It’s not the Forum, but the Bell Centre in Montreal is still a cathedral of hockey.
But instead of beautiful choir music, the Edmonton Oilers came across more like drunken karaoke singers in Monday’s ill-fated visit.
They didn’t have a prayer.
In what was supposed to be a rebound game against the 30th place team in the NHL after Saturday’s embarrassing meltdown in Toronto, the Oilers were out of tune all night long in an even more embarrassing 3-0 loss.
Once again it was the usual suspects biting Edmonton in the backside. A costly turnover to make it 1-0. A soft goal to make it 2-0 and then an empty netter to add insult to injury as the Oilers fell to 9-8-2 on the season.
Edmonton’s pop gun offence wore a path around the outside of Montreal’s zone, but rarely ventured into the hard areas in search of something greasy.
This was a game between the 20th and 21st ranked offences in the NHL, so it’s no surprise things were scoreless through 39 minutes, but at least the Oilers were hanging in.
Despite not having Darnell Nurse in the lineup as he recovers from concussion symptoms after the head shot from Ryan Reaves on Saturday, the Oilers held the hosts to 10 shots with a minute and change to play in the second frame.
Then…
BOO-CHARD
Evan Bouchard completed the hat-trick on Monday. After serving up two back-breaking goals to the Maple Leafs last game, one on a D-zone turnover and the other when he quit on the back check, he got Montreal on the board late in the first period on Monday.
Bouchard’s casual turnover in Montreal’s end set up an odd-man rush the other way and moments later it was 1-0 Canadiens on a Brendan Gallagher deflection.
He’s having a slump for the ages, on pace for 40 points after 82 last season, in a contract year with the Oilers in a Stanley Cup window.
KILLER GOAL
Calvin Pickard, whose .890 save percentage makes him the better of Edmonton’s two goalies, got the start for the Oilers and was pretty solid most of the night, right up until Edmonton-born Kaiden Guhle’s short-side wrist shot at 5:52 of the third period put the Oilers down 2-0.
The soft goal at a bad time was a killer. The offence was non-existent, so it didn’t matter, but a save there would have been nice.
BLACK HOLE OFFENCE
This makes four straight games in which no forward other than Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl scored a goal. It also makes three shutout losses this year and it’s the ninth time in 19 games that Edmonton has been held to two or fewer goals.
The Oilers have 50 goals this season, McDavid and Draisaitl have 20 of them.
The Oilers did a better job drawing penalties — three in the first 25 minutes — but came up empty. That makes it 3-for-16 over the last seven games.
Also, there is no planet on which Vasily Podkolzin has the potential to generate more offence than Jeff Skinner, but Skinner was on the makeshift fourth line in an 11-7 alignment and Podkolzin, who has three assists this season, skated with Draisaitl and Corey Perry on the second line.
LATE HITS
Monday marked the 900th NHL game for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The longest-serving current Oiler had a solid career but he can’t get out of the ditch offensively this season. He has just one goal on the season and hasn’t scored in 11 games. … One game after Reaves sent Nurse to the sidelines for five to 10 days, six-foot-four, 240-pound Canadiens winger Arber Xhekaj absolutely smeared Zach Hyman in the first period with a hit that straddled the fine line between clean and interference, but the Oilers aren’t built to do anything about it so they let it slide.
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