Stastney has been integral on the back end for the Oilers in recent games since his acquisition from the Nashville Predators that happened in tandem with the trade that sent Stuart Skinner and a 2029 second-round pick to Pittsburgh in exchange for Tristan Jarry and Samuel Poulin.
Being out on the ice during the last minute to help deliver a win on Sunday was a big show of confidence in Stastney from the coaching staff.
“Fantastic,” Knoblauch said of Stastney. “He’s very agile. Probably one of the better skaters in the NHL. Now, the fact that he is a better skater means that he can skate out of trouble and make a lot of plays. Not high risk, very reliable. It’s only been a handful of games, but his report card is very positive.”
Ingram got plenty of offensive support on Sunday with a 4-0 lead, which the Golden Knights battled back from to make it a one-goal deficit after each of Connor McDavid (1G, 2A), Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2G, 1A), Zach Hyman (1G, 1A) and Leon Draisaitl (2A) recorded multiple points over the first two frames.
McDavid’s three points extended his point streak to a whopping 10 games with 26 points (12G, 14A) and included a goal in his fifth straight game, overtaking Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon for the NHL’s scoring lead with 62 points (23G, 39A) in 37 games, while retaining the NHL’s First Star honours for the second straight week with 10 points (5G, 5A) over a four-game stretch.
Draisaitl hasn’t recorded a goal in Edmonton’s last eight games, but the German has still produced plenty with 15 assists over that stretch, along with a four-game point streak of nine helpers after assisting on the Oilers’ first two goals against the Golden Knights on Sunday.
Zach Hyman has 12 points in his last 10 games, including eight goals, and is near a point-per-game pace with 16 points in 18 games since making his return from injury last month, while Nugent-Hopkins’ pair of power-play markers and an assist made him the fourth Oiler this season to reach 30 points.