Upon announcing that Ilya Bryzgalov would start Thanksgiving night against the Nashville Predators, Oilers coach Dallas Eakins noted how Bryzgalov arrived with swagger.
Eleven days into his Edmonton Oilers career after a seven-month absence from the NHL, Bryzgalov's swagger showed in his game and rubbed off on his teammates.
Making his first NHL start since April 25 with the Philadelphia Flyers, Bryzgalov stopped all 33 shots to earn his 31st NHL shutout and a 3-0 win against Nashville at Bridgestone Arena. Bryzgalov was sharp in the first period by turning away all 13 Predators shots, including two quality saves on Nashville's first power play, to keep the game scoreless after one before Edmonton's offense came alive in the second.
Making his first career start against Edmonton, and ninth straight overall, Nashville rookie goaltender Marek Mazanec entered the game with two shutouts in his past five starts. But Mazanec was a victim to his opponents' slick skating and deft passing.
Matching unsportsmanlike conduct penalties against Nashville's Paul Gaustad and Edmonton's David Perron led to a 4-on-4 early in the second. With more room for their fast skaters to work, the Oilers scored first when Jordan Eberle forced a turnover, skated around the boards and sent a sweet cross-ice pass to Jeff Petry, who fed a driving Nugent-Hopkins directly on the tape and the deflection past Mazanec for a 1-0 lead.
The Oilers took a two-goal lead 51 seconds later when Sam Gagner fed Hall on a 2-on-1. After receiving the pass, Hall turned on the jets for a back-hand deke that extended his point streak to five games (2-4-6).
The Predators not only lost the game, they lost defenseman Shea Weber to an upper body injury late in the second after he absorbed a wrist shot from Oilers forward David Perron to his mouth. Playing on Nashville's top defensive pair with Roman Josi, Weber entered the game sixth in the League in average total ice time (26:33) and has seven goals and 12 points with a minus-6 rating in 25 games.
Each team had one shot apiece through the first eight-plus minutes before the Oilers generated a couple of chances. Edmonton's line of Nail Yakupov, Sam Gagner and Ales Hemsky put some pressure on the Predators' defense but Mazanec was up to the task.
Jordan Eberle added an empty-net goal at 19:03 of the third for the final margin of victory. Though the Predators rendered the Oilers' power play 0-for-4 and have killed off 20 consecutive chances on the penalty kill dating back to Nov. 15, they dropped to 3-1 all-time in Thanksgiving games.
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