Oilers show emotion and target one Kraken player in convincing win

Aside from their struggling offence, defence, and goaltending, one of the biggest Oilers problems this season has been a lack of emotion in too many games. They needed a huge response in today's game, and showed major improvements at all positions - especially their emotion.

The Oilers showed major improvements in all facets of their game, especially with defence and goaltending securing a shutout win. The offence still left some to be desired, but was lethal when it needed to be.

However, the biggest positive sign to come out of this game is the urgency and emotion the Oilers showed up to play with. Just yesterday, Leon Draisaitl called out an Oilers media report questioning the team's leadership. Today, it doesn't look like an issue at all.

The physicality of the Oilers in today's game truly brought the entire team together and elevated their play, and it started by just sticking up for their teammates. Darnell Nurse took a late hit from Mason Marchment, which incensed the Oilers.

Seeing the entire team stick together and go after Marchment in the rest of the game was a great sign for this team's leadership and commitment to one another. Finally, they showed some emotion.

The Oilers even had some history with Marchment, who was the player that took Zach Hyman out of the playoffs last year. Marchment actually did seem to apologize pre-game, but that didn't help him later on.

Even with so much noise around the Oilers goaltending this week, Stuart Skinner delivered a perfect game. Connor Clattenburg was out causing chaos. Every veteran player was engaged. That's all the signs coming together.

After a few blowout losses and questions to the leadership core, this is exactly what the Oilers needed to see. If they can maintain this urgency and emotion, they'll start to kick off a winning streak that will take them back up the standings.