OILERS NOTES: Warren Foegele silences critics with big game in Seattle

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As Edmonton Oilers winger Warren Foegele was going through that 20-game drought, the daily social media analysis “good trade, ditching Ethan Bear for this guy” was overheating.

And Bear fitted in well in Carolina, sometimes with NHL’s most underrated defenseman Jaccob Slavin, Foegele struggled for weeks to keep the pucks out of his net, too, a double whammy.

But in his last two games, mounted in the lineup, he scored three goals and showed why the Oilers wanted him. He still has to work on his goals for and against (minus-6) but he’s been all over Seattle.

“Well playing with Connor I’m sure helps a bit,” said associate coach Jim Playfair, with a smile after Foegele played on McDavid’s left wing and got three minutes of the game from. power against Seattle. “But I thought he had really competed, that he had done a lot of good things. Good on forward control and did a good job coming back to our D zone to help. Along the wall he was strong in the offensive and defensive zone.

“He’s such a quick and fast player and he was rewarded for that.”

Foegele scored against Columbus, with an empty net, his first goal since October 30 in Vancouver. He played 19:45, had five shots and two goals against Seattle, one with a nice conversion to a power play on Kailer Yamamoto’s shot, the second store where he’s more comfortable overtaking Chris Driedger then as Mark Giordano gave him a healthy crosscheck with his stick as he fell on the goalkeeper.

Foegele had never scored a PP goal in his 200 NHL games in Carolina, not even a power-play assist. But he has two PP goals as an Oiler; the first against the Canucks in this game on October 30.

The power-play goal in Seattle was scored by Yamamoto who came back on the power-play to upset Brandon Tanev on a breakaway, then beat him on the ice.

“A massive back-check from Yamo so they don’t score,” said Foegele, who repelled the PP’s shot as if he was a regular at the PP.

The Oilers dominated Seattle 40-17 and were in their last shift.

“It’s no fun facing a team that continuously attacks… like I said a few days ago when we had lost six games in a row, if you keep hammering the boulder it will eventually start to flake off. and that’s what happened here, ”said Foegele, being one of them.

EVEN REFEREES GET COVID

Referees and linesmen, who travel commercially and not on charters like players and coaches, have also been affected.

There can be up to 13 officials with the COVID protocol. Three games in the past week have been played with a crew of three, not four. Two matches with a single referee. Linesman Ryan Galloway was taken out of a game when he tested positive.

Carson Soucy d’Irma, who scored the Kraken’s third goal on Saturday against the Oilers with a shrewd conversation after a shot from the post on Stuart Skinner, was tested after the game and on Sunday morning and has now joined Yanni Gourde, Riley Sheahan and Colin Blackwell on Seattle’s COVID Protocol List.

With the Ducks game here on Monday now postponed, it should be noted that Anaheim is one of 11 player-less teams in COVID protocol at the moment.

This and that: Before the NHL gave up their game against Anaheim, the Oilers wondered if they should call a Bakersfield forward after playing with 11 forwards in Seattle. They wanted to see how Zach Hyman (shoulder) and Kyle Turris (undisclosed injury after blocking a shot against Columbus were doing) before making a farm call. They only have $ 895,000 in overhead space… The 17 shots allowed by the Oilers in Seattle were the fewest since April 9, 2017 against Vancouver… Oilers winger Colton Sceviour has played eight games in the NHL, usually one per season, but the fall with Seattle’s Jeremy Lauzon was his. second in two months. The fight with Lauzon came after a nasty blow from behind that Wes McCauley, the NHL’s top consensus referee with eight Stanley Cup Final assignments, and his partner Jon McIsaac somehow thought he was clean. Sceviour faced Vancouver’s Tyler Myers on October 16… Leon Draisaitl’s three-assist night in Seattle was the 58th time he has scored three or more points since the 2014-15 season when he started his career with the Oilers. He has nine points in three games against the Kraken this year (3-6). McDavid (78), Sidney Crosby and Patrick Kane (59) are the only players to have played more games with three or more points in the past seven years… Nine of McDavid’s 17 goals this season came in the third period, when the game is on the line… Prior to Saturday’s game in Seattle, Oilers farmer Seth Griffith last played an NHL game on March 7, 2017 in Calgary. Considering some of the cheap assists players sometimes get, grabbing an apple from Griffith in Seattle, after hard work up and down the boards to seemingly get it to McDavid and then Sceviour for his goal, was tough.

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