It wasn’t exactly bold to predict that the Vegas Golden Knights would elevate their game in Game 2.

Facing the daunting prospect of heading back to Edmonton down 2-0 in the series, Vegas had every reason, and plenty of urgency, to ramp up their intensity. And ramp it up they did.

Jack Eichel stepped up big-time, delivering three crucial assists. The Golden Knights’ power play clicked impressively, converting twice on four chances. Even defensively, they managed to limit Edmonton’s dynamic duo, McDavid and Draisaitl, to just one point each. At 5-on-5, Vegas dominated key metrics, generating 19 high-danger scoring opportunities compared to Edmonton’s 14, and held an expected goals advantage of 3.4 to 2.7.

All signs pointed to a Vegas victory, but that narrative didn’t play out. Despite the Golden Knights’ clear statistical edge and Edmonton’s surprisingly ineffective power play, the Oilers somehow clawed their way to a thrilling 5-4 overtime victory. How did Edmonton pull it off? Exactly how you’d guess: they simply outscored Vegas at even strength by a decisive 4-2 margin.

It wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t perfect, but it was gritty, determined hockey. Let’s roll the tape and break down exactly what happened in Game 2.

One of life’s hidden mysteries is why the bluelines on the ice are so hard for players to navigate. Whatever it is, there are more games won and lost in the five feet on either side of each blueline. The battles here can be about defending, but they can also be about scoring. Last night, the Oilers had both sides of this on display.

On the bad side, a lot of what the Oilers did at the bluelines was just be too overanxious for offence. Here are a couple of clips involving Connor Brown in the first and Victor Arvidsson in the second. On the Brown clip, he is simply too aggressive on getting out on the attack. He needs to make sure he gathers the puck in before heading up ice. It leads to a great chance against.

Now Arvidsson’s turn. This one is a classic that we teach wingers about at a young age. When your defenceman is coming up the wall, you need to slide down towards him and meet the puck. In addition, you need to build a wall to prevent any hard pinch behind you from getting around you to intercept the puck. Arvidsson has a nasty habit of continuing to slide up the wall, hoping he can chip the puck and get on the attack.

The Oilers also didn’t defend their own blueline very well on the attack against. The Oilers let the Golden Knights in far too easily most of the evening.

Here is an example of what I mean. The Golden Knights rim the puck hard, and Jake Walman has a chance to step into the Vegas player who is static at the blueline. Instead, he lets him off the hook and allows the entry. This creates a massive amount of space in the slot area for the Golden Knights. When Evan Bouchard doesn’t block his man from the net, it allows Eichel to set up the shot-tip. Goal against.

This was a theme all night. But for the play of Calvin Pickard, who is a wild ride, the Oilers could have given up a decent number of 5v5 goals.

The irony of all of this is that the Oilers scored a great goal by managing the bluelines. The goal was scored by Evander Kane from four feet in front of the net, but it all started at the Oilers’ blueline.

Watch how many wall battles are won by the Oilers around each blueline. First, it’s Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Second is Evander Kane. Finally, Zach Hyman chips in. The result was a great playoff goal for Kane.

This issue defined Game 2 just as much as battles at the bluelines. Throughout most of the night, the Oilers were sluggish and hesitant moving the puck out of their zone. Too often, the defencemen and low forwards spent valuable time reversing and regrouping, allowing Vegas’ forecheckers to gain momentum and aggressively attack up ice. The result? Fewer offensive opportunities for Edmonton, and Vegas gaining more confidence and chances.

Let’s take a closer look with these key examples. First, watch this sequence involving Darnell Nurse. Even though the puck eventually exits the zone, notice how Nurse initially has ample space, with no attacker within 20 feet.

Coaches consistently emphasize taking at least one stride forward to generate momentum and avoid becoming an easy target. Instead, Nurse remains stationary, hesitating and limiting his options.

By the time he’s forced to make a pass, pressure closes in, leading to a broken play. Sure, the puck eventually gets out, but with quicker decisions and assertive puck movement, this play could have created a far stronger offensive push.

It wasn’t just the defence either. Watch Adam Henrique on this play.

Again, like Nurse, he corrals a loose puck and just doesn’t move. When he finally makes a decision, he just fires a weak rim pass. The puck is defended well, and it goes back down to the other corner, where John Klingberg decides to send a puck up the wall. Arvidsson, as we noted earlier, showed his tendency to leak up the wall, so he gets beat and the Golden Knights get a great chance.

As a counter, watch what happens when the Oilers decide to make quick plays out of their zone. This comes from a nice defensive play by Evan Bouchard off a blocked shot. He does a great job shielding Mark Stone up the ice and gathering the puck. When I freeze the clip, take a close look at Bouchard. He is already looking up the ice to make a play. In this case, he chooses the hard rim. Corey Perry does his job at the blueline and makes a great little play to Connor McDavid in full flight. Game over.

Between the work on the bluelines and the slow play of the Oilers exiting the zone, it is no wonder Vegas held the fancy stat advantage. It is also notable that when the Oilers executed on both of these areas, they had success. This should be a focus for Game 3.

During the game, I noted Leon Draisaitl appeared to be playing hurt. His reluctance to shoot (excluding that last clip) suggests he’s dealing with an injury.

However, it wasn’t just him. The entire line seemed out of sync at times. Beyond injury concerns, part of the issue stemmed from a subtle tactical adjustment by Vegas.

Earlier, I predicted Vegas might shift from their usual 1-2-2 neutral zone setup to a 1-1-3 formation against Edmonton’s top line. That’s precisely what they did, but only when facing the McDavid line. Why the change?

The 1-1-3 approach pulls an extra player back, limiting space and speed through neutral ice. It forces opponents to dump the puck instead of allowing clean rush opportunities. For much of the game, this tactic worked effectively, until it didn’t.

Here’s an example. Watch Draisaitl carry the puck up ice. As he crosses his own blueline, notice how all the Knights have already retreated into position. Facing limited options, Draisaitl attempts a chip-and-chase. The play fails, leading to a quick Vegas counterattack.

Here’s another example of where it did not work. Again, Draisaitl moves up the ice with the puck. This time, Vegas has backed off too far, and it allows him to gain the blueline.

Now, the risk with the 1-1-3 is that if the team gains the blueline with possession, there is a lot of space in the top half of the zone to operate.

The Oilers made a nice play, but again, they were undisciplined in their offensive zone play by failing to maintain a good F3. In this case, Corey Perry. As a result, the Golden Knights counter.

The final example is a clip you’ve already seen. The overtime winner.

In this case, the Golden Knights really fouled this play up. They had three players up the ice. However, the defenceman decided to pinch up on the puck instead of allowing F1 and F2 to deal with it. More importantly, Jack Eichel has his skates pointed the wrong direction and isn’t moving when the McDavid play starts to happen.

The result is a broken 1-1-3 with ease.

I will be curious to see if the Golden Knights maintain this strategy of a selective 1-1-3 against the McDavid line. It had very good moments, no question. It also cost them at the worst possible time.

I presume 97 and 29 will remain together, given the 2-0 lead. However, they are giving up some chances against. One of the reasons is that the two of them often get crossed up on whose playing center in their zone.

There were a couple of occasions in Game 2 that led to chances for Vegas. Here’s one of them where both players end up playing the center role, leaving the weak side wide open.

As I said, it is hard to argue with a 2-0 series lead, but I still think the two would be better served apart and brought back together selectively.

The Oilers’ penalty kill remains a disaster. Last night, it was Jack Eichel just picking them apart. However, some of that was related to really poor seam play by the Oilers. In particular, Brett Kulak struggled a great deal. There isn’t much that can be done without Ekholm except to focus on having the sticks in the middle of the ice defending seams. In other words, give up the play behind the net and point shots.

The Ryan Nugent-Hopkins center experiment has been really good. His line with Evander Kane and Zach Hyman have been a positive influence on the series. They are now 3-0 in goals for. They have faced a lot of the Hertl line in Game 1 and the Eichel line in Game 2. It wasn’t always pretty, but they survived. This, combined with positive contributions from the bottom-six, is the reason the Oilers are leading this series.

The Oilers now get the match-up advantage going to Edmonton. It will be interesting to see what the Oilers do with it. Does Ty Emberson play more minutes? Will the nuclear option stay together? Who takes the Eichel line match? Lots of fascinating decisions to come.

That’s it for the Game 2 tactical review. See you again on Sunday morning.

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