Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had a goal and an assist as the Edmonton Oilers downed the Washington Capitals 4-1 Thursday night at Rogers Place.
LISTEN BELOW: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins
The Oilers opened the scoring on the power play with 3:32 left in the first. Rookie Evan Bouchard blasted a shot through a screen provided by Alex Chiasson for his first NHL goal.
“The first little bit, the guys were on the bench like, ‘His heart’s not even beating fast,'” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said after the game when talking about Bouchard’s goal.
“We’re still trying to figure out if he thought it was deflected because he sure didn’t react like [Yamamoto] did the other day.”
Bouchard also became the youngest defenceman in Edmonton Oilers team history to score a goal.
“It was good to get the first one out of the way,” Bouchard said.
LISTEN BELOW: Evan Bouchard
While killing a penalty halfway through the second period, Nugent-Hopkins stole a drop pass from Capitals defenceman John Carlson. Nugent-Hopkins stepped around Nicklas Backstrom and beat goaltender Braden Holtby blocker side for the Oilers’ first shorthanded goal of the season.
“Turnovers got us into trouble and kind of tilted the ice in their favour for really no reason,” Capitals coach Todd Reirden said after the game.
The Capitals came back less than three minutes later when Andre Burakovsky buried a centring pass from Nic Dowd.
Oilers forward Alex Chiasson scored for the third time in the last two games when his long wrist shot eluded Holtby 9:16 into the third.
“The release point said high-blocker and I saw it not going by me and dipped down glove side, whether he just kind of fanned on it going off a stick, that’s just a strange shot, but it’s one of those you don’t have much control over,” Holtby said of the shot.
Chiasson, who played for the Capitals last season, was presented with his Stanley Cup ring on Thursday morning.
Connor McDavid, who had been robbed by Holtby three times earlier in the game, added an empty net goal with 1:17 to go.
Cam Talbot made 31 saves for the win.
“These are the games where you can build confidence early on and hopefully you can get on a roll,” Talbot said after the game.
“This is kind of a template game in the way we need to play night in and night out.”
LISTEN BELOW: Cam Talbot
The Oilers (4-3-1) have a matinee game in Nashville on Saturday. That’s a 1 p.m. puck drop. They then face Chicago on Sunday.
–With files from 630 CHED’s Brenden Escott and Scott Johnston