November 14th, 2000
Ryan Smyth did many things during his tenure as an Oiler, including putting the puck in the net quite a bit. He did that three times for the 2nd time in his career vs a red hot St. Louis Blues team at the arena formerly known as Skyreach Centre.
#94’s offense would be enough for the home side on this night as they’d blank the Blues 3-0 in what was also the first season of Craig MacTavish as the Oilers bench boss. Even more impressive in the effort? The Oilers just returned from a 10 day road trip and St Louis came into this one unbeaten in their last 10 games.
Things may have appeared like a mismatch on paper but copper and blue showed why on this night things are not settled in the papers.
November 17th, 2005
Quick! If I asked you which member of the Oilers 05-06 roster tied the record for most assists in one period would you get it? If you guessed Shawn Horcoff I’m standing up right now and giving you a virtual slow clap.
“Horc” as the masses called him turned the trick in a 6-5 overtime win vs the Red Wings early in the season on a night in which the Oilers also converted on the powerplay three times on EIGHT opportunities with the man advantage. Remember when the Oilers powerplay had some bite? Pepperidge Farms remembers.
Horcoff tied a record jointly held by Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier and Jari Kurri. On this night Edmonton left the Joe Louis Arena with two points and it would be far from the last time in this season they’d get the better of a Detroit roster with the likes of Steve Yzerman, Brendan Shanahan, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk.
November 19th, 1983
When people got settled into their seats at Northlands it must have been like getting ready to watch a lamb being fed to a lion on this night when the Oilers took on the moribund New Jersey Devils.
For their entire existence to this point (be it as the Kansas City Scouts, Colorado Rockies or the Devils) they’d been one of the worst franchises that the NHL had ever iced as they’d failed to record a single season of over 80 points and wouldn’t do so until the 1987-88 season after entering the NHL in Missouri in 1974-75.
On this night they were shown absolutely no mercy as they’d lose 13-4 with Wayne Gretzky setting an Oilers record with eight points on the night. Speaking of eight – the Oilers scored eight times in the first two periods with five of those goals coming from Jari Kurri. Oh, and also Mark Messier, Dave Semenko and Ken Linsemen missed this game so who knows what the score could have ended up as.
When this affair was over the Oilers moved to a record of 17-3-1 while New Jersey fell to 2-18, one of the worst starts in professional hockey history.
The Great One’s comments were not kind as he’d call them a “Mickey Mouse organization” and at the time, he truly wasn’t wrong as the Devils would end the season with a record of 17-56-7, good enough for 41 points and 2nd last in the Patrick Division.
In the next edition of Time Travels we’ll dive into an idea that the NHL wanted to execute for years finally become a reality with the help of the Oilers on a memorable weekend in 2003.
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