For those who need a reminder, the Edmonton Oil Kings have a well-deserved reputation as one of the top teams in the Western Hockey League.
They were champions in 2012, league finalists last season, and they might well win the Ed Chynoweth Cup again this spring.
Blessed with five NHL-drafted players and a handful more who are attracting plenty of attention from the pro scouts, the Oil Kings looked like world-beaters Friday night at CN Centre in an 8-0 obliteration of the Prince George
Cougars.
One of those NHL prospects, centre Henrik Samuelsson, picked 27th overall in 2012 by the Phoenix Coyotes, had an absolute field day carving up the Cougars, collecting four goals and one assist.
The 19-year-old native of Scottsdale, Ariz., the Oil Kings' leading scorer and son of former NHLer Ulf, put three pucks behind Cougars starting goalie Adam Beukeboom to chase him from the game one minute into the second period and scored his fourth on Ty Edmonds.
Reid Petryk also feasted at the Cougars' trough with two goals and two assists.
Outshot 57-17, the only ray of sunshine for the Cougars came early in the game when they had their one and only great scoring chance.
Three consecutive penalties gave the Cougars a 5-on-3 opportunity for a full minute and they kept the puck in the Edmonton zone for a long stretch of time but came away empty-handed, and they had Tristan Jarry to thank. Jarry showed why the Pittsburgh Penguins drafted him in the second round in 2013, 44th overall, when he stacked the pads to foil a backhand-forehand deke and shot from Cougars' leading scorer Todd Fiddler, which kept the game scoreless. But after that, it was pure ugliness from a Cougars' perspective.
"We had no jump. No speed and no thinking whatsoever," said Cougars head coach Mark Holick. "We were just brain-dead from the neck down. I'm just real disappointed in our leadership tonight. I didn't see any sort of pushback from anybody. We got outshot by 40 shots in our own building and had zero energy and zero compete and it was an absolute embarrassment by our hockey club."
The Oil Kings started flexing their offensive might mere seconds after they returned to full strength.
Samuelsson picked the corner low with a wrist shot at 7:58 for the opening Edmonton celebration. A couple minutes later Fiddler coughed the puck up off the side boards in the Cougars' end, feeding a backhand pass right onto the blade of Edmonton centre Petrk, who lifted a quick shot over Beukeboom's glove.
Defenceman Cody Corbett made it 3-0 with his 13th of the season and Samuelsson increased the gap with a burst of speed to catch up to a 2-on-1 pass from Edmonton Oilers pick Mitchell Moroz, who finished the game with four assists.
The Cougars were guilty of making some ill-advised passes in front of their own net to start the second period and the Oil Kings used that to their advantage. Griffin Reinhart, picked fourth overall by the New York Islanders in 2012, held the puck in the zone and dished it to Samuelsson for his hat-trick goal, a long shot through the legs of Beukeboom. That came just 59 seconds into the second period and that was it for the Beukeboom, replaced after giving up five goals on 24 shots.
The Cougars had nothing right going for them and gave up two more goals before the period ended. Edmonds was able to get across the crease to snuff Samuelsson's goalmouth scoring attempt but Petryk followed up on the rebound. Samuelsson continued the carnage a couple minutes later with his 22nd goal of the season on an Oil Kings' power play.
Ben Carroll, on another Edmonton power play, capped the scoring in the third period. The Oil Kings were 3-6 with the man advantage. The Cats were 0-for-5, resorting to an all-rookie power play late in the game.
The 57-shots allowed marked a season high for the Cougars as Jarry picked up his league-leading sixth shutout of the season. Edmonds, who looked impressive in Wednesday's BMO NHL/CHL Top Prospects Game, played well in relief, making 30 saves on 33 shots.
"I can't blame either goalie tonight, we were just awful," said Holick. "I thought maybe the guys would respond to a change but they didn't."
The Cougars will start with a clean slate today in the rematch against Edmonton, a 1:30 p.m. start on Hockey Day in Canada.
