Well, the Edmonton Oilers responded.
Still stinging and red-faced after a 9-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday, the Oilers made good on their vow to be harder, smarter and more determined Monday against the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.
For a while.
With the crowd at Rogers Place waiting breathlessly for the steaming-mad Oilers to take their frustrations out on the 28th-place team in the NHL, the home team gave them about 25 good minutes.
Maybe 30.
But it turned out to be enough.
A little more than a period after being booed off their own ice at the second intermission, the Oilers were celebrating a wild, crazy and incredibly fortuitous comeback victory.
Connor McDavid scored two spectacular goals in the third period to revive a game that looked dead and buried, Jake Walman scored a shorthanded fluke with 58 seconds left in regulation and Jack Roslovic scored in overtime to turn a 4-2 deficit with six minutes left into a stunning 5-4 win.
“We stuck with it,” said McDavid, after one of those nights where it looked like he was playing on fast forward. “We put ourselves in a tough spot, but we’re good at coming from behind. We found a way. It’s not the prettiest way to win a game, but a win nonetheless, and we move on.”
Truth is, the Oilers got lucky. Lucky on the tying goal (Columbus forward Mathieu Olivier deflected the puck into his own net) and damn lucky that Connor McDavid is on their side to win a game that was heading straight down the drain.
“Connor wasn’t going to let us lose tonight, he was so focused on getting the job done,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “I’ve seen Connor rise to the occasion and play some tremendous games, and I’m not going to say this was his best game that I’ve seen him play, but under the circumstances it’s right up there.
“He had an incredible night, two fabulous goals, but there was just so much determination to his game that it was like, ‘It’s not going to happen again tonight.’ And he just willed the team to win.”
It was ugly at times, as the Oilers looked headed for a defeat almost as frustrating as the paddling Colorado gave them, but all’s well that ends well.
Like they always says in sports: It’s not how, it’s how many.
And that makes one much-needed win in a row.
A tussle between the Edmonton Oilers and the Columbus Blue Jackets occurs during first-period NHL action on Monday, Nov. 10, 2025, in Edmonton.
After what happened Saturday, and with the crowd having turned on them in this one, there was much more than just two points on the line.
“It felt like a little bit more of a bigger game than you usually get in November, and I thought it showed,” said McDavid. “We hung on right to the end to tie it and won the game.”
It was a massive comeback win that averted disaster — nobody wants to even think how dark the clouds would be if Edmonton had lost this “response game” to Columbus — but nobody should be trying to fool anyone.
You don’t throw up on your shoes against a Stanley Cup contender and then pull a win out of the fire against a slumping bottom feeder and think everything is good again.
This was the equivalent of banking a 30-foot putt in off somebody’s ball marker to save par after taking a 13 on the previous hole. It stops the bleeding, but it’s awfully fortunate and it doesn’t suggest in any way that your game is back.
They won, yes, but the best player in the world scoring two spectacular goals in the third period and the other guys scoring an own goal to tie it for you with less than a minute left is no indication that the Oilers have turned anything around.
Edmonton trailed almost all night against the Blue Jackets. In the heart of this game, and in the key moments, they reverted back to their old selves, letting the Blue Jackets, who arrived in town on a three-game losing streak, skate around the Oilers’ end like they owned it.
Columbus scored first, took a 3-1 lead into the third period, capitalized on Andrew Mangiapane’s gift to make to 4-2 after McDavid’s backhand spinnerama into the top corner closed their lead to 3-2.
“The group likes to put itself in a tough spot,” said McDavid. “And just when you think it’s a tough spot, we go a little bit further. Then we decide it’s time to go.
“We hear (the boos). We understand that what happened on Saturday was not what we want to display to our fans. We’re all trying to win games and we did that tonight.”
Sure enough, when things looked as bleak as they’ve looked in years, everything fell into place. Like it always seems to do for this team.
“That’s probably the exact type of game it was going to take to get out of this little funk, or at least to start,” said Walman. “It wasn’t perfect at all, but we found a way and stuck with it. There was a lot to like in that game.”
Trent Frederic got things going when he took on Olivier, the NHL’s heavyweight champion, early in the first period. Even though he got the worst of it, Frederic got a good lick in and nobody will ever be questioning his courage.
“I have to give a huge shout out to Freddy,” said Walman. “That’s a tough opponent, a big boy (6-1, 232). There’s very few guys who would do that type of thing and step up for this team and I’m proud of him for that.”
More to come.