The Edmonton Oilers beat Nashville 4-0 Thursday night thanks in part to a hat trick from Leon Draisaitl and a shutout from Mike Smith.
But it was a big hit before the game was even three minutes old that really got the team buzzing.
Defenceman Kris Russell, playing for the first time since March 22, stepped up inside the Predators’ blue line and crushed Mikael Granlund.
“It was a slow developing play. It made it hard on that forward,” Russell explained. “Just stepped up and got a good lick on him.
“The big thing is just making sure I was getting covered. I took a glance and saw Jesse (Puljujarvi) was there, so it gave me (the green light to go there).”
“We heard it from the bench. It was quite a collision,” recalled Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “It was a great hit. It got the bench fired up.
“It was part of what got us going early in the game.”
Russell has played only 25 of the Oilers’ 75 games this season. Sometimes he’s been injured and sometimes he’s been a healthy scratch. He drew in Thursday when the coaching staff decided to go with seven defencemen.
“I hadn’t played for a while. I wanted to step in and bring some energy,” Russell said.
“It was good to start off with a hit like that.”
“Early in the game, he set a physical tone,” Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft said. “He had a lot of really good plays he made with the puck.
“He was physical when called upon.”
The Oilers (43-26-6) will host the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday. You can listen to the game live on 630 CHED beginning with The Faceoff Show at 12:30 p.m. The actual game starts at 2 p.m.
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