New York. To everyone’s surprise, he started the season in the farm league, but now Matthias Janmark is back on the big stage – and in Edmonton’s game away against Chicago last night, he showed with both goals and assists that this is where he belongs.
– Obviously, it was a little bit of revenge, Jana tells Sportbladet after the 5-4 win.
Joy featured Mattias Janmark when he signed with the Edmonton Oilers this summer.
That meant he would play with Connor McDavid and Leon Draistel, and when we caught up with him during the pre-season, he was talking about the experience it was just having to train with such world-class entertainers.
But before the start of the regular season in October, the blow came: the club’s management announced that he would be allowed to start for the AHL team in Bakersfield in the dustiest part of California. Necessary for salary cap math reasons, anyone can figure that out, but still. Not fun for a player in the NHL with seven consecutive seasons in Dallas, Chicago, and Vegas under his belt.
– No, it didn’t quite happen as I imagined, says the 29-year-old from Stockholm on the phone from Chicago.
– It also took three weeks to get a visa, so I couldn’t even train. It was a little heavy and you obviously started to think a little bit. But once I got there I just had to drive and hope for the best.
I got to play again
The “best” happened three weeks ago. Then Mathias was called up again and since then has played nine straight games for the Oilers – including in the first series with Connor McDavid. It used to be all right, but at the United Center against the Blackhawks last night, the real icebreaker came.
First, he assisted on a goal signed by Ryan Nugent Hopkins, and then himself hit the ball after a two-on-one counterattack with the same Nugent Hopkins.
It was great to score that goal. He noted that after what happened, it seemed like a kind of revenge.
Last night’s victory was the Oilers’ third straight win, and the hope is that the Alberta Candidates have now stepped up their somewhat chaotic season.
“It was a little rough, before I got up and while I was here, but if we keep going, I think it’ll be fine,” says Jana.
In the Chicago box, Arvid Söderblom stopped 36 of 41 shots.