Nugent-Hopkins Sets the Oilers Record — the Devils Win the Shootout Anyway

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has now played more games in an Edmonton Oilers jersey than anyone in franchise history — 1,038, passing Kevin Lowe's 1,037. He marked the record the right way, with a goal and an assist at the Prudential Center. Edmonton still left New Jersey with one point instead of two, beaten 4–3 in a shootout on a night that kept swinging — and on which the Devils were, for long stretches, simply the faster team. “I don't know what was going on [in the second period],” Edmonton coach Mike Babcock said. “They were way better than us. They were way faster. We just kept turning it over. We feel fortunate to get a point here tonight.”

Nugent-Hopkins set up the opener at 8:29 of the first, Evan Bouchard scoring on a slap shot from the top of the left face-off circle off feeds from Mattias Ekholm and the record man himself. Bouchard finished with a goal and an assist, a point in four straight games, and his season-opening road point streak reached eight games.

The second period tilted hard. New Jersey outshot Edmonton 16–3 in the period, and Connor Brown — facing his old team — tied it at 7:42 on the power play, chipping in the rebound of his own net-front redirect of a Jack Hughes shot at the left post. The goal ended Tristan Jarry's personal shutout streak at 153:59; Jarry finished with 31 saves and kept the game from getting away entirely. “It was nice to get a couple bounces,” Brown said. “We did a good job of kind of taking what they gave us.”

Then Hughes took the period over: a one-timer from the right face-off circle at 14:50 (Dougie Hamilton, Jesper Bratt), and 45 seconds later, at 15:35, a power-play backdoor finish at the left post, the puck going in off his left skate from Brown's cross-crease pass — 3–1 Devils, two goals in 45 seconds, and Hughes finished with two goals and an assist. The record man answered before the period was out: Nugent-Hopkins' power-play shot from the top of the left circle deflected in off Brown's stick at 18:16 (Bouchard, Kasperi Kapanen) to cut it to 3–2.

Edmonton tied it a minute into the third, on a two-man advantage: Leon Draisaitl's one-timer from the right circle at 1:00, from Kapanen and Connor McDavid, made it 3–3. The assist moved its own history — McDavid has assisted in all 16 games to open the season, an NHL record, and his 40 points in 16 games (nine goals, 31 assists) made him just the fourth player in league history to reach 40 that fast, after Mario Lemieux, Wayne Gretzky and Joe Malone. New Jersey's plan for him otherwise worked: shadowed by captain Nico Hischier, McDavid was held to one shot in 24:15. Connor Hellebuyck, acquired from Winnipeg on Oct. 23 and making his first Prudential Center start as a Devil, finished with 18 saves and a third straight win. “It was two really good hockey teams going at it,” Hellebuyck said. “The second period, I think they only got three shots, so that's almost textbook.”

The shootout gave the record night its sour ending. Hellebuyck stopped Hughes, McDavid scored for Edmonton, but Bratt and Arseny Gritsyuk answered for New Jersey, and when Hellebuyck stopped Kapanen in the fourth round it was over — the Devils took the shootout 2–1. New Jersey's power play went 2-for-5, ending an 0-for-10 slump. Edmonton (11–2–3) lost on the road for the first time this season (7–0–1) but has points in five straight (3–0–2); New Jersey (10–5–0) has won six of seven. The full game lives on the matchup's Game Center page, and the night joins the rest of the league on Previously's NHL hub.