Oilers, Draisaitl spoil Hall's return to Edmonton
EDMONTON, Alberta -- Taylor Hall's return to Edmonton was an unhappy one.
Leon Draisaitl had three points, including the overtime winner, as the Oilers beat Hall's New Jersey Devils 3-2 on Thursday.
Draisaitl rifled home a feed from Connor McDavid for the game winner. McDavid had two assists on the night.
Hall, playing in Edmonton for the first time since the Oilers traded him to New Jersey, got an assist. Hall was traded to the Devils last July in exchange for defenseman Adam Larsson.
The Oilers snapped a two-game losing streak. The Devils extended their winless skid to four games.
Hall's return to Edmonton took an ugly turn early in the third. Right off the faceoff, Hall's elbow knocked Zack Kassian to the ice. Kassian, infuriated stalked his former teammate down the ice, caught up to Hall and threw a punch at his quarry. Hall, not wanting to fight one of the Oilers tough guys, ducked and covered.
Hall got a double minor, Kassian got a lone minor.
While Devils killed off the penalty, they couldn't keep the Oilers at bay. With 7:24 left in the third, Patrick Maroon banged away at a loose puck in the crease and scored his 17th goal of the season. Maroon now has six goals in his last five games.
Eight minutes into the first period, during a TV timeout, the Rogers Place video screen displayed a tribute to Hall, and the Rogers Place crowd responded with a standing ovation. Hall, out on the ice and with all of the cameras on him, applauded the crowd in return. The left winger had 328 points in 381 career games as an Oiler, placing him 17th on Edmonton's all-time scoring list.
The Devils opened the scoring at 18:06, as Travis Zajac knocked the puck into the net after Kyle Palmieri swept out in front of Oiler goalie Cam Talbot's net.
With the Devils taking a 1-0 lead into the first intermission, it marked the fourth straight game that the Oilers trailed after the opening period.
But, just 16 seconds into the second, the Oilers tied it. Draisaitl dropped the puck for rushing Andrej Sekera, and the defenseman rifled a shot between the pads of Devils netminder Cory Schneider.
Jordan Eberle, on a two-on-one break, had a great chance to give the Oilers the lead but, like Maroon, his shot found the post. Eberle hasn't scored since Dec. 6.
With 50 seconds left in the second, Hall helped give the Devils the lead, turning and firing a shot from the slot off Steven Santini's arm. Santini got credit for his first goal of the season.
NOTES: The Oilers beat the Devils 2-1 in overtime last Saturday at the Prudential Center. ... The Oilers had two new additions to their roster Thursday, both called up from their AHL affiliate in Bakersfield, Calif.; C Jujhar Khaira and G Laurent Brossoit. Brossoit went 0-4-1 with an .873 save percentage for the Oilers last season. ... C Blake Coleman and D Karl Stollery were called up by the Devils from their AHL affiliate in Albany, N.Y., ahead of Thursday's game. ... G Cam Talbot made his league leading 39th start in goal. ... After missing the previous four games, D Brandon Davidson returned to the Oilers lineup. ... The Oilers scratched D Eric Gryba and LW Matt Hendricks. ... The Devils scratched LW Luke Gazdic, C Pavel Zacha and D Seth Helgeson.