Normally, the seventh goal in a 7-2 win is meaningless. That sure wasn’t the case on Wednesday.
Connor Brown drove to the net and had a pass from Evander Kane go off his skate and by Washington Capitals goalie Darcy Kuemper, finally — finally! — resulting in his first goal as an Edmonton Oiler.
The smile said it all.
“I think I might get into a glass of wine or two,” Brown said with a laugh after the game.
The home crowd erupted after the red light flashed and Kane embraced Brown at the 11-minute mark of the third period. The high-five flyby at the bench was way more jovial than usual. The ensuing faceoff had to be delayed because a few fans threw hats on the ice.
Brown’s goal came 17 seconds after Warren Foegele netted his 15th marker of the season. Public address announcer Al Stafford had to shout out Foegele’s accomplishment first.
Once Stafford got to Brown’s goal, the place went nuts again. As the play carried on, chants of “Con-nor Br-own” filled the arena to commemorate the right winger’s first goal in his 55th game of the season — and the Oilers’ 64th.
“It meant a lot,” Brown said. “You play in a big market like this, they’re aware of the storylines.
“It’s been a struggle this year offensively. I haven’t been able to get one to go (in). So, for their support to shine through there, they’re rooting for me. It’s a good feeling.”
🚨 BROWNIE’S FIRST AS AN OILER 🚨 pic.twitter.com/hZT2RTE2Re
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) March 14, 2024
Oddly enough, the goal came against Brown’s former team, the one for whom he skated in just four games last season before sustaining a torn ACL.
Brown failed to score in those four contests with Washington, which meant his goal-less drought dated back almost two years to March 24, 2022 — a span of 72 games.
“It’s nice to get on the board and go out and play now,” he said with a smile.
It wasn’t supposed to be this way for Brown in Edmonton. Not even close.
Despite the injury that cost him almost the entire campaign, Brown came to Edmonton with great expectations.
The Oilers had been giving 2016 and 2017 first-round picks Jesse Puljujarvi and Kailer Yamamoto top-six tries at right wing to varying levels of success in recent seasons. Consistent production was hard to come by.
In Brown, they were banking on a two-time 20-goal scorer meshing with either Leon Draisaitl or Connor McDavid — his former junior teammate — while providing a sound, two-way game.
The Oilers had already dumped Puljujarvi before the 2023 trade deadline and had to move on from Yamamoto for salary-cap reasons at the draft. That’s what also made Brown so appealing.
The combination of his NHL experience (at least 400 games) plus his poor health (at least 100 days spent on injury reserve the previous season) allowed teams to sign him to a bonus-laden contract. The Oilers, with a ringing endorsement from McDavid, were all over that chance.
Brown’s agent and soon-to-be Oilers hockey operations CEO Jeff Jackson constructed a contract with GM Ken Holland that would pay Brown a $775,000 league-minimum salary and cap hit, plus a $3.225 million bonus once he played 10 games.
It represented the ultimate great-now, trouble-later scenario — or, at least, that was the plan. The Oilers were supposed to be getting a bona fide, top-six player for a cheap rate on their books. They’d be forced to pay more next season, though, in the form of an overage for whatever they couldn’t fit under their cap at the fiscal year’s end.
The easily attainable threshold wasn’t meant to cause great angst. Brown was an established player. The $4 million sum was designed to make him whole after carrying a $3.6 million cap hit last season. In theory, who really cares at what point of the season he got his bonus?
Brown was finding his groove in the preseason as much so that after a three-point game, which included two goals, then-coach Jay Woodcroft said, “He’s going to fit our team like a glove.”
And then the regular season started.
Just two games in, Brown compared himself to Will Ferrell’s title character struggling to come back to racing in 2006 NASCAR-spoof comedy movie “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”
Not much had improved by the time he sustained a lower-body injury in his ninth game. He remained without a point. There was even chatter around the league that the Oilers would or should shut him down — something that was never going to happen.
Brown wound up returning Nov. 18 at Tampa and recorded his first point — an assist — four games later against Anaheim, but he wasn’t justifying his top-six slot.
He was bumped to the bottom six for good by mid-December and scratched by coach Kris Knoblauch, his old junior hockey bench boss, for a game before Christmas. After the Oilers acquired Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick from Anaheim, it was Brown who was asked to sit out to make room for them in the lineup.
“As good as you can,” said Draisaitl when asked how Brown’s handled things this season. “He accepted his role.
“He never complained. There’s none of that.”
Brown has had plenty of chances in close and even had a disallowed goal on Dec. 10 against New Jersey when a coach’s challenge deemed Kane contacted goaltender Akira Schmid.
“He’s probably the most unfortunate player, unlucky in the NHL — the amount of goal posts he’s hit and chances that just haven’t been able to go in,” Knoblauch said.
It seemed like he was never going to score. It felt like that at times for him, too, even if those thoughts were fleeting.
“It’s a challenge, but I believe in myself,” Brown said. “I know that I was just focused on feeling better, getting faster, stronger, playing better and I know that I’m around the net enough that one’s going to pop in.”
Through it all, by all accounts, Brown has had a positive attitude. He’s almost always seen smiling.
The goals weren’t going in, but he’s focused on other aspects of his game — namely penalty killing. Several teammates and people around the organization regard him as the Oilers’ top forward on the PK.
Draisaitl called him “one of the best (puck) strippers in the game.”
“You want to see your teammates succeed, you want to see your teammates happy, and it’s hard when you haven’t scored,” said Zach Hyman, who also played with Brown in Toronto. “Goal scoring is not a simple equation. There’s a lot that goes into it.
“But he’s been so solid for us. He plays PK, and anytime he’s out there you just feel safe.”
That probably isn’t enough to justify the lack of offence so far, though.
The Oilers were in the market for a top winger before the trade deadline. They might not have had to search for one if Brown had come as advertised — at least from an offensive perspective.
He gets it.
“I’ve scored 20 (goals) multiple times in my career, so I would say it is a big part of my game,” Brown said. “I never was just OK with not scoring. I wasn’t sufficient with just letting these big boys take the load, and not trying to contribute.
“I’m trying to score every night, and it will be that way moving forward and into the playoffs.”
That’s just it. There’s nothing that can be done about what’s happened — or hasn’t happened — now.
There’s only one direction to go.
“I know that I can build from that and gain some confidence with the puck in scoring areas,” Brown said. “It’s nice to get that now at the right time of year and get rolling.”
Maybe, just maybe, one goal off his skate will lead to many, many more — the way it was always supposed to be.
“Hockey’s a funny game with bounces and things like that,” Hyman said. “It just took something like that for him to get one, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more from him.
“I’ve played with him a long time, and he’s a really good player who can score. First of many for him in this jersey.”
(Photo: Codie McLachlan / Getty Images)
