After sending the Red Wings packing in Edmonton with a Hyman hat trick the Oilers flew East to Toronto and treaded through an evenly matched first period before completely blowing the Leafs out of the water for the rest of Saturday’s bout.

Starting in net was none other than the Oiler’s new goaltender, Tristan Jarry, acquired from the Penguins in exchange for Stuart Skinner and Brett Kulak. The timing was right; Skinner was playing well for his standards, and Kulak has been declining through this season. The Oilers also picked up Spencer Statsney from the Nashville Predators to fill the hole left by Kulak.

Bouchard pickpocketed Nicolas Roy on the blue line and made a 3 foot pass to Connor McDavid who threw on the afterburners and torched the other four Leafs players to the Toronto net to scored the first goal of the night. Toronto would strike back to tie it up late after Easton Cowan threw a rebound shot past Jarry off a rush.

The Leafs got their first and last lead of the night in the second on a breakdown in the Oilers defense. Jarry made two quick saves, but the offence overwhelmed Edmonton and Oliver Ekman-Larsson beat Jarry with a center ice wrist shot at the top circle line.

Edmonton struck back shortly after with another speed driven play from Connor McDavid; he exploded past the Leafs defense and attempted to center a pass – he failed, but Troy Stetcher (former Oiler, lost to waivers) messed up his clearing attempt and instead scored a beautiful goal against his own team.

The Leafs hung in the match for another ten minutes before Edmonton’s top line launched a rush in the final minute. McDavid entered the zone and made a quick pass to Draisaitl who sent a pass to the other side of the ice – Dennis Hildeby couldn’t cross the crease fast enough and Darnell Nurse fired the puck past him for the Oilers’ third of the game.

Vasily Podkolzin opened the third period with a deflection goal off his left knee. You can call it luck, or you can call it the results of beating Ekman-Larsson in a net front battle; either way, the score was 4-2 Edmonton.

Thirty seconds later the second line rushed into the Leafs zone yet again after a disaterous turnover from Toronto in the neutral zone. Leon Draisiatl found Podkolzin in front of the net and the game was 5-2, and rapidly becoming out of reach for the home team.

Zach Hyman completely embarrassed Matthew Knies as Knies tried to escape the zone with possession; after pickpocketing him from behind Hyman passed to Nugent-Hopkins; Nugent-Hopkins tried to center to McDavid, but Jack McCabe blocked the puck which went behind the net. Chaos ensued and Zach Hyman, who started it all, sauntered in front of the crease and scored the Oilers’ sixth goal past Hildeby.

The Leafs were playing awful on both ends of the ice for most of the game, but Berube decided that six goals was too much for Hildeby, and pulled the netminder with ten minutes remaining in the game leaving Toronto with a four goal deficit to climb out of; They made it one quarter of the way there with a Steven Lorentz goal in the final minute.

Saturday’s game was perfect in terms of individual storylines. Leafs faithful fans have been incredulous about how well Stetcher has been playing for them after claiming the defenceman from Edmonton off waivers; he assisted Edmonton with an own goal against Toronto. Zach Hyman left Toronto due to cap issues because the Leafs undervalued his style of play, and decided that Matthew Knies was a better bet; Hyman was +3 compared to Knies’ -1, and completely hosed Knies for the sixth goal that put the game out of reach. McDavid completely outclassed Auston Matthews in the much talked about battle of star power.

And Tristan Jarry played a great first game. His save percentage ended at a modest 0.893, but he made big saves when they mattered. Late in the first period John Tavares had a clear cut breakaway after a turnover in the neutral zone, and Jarry made a huge save to keep the Oilers tied with the Leafs to end the first period. It’s impossible to say what the counterfactual would have been had Skinner been in net, but too many times in recent years have we seen breakaways lead to guaranteed goals against, followed shortly after by another flub goal. Tristan Jarry kept the game competitive long enough for Edmonton’s offence to completely take over the game – that is exactly the sort of goaltending that the Oilers need.

With that being said, it’s a one-game sample size. Jarry’s success in Edmonton will be gauged in July, not in December.

The Oilers will face the Montreal Canadiens at 5:00PM MST on Sunday afternoon.