While Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins were holding court for a gathering of media Sunday night, the shutout man Connor Ingram sat by himself at his dressing room stall, waiting for his turn in the spotlight.

And the light is shining pretty brightly on the Edmonton Oilers goaltender after Sunday’s 5-0 win over St. Louis.

Not that he craves it.

Nobody is as chill as Ingram, who now has a .917 save percentage and a 2.22 goal average in his nine starts since his hurried call-up from the Bakersfield Condors when Tristan Jarry went down with a lower-body injury in Boston, Dec. 18.

The Oilers are carrying three goalies with Jarry, Ingram and Calvin Pickard and haven’t told him to get a place of his own for the rest of the year.

“That’s up to them (an apartment, a house rental). If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” said Ingram.

He’s on his own while his wife Sarah holds down the fort in California with their two dogs.

What was Ingram’s expectation when called up from the farm?

“First thing I thought of was I have zero clothing. We were on a day trip from Bakersfield. All I had was my track suit and a hoodie really. I had to piece some stuff together,” said Ingram who is on a one-year deal after the Oilers acquired him from Utah, after the Mammoth ate part of his contract.

“To be a part of this for however it will be, is something I’ll remember for a long time.”

He was a stud in Arizona, too, before the team moved to Utah. But, that was a different time, a different place, a different scenario for a goalie.

“This team is built a lot different than that one was. We had some wild years in Arizona before we kind of figured it out. I’m just trying to keep it going here as long as I can,” said Ingram.

The Oilers decided to currently go with three goalies because they can do it under the cap. They had to make a call on Ingram before the Vancouver game on Saturday. If sent down then he wouldn’t have to clear waivers. But he does now. Not that he’s going anywhere.

Tough tumble

With Kasperi Kapanen going down after he appeared to catch a rut in the ice on his fifth shift of the night Sunday, the Oilers are down to 11 forwards. With no firm date on when Leon Draisaitl will return from Germany after he flew home to attend to a family matter, and no cap room ability to call up a winger from Bakersfield if they want to keep three goalie on the roster, the Oilers may just go 11-7 against New Jersey Tuesday with Alec Regula coming back into the lineup.

The Oilers only have $270,833 in cap space unless (a) they want to put Pickard on waivers to send him down or (b) put Kapanen on long-term injury status. Kapanen is only supposed to be out day-to-day with his leg issue with seven more games on this homestand.

The Oilers, likely don’t want to make a call on Pickard until they see Jarry, the probable home starter against New Jersey Tuesday, play more games after missing a month with his suspected groin problem.

Scary skate accident

When Blues’ forward Oskar Sundqvist lost his balance and Connor McDavid tumbled over his along the boards in the third period Sunday, he suffered a skate slash to his leg, but he appeared to escape major damage the Blues training staff and players rushed him off the ice.

“He got a cut just above his ankle, luckily it didn’t touch his achilles. We know the cut was deep. I don’t know how long that takes until he’s back and has flexability in his ankle without hurting the cut,” said Blues’ coach Jim Montgomery.

Joining elite company

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored in his first NHL game against Pittsburgh and Game 1000 against St. Louis joining nine others in history to do that. Here’s the other starry list:  Evgeni Malkin, Marian Gaborik, Milan Hejduk, Alex Kovalev, Joe Nieuwendyk, Luc Robitaille, Gilbert Perreault, Lars Eller and Jean Ratelle.

This ‘n that

Has there been a better pass from McDavid (in his career) than that spin-o-rama while falling along the right boards and sending a 60-foot bullet through a series of sticks and Blues’ skates for Vasily Podkolzin’s goalmouth finish Sunday night? He made it look ho-hum.

Jordan Binnington’s season from hell continued in the blowout loss to Edmonton. Sunday’s loss marked the 11th time this season he’s given up four goals or more in a game for the Blues.

Binnington, who was named to Canada’s Olympic team will battle for the starting role with Washington’s Logan Thompson and Kings veteran Darcy Kuemper.

Somebody joked that the only thing missing from Nugent-Hopkins 1000th game pre-game ceremony, was one of the thoroughbreds he owns, like his multiple-stakes winning filly Infinite Patience.

“She doesn’t race anymore,” said Nugent-Hopkins.

With the back-to-back shutouts on the weekend of Vancouver and St. Louis, the Oilers joined some rare company, shutouts by at least five goals in back-to-back NHL games. The 70-71 Boston Bruins did it and the 2022-23 Rangers. Their 11 straight goals is second most in Oilers history. The only one better was 14 goals in a row without a reply from Nov. 16-21, 2013.

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