EDMONTON — David Poile now has the most wins in NHL history as a general manager.
Viktor Arvidsson scored a pair of goals as Poile's Nashville Predators came from behind to record a 4-2 victory over Edmonton on Thursday. The victory was the 1,320th in Poile's career, surpassing Glen Sather, who GMed the Oilers dynasty of the 1980s and then took over the New York Rangers in 2000.
"It's big, it's a big two points in the standings and it's a big accomplishment for David and his family to be the winningest GM in the history of the league," Arvidsson said. "It's huge for him."
Scott Hartnell and Austin Watson also scored for the Predators (40-14-9), who have won a season-high six games in a row. Pekka Rinne made 34 saves for the win.
"It's not something that we want to make it a habit of, but I think it was a couple of bad bounces that put us in the hole," Watson said of the need to mount a comeback. "I think we have that confidence as a group that we know that we can score goals if we stick to what we're talking about and stick to what (coach Peter Laviolette) is preaching, then we're going to be able to score goals and come back in the hockey game and we were able to do that."
Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl replied for the Oilers (27-33-4), who have lost two straight. Cam Talbot stopped 38 shots in net.
"We didn't make a lot of mistakes, but they made us pay for the ones that we made," said Oilers forward Milan Lucic. "We had enough chances to extend the lead in the second period and we weren't able to capitalize on them. Good teams, when they hang around and you give them chances, they find a way to get themselves back in it and that's what happened here tonight."
McDavid showed some patience in front of the net, waiting for Rinne to commit before scoring his 29th goal of the season to open the scoring 11 minutes into the first period for a 1-0 Edmonton lead.
Draisaitl beat Rinne with a long wrist shot on a power play to give the Oilers a 2-0 lead with 53 seconds left in the first.
Nashville finally got on the board with 3:32 to play in the second period when Nick Bonino made a quick touch pass to Hartnell in front, and he beat Talbot for his 12th of the year.
The Predators tied it 2-2 with 10 seconds to play in the second period when Arvidsson converted on a Filip Forsberg pass on a two-on-one opportunity.
Arvidsson got his second of the game and 24th of the season with 5:08 remaining in the third period as he batted home the rebound from a Forsberg shot.
Nashville put the game away two minutes later as Watson had a wide-open net to deposit the puck into.
The Predators are in Vancouver to face the Canucks on Friday. The Oilers continue a five-game homestand on Saturday against the New York Rangers.
Notes: It was the last of three games between the two teams this season, with Nashville winning the previous two. Edmonton came into the game having lost 11 straight games to the Predators and shut out four times during that span… Oilers defenceman Adam Larsson out of the lineup and will also miss Saturday's game to attend his father's funeral in Sweden. As a result, blueliner Ethan Bear made his NHL debut… Forward Pontus Aberg played his first game for the Oilers in Edmonton since being acquired in a trade deadline deal with Nashville.
Shane Jones, The Canadian Press