We knew other teams as well or better

[officialsbaseball]

EDMONTON , Alberta (AP) — The Edmonton Oilers were one of the final teams in the NHL to play their home opener, and they made the most of their home ice advantage.Leon Draisaitl scored in overtime to give the Oilers a 3-2 victory over the Boston Bruins on Thursday night.Connor McDavid set up the winner at 37 seconds of the extra period, and Kailer Yamamoto and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins also scored to help the Oilers win their third straight.“It feels pretty weird having played four games and traveling all over the place and just finally playing our home opener,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “This was great for the team. You have to make your home building a tough barn to come into every night and I thought as the game went on we did that.”Cam Talbot was solid in net, making 27 saves in the win.“He held us in the game, it is as simple as that,” Draisaitl said. “We all know what we have in him and are very proud to have him back there. He does this so many times for us. It was nice to bail him out at the end.”David Krejci and David Pastrnak scored for Boston. The Bruins have dropped two in a row.“There was definitely some really good opportunities, it didn’t happen for us, but I thought we persevered,” Bruins head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We got behind in the third, but to score a goal to tie the game, I thought was a credit to our guys. Obviously we didn’t get the win, but it’s certainly a positive.”Boston opened the scoring midway through the second period following an Edmonton giveaway. Krejci was left alone at the side of the net for his first goal of the season. The Oilers soon tied it on Yamamoto’s first NHL goal.“It feels even better than I thought it would,” said Yamamoto. “Words can’t even describe it. It was an unbelievable feeling.”Off McDavid’s assist, Nugent-Hopkins put Edmonton ahead on a power play 7:30 into the third period. Nugent-Hopkins has seven points in the last three games.Boston tied it with 8:34 to go when Brad Marchand fed it in front to Pastrnak for his eighth.Notes: Edmonton was the last of the NHL’s 31 teams to have its home opener. The Oilers played their first four games on the road , including starting the season in Sweden. It is the latest Edmonton has ever had its home opener in a non-lockout season. … Zdeno Chara played his 900th regular season game with the Bruins. The 41-year-old has played in 1,429 games over 21 NHL seasons.UP NEXTBruins: At Vancouver on Saturday night.Oilers: Host Nashville on Saturday night. LAS VEGAS (AP) The Vegas Golden Knights have done an excellent job of not looking too far ahead in their inaugural season.It has served them well during their amazing run as an expansion team, all the way to the top of the NHL standings.After Saturday’s 6-3 win over the Montreal Canadiens, the Golden Knights lead the NHL with 82 points.Article continues below ...According to the league, Vegas is the first expansion team in its inaugural season to hold the outright lead in the standings this late into a season – 58 games played – besting the 1967-68 Kings, who led the league through 19 games on Nov. 24, 1967.But as veteran goalkeeper and three-time Stanley Cup winner Marc-Andre Fleury said, there is a point in the season every team is either trying to get into the playoffs or stay positioned where they are for the postseason.”Right now, we’re in good shape,” Fleury said. ”We are aware where we are, but we can’t just sit back. We have to keep chasing those points night after night.”The cliche of ”one game at a time” has transitioned into playing with a sense of urgency with seven weeks left in the regular season.Four games into a seven-game homestand, Vegas has won three straight since losing to Philadelphia on Feb. 11. The Golden Knights responded with wins over Chicago, Edmonton, and the Canadiens, outscoring the three by a combined 15-6.”We’re in a good spot right now , we’re happy where we are, but we’re a team that’s always going to have something to prove,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said.”I think everyone probably watches the standings, a little more closer in the West than the East. It’s one thing about having a lot of points early and being in first place in the West.”It’s a little different with this group, we all have something to prove still. We’re an expansion team, no one ever thought we’d be here, where we are right now.”Nevertheless, McNabb said coach Gerard Gallant has done a good job of keeping his players focused, ensuring they’re performing their best each game.”The whole point of taking it day by day is you’re not focused on the big picture and I feel like that’s a good approach for our team to have,” defenseman Shea Theodore said.”You can’t look too far ahead, it’s just kind of how we’re rolling and we’re doing a good job with that. I feel like we’ve done a good job of showing the league we’re for real.”Even team owner Bill Foley has gotten in on the act of not looking too far ahead. After Saturday night’s win, Foley expressed concern over Theodore’s recent throat infection that kept him out of the lineup, he spoke about Pierre-Edouard Bellemare getting injured during the game and said while he is happy with his team’s success it’s important not to become complacent.”But it is fun, it’s great,” Foley said. ”One thing we did when we did the expansion draft , it was a lot of hard work, and we put a lot of planning into it. We had five mock draft sessions in the expansion draft. We knew other teams as well or better than they knew themselves. So, we knew what we were getting. And (general manager) George (McPhee) did a phenomenal job in making some key deals. The result is what we have.”We have guys that have a little bit of a chip on their shoulder and they want to play hard, and they really play hard against their former teams.”With Saturday’s win over one of the NHL’s Original Six teams, Vegas improved to 22-4-2 at T-Mobile Arena, matching the 1979-80 Hartford Whalers (22-12-6) for the most home wins by a team in its first season.It doesn’t get any easier for Vegas, which is 14-1-1 against Pacific Division teams, and faces key games this upcoming week against Anaheim on Monday, Calgary on Wednesday and Vancouver on Friday.”The schedule is going to be tough with a lot of games coming up,” Fleury said. ”We gotta find a way to be consistent all those nights and keep fighting. We still gotta focus playing one game at a time. You don’t want to think too far down the road. Every game is important.”Veteran defenseman Deryk Engelland agreed.”We’ve been doing a good job all year of taking it one game at a time and treating every game as a must win. It’s a tight division, it’s a tight conference and we just have to take it one game at a time.”Come April 8, we can maybe gear up from there, but from now `til then it’s one game at time and get ready for the next one.”—