 10 of them. He’s pencilled in behind 97 and 29, and yes, it pays to pay attention to what’s going on with them.

McDavid is a career 44.4 per cent on 36 shootout attempts since 2015-2016, his first season. Draisaitl is 36.4 on 33 tries since his first in the same Oilers season.

“You have to have a little something in your head but once you get there, you have to make a read,” said Nugent-Hopkins about planning for penalty shots.

“It kind of helps going third, because you can see the way the goalie plays the first two, so I try to use that … but he (Bussi) is an orthodox goalie. He’s a rightie. There’s not many of those. I had to think about that. I was lucky to squeak that shot by him.”

In a league overly populated with left-catching goalies, Bussi, Logan Thompson, Charlie Lindgren and Karel Vejmelka are current righties.

Goalie Devon Levi, who improved his record to 6-1 with the win in the Carolina shootout, wasn’t at practice Friday, and Tristan Jarry will get the start against the Leafs. Jarry, who has played three of the 10 games and is coming off two strong outings against Utah and San Jose, was getting the start anyway.

But the Levi absence is baffling. He played all 65 minutes, made a tremendous glove top on Logan Stankoven late in the third and stopped all three shots in the skills contest after OT. He didn’t seem any worse for wear in-game or post-game.

“I haven’t talked to our trainers. I don’t know what’s going on. All I know is we’ve called up a goalie,” said Babcock. “The problem in sports is you still get hurt. Nobody trains harder than Levi. I don’t know how it happens.”

They’re not saying if Levi will be going on IR or staying on the roster, which would necessitate some roster gymnastics. They are calling up a tender, likely either Matt Tomkins or Connor Ungar, from the farm to sit on the bench while Jarry plays against Toronto. As of this time, they haven’t summoned anyone, with the Condors in Colorado Friday and Saturday. They have ECHL Fort Wayne goalie Nathaniel Day listed on the Bakersfield roster now as a third guy, so it’s anybody’s guess who’s coming to Edmonton.

Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm, who took that resounding hit from Carolina’s William Carrier along the glass, with his helmeted head cruelly bouncing off the ice, will likely be going on injured reserve. Ekholm, who has had a terrific start to the season with a plus-15 rating, left the ice woozy, with help from his teammates.

“Obviously it didn’t look very pretty, his head slammed on the ice. He’s a bit of Viking anyway, so he’ll be OK,” said Babcock, who has said a week to two weeks for Evan Bouchard’s partner, but we’ll see. “They’ll do all the tests, we’ve got a really good medical team.”

McDavid said he didn’t see the mishap in real time, and had no interest in reliving it on video. “I don’t like to see that sort of thing with somebody we care about so much,” said the Oilers captain, who said he had seen Ekholm Friday. “He looks great, feels great, so that’s really positive.”

They are bringing in a seventh defenceman from Bako, with Shakir Mukhamadullin back in the picture as one of their six against the Leafs. While he was Bouchard’s running mate at Friday’s practice, that’s not the way it’ll be for Toronto. It’ll be either Ryan Shea or Jake Walman on left defence.

“Shak should never have come out of the lineup. He made one clear mistake on a box-out and we pulled him out. Otherwise I’ve liked his game,” said Babcock, who will probably play him with Ty Emberson.

They could be bringing up Damien Carfagna, a left defender, who had a good camp.

With the Jets trading Connor Hellebuyck to New Jersey Friday, the Oilers might see him Nov. 3 on the road, depending on his conditioning and game readiness after missing training camp. They finish a three-game Eastern trip against the Islanders, Rangers and Devils.

“He’s a special goalie,” said McDavid, who saw him stand on his head for USA to beat Canada for the gold at the Olympics. “He’s a real difference-maker, certainly glad he’s gone East rather than somewhere West.”

This ‘n that: Babcock shook things up at Friday’s skate on his fourth line. He had Trent Frederic and Ike Howard as the 13th and 14th forwards, with Max Jones and Filip Hallander flanking centre Colton Dach. It looks like he’ll stick with Owen Michaels between Mathieu Joseph and Alex Formenton as a third line. “The depth lines have been phenomenal for us this year, but I didn’t like them as much against Carolina. It’s my job to get us deeper and it’s their job to compete harder,” said Babcock. Maybe some practice message-sending to Frederic and Howard, who could still dress against the Leafs. Howard was coming off his best game against Minnesota Tuesday … Leafs’ goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who won a couple of Cup rings with Florida, moved into a tie with Henrik Lundqvist for sixth place on the all-time wins list (459) in the 5-4 Thursday victory over the Rangers … Injured Oilers centre Jason Dickinson (lower body) was quietly put on IR this week. He’s played three of 10 games.

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