EDMONTON — It was as if Kris Knoblauch traded in his suit for a lab coat and bow tie to become Bill Nye on New Year’s Eve.
The Edmonton Oilers’ coach acted like Nye, the self-proclaimed science guy, by treating his lineup as if it were a series of experiments against the Utah Hockey Club. And, wouldn’t you know it, the formulas inside the beakers and test tubes eventually mixed as desired in a 4-1 win.
“As a player, you try not to question it or you try not to think about it, and you stay in your lane,” winger Connor Brown said. “Obviously, it ended up working out.”
Brown was the biggest beneficiary of all the line changes by his former junior coach with the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters. He jumped up to the top line with his old junior teammate Connor McDavid and poured in two assists.
It just took a little extra time to find the right combinations.
There was a fair bit of hand-wringing entering Tuesday’s contest about where or if Jeff Skinner fit into the equation. The veteran winger, a high-profile signee in July, had been in the doghouse for weeks before getting scratched for Sunday’s road loss to the Anaheim Ducks.
Not only did Skinner draw back into the lineup, but he was also part of seven changes up front compared to the group that started the 5-3 defeat to the Ducks. The only line that remained intact was Leon Draisaitl centring Vasily Podkolzin and Viktor Arvidsson.
Brown’s moving up resulted in Zach Hyman’s sliding over to left wing. Hyman broke into the NHL at left wing and started his Oilers tenure there, but he didn’t play there at all last season and hadn’t this season before Tuesday.
Brown’s promotion also bumped Ryan Nugent-Hopkins down to third-line centre, which is just the third time this season he has started a game there. His linemates were Mattias Janmark and Kasperi Kapanen. That left Skinner, in for Derek Ryan, with Adam Henrique and Corey Perry.
All that lasted just 20 minutes. Defenceman Mattias Ekholm scored Edmonton’s lone goal of the opening period, set up by Podkolzin, and the teams took a 1-1 draw into the intermission.
“We needed a little mix-up going into the game, and it didn’t work out as much as I (would have) liked it to,” Knoblauch said.
And so the safety goggles went back on. The experimenting wasn’t over yet.
The second frame commenced with three new trios, again with just Draisaitl’s unit sticking together.
So much for Nugent-Hopkins at 3C, as he took Hyman’s left-wing spot. Hyman went back to the right side with Skinner and Henrique. Those alterations created a line of Perry, Janmark and Kapanen.
“Zach hasn’t played much left wing lately,” Knoblauch said. “Obviously, he can play left wing. He’s done it a lot in his career, and he’s handled it well. But he hasn’t practised (there) at all.
“I just felt that putting Nuggy back on his left spot and putting Hyzie back on his right, that was pretty much the two things I was pretty much thinking about on that change.”
The new-look grouping of Nugent-Hopkins, McDavid and Brown sparked the offence by scoring twice on the same shift early in the middle period.
First, Nugent-Hopkins intercepted a clearing pass from Utah defenceman Mikhail Sergachev, keeping the puck in the offensive zone and dishing it to Brown in the same stroke. Brown fed McDavid, who found Nugent-Hopkins at the far post for a tap-in goal at 4:53.
Just 20 seconds later, blueliner Troy Stecher scored off the rush by finishing off a pass from Brown, who got his pass from McDavid.
Brown and McDavid assisted on both goals. Brown’s contributions were appropriate considering Knoblauch wanted to provide a carrot for his strong play over the past few weeks.
Brown opened the season with one point, a goal, in his first 13 games. He now has 17 points in his last 24 contests. “As a coach, you always want to motivate players,” Knoblauch said. “You want to reward players who’ve been playing well.
“He definitely deserved a reward.”
Brown has already blown past his 12 points from 2023-24, compiled in 71 games.
“I feel back to where I was pre-injury,” said Brown, referring to a torn ACL that cost him all but four contests in 2022-23 and then caused a sluggish start last season.
The offence provided by Brown, Nugent-Hopkins and McDavid was all the Oilers needed even though Draisaitl added an empty-netter to extend his point streak to 12 games.
Goal 27 into the empty cage 🥅 #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/ExurWpWFb3
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 1, 2025
The Oilers got back into the win column after earning just a single point on their two-game trip through Southern California last weekend. They won 11 of their previous 13 games before the holiday break.
It turns out a little tinkering — OK, a lot of tinkering — by Knoblauch was what the doctor ordered.
“He moves the pieces here and there depending on how he thinks the game’s going or just to try something else,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “Sometimes, it gives you the boost that you need.”
The lineup changes worked nicely against Utah but probably won’t be anything more than a short-lived trial. Just look at how much Nugent-Hopkins, McDavid and Hyman have played together over the last couple of campaigns, plus what all the shifting around Knoblauch has done in the bottom six. Those are clear clues.
But that doesn’t mean things shouldn’t be shifted up throughout a long and occasionally monotonous season — especially after a pair of meh performances.
“We have a lot of different pieces in here that can play together,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “It’s fun sometimes to play with other guys, get some new looks. It keeps it fresh a little bit.”
It was a tad unconventional, and there were certainly a lot of moving parts from the last game to the start of this one and from the first period to the second. But Knoblauch ended up finding the right mixes — even if he wasn’t wearing Nye’s lab coat and bow tie.
“He really does things with a purpose. I don’t think he’s throwing darts at a wall,” Brown said. “Any types of decisions he made are pretty calculated. He’s a really smart coach. Also, we’ve got a lot of good players in here, so you can jumble it around and get some results a couple different ways.”
(Photo of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins celebrating a goal with Connor Brown, Connor McDavid, Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard: Walter Tychnowicz / Imagn Images)
