It’s not time to abandon ship yet, but with Edmonton Oilers taking on a disconcerting amount of water lately it might be a good idea to make a mental note of where the lifeboats are.
Just in case.
The losing streak is now four games in a row and the larger sample size is 2-5-1 after the Oilers were overwhelmed by another top-flight opponent — this time 4-1 by the Tampa Bay Lightning.
On the heels of a 6-3 loss in Philadelphia, a 7-3 loss in Washington and a 5-4 loss to Colorado before the Four Nations break, the Oilers didn’t look any different in Tampa Bay.
A team that was supposed to have taken stock of itself and made a concerted effort to turn its game around after a pair of beatings to start the road trip didn’t show any of the poise and fire they needed.
Too slow, too many turnovers, anemic offence, porous defence and not enough key saves. All of the same stuff that’s been dragging the Oilers down for weeks dragged them down again on Tuesday.
In fact, it was a carbon copy of the last game. In Washington, Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring on the power play and the Capitals scored five-straight goals. This time, Draisaitl opened the scoring on the power play and the Lightning scored four-straight goals.
“We’re a fragile group right now,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “We’re a little reluctant to play our game. Confidence is a little hard right now. We haven’t gone through this tough a stretch in a while.”
Tampa Bay was just faster, hungrier on pucks, better in puck battles, smarter with the puck management and better in net. Take away a couple of garbage-time goals in Washington and the Oilers haven’t scored an even-strength goal in two games.
Everything is going wrong right now.
“We’re not playing our best and we’re playing some really good teams,” said Knoblauch. “We can’t not be at our best and expect to win these games.”
Defensively, Edmonton started off on the wrong foot and stayed there most of the night. On the first shift of the game, Evan Bouchard got too casual and turned the puck over for a point-blank shot that would have made it 1-0 if not for Stuart Skinner.
On Tampa’s first goal, Kasperi Kapanen turned the puck over at centre ice, setting up a four-on-two the other way.
Skinner was fantastic in the first period, stopping 13 shots to mask the mistakes, but they kept coming.
“We’re giving up way too many chances, we’re giving up way too much zone time,” said defenceman Mattias Ekholm. “We’re in that funk right now. It’s going to take a gutsy effort that gets us ut of it but right now we’re not there.”
On the first shift of the second period, Edmonton gave Tampa Bay a freebie to make it 2-1. On a simple one-on-one rush, Brandon Hagel skated up the wing, cruised behind Edmonton’s net untouched and scored on a wraparound that caught Skinner napping and Bouchard mailing it in.
Bouchard watched the play develop from start to finish and never even took a stride in Hagel’s direction, just coasted a safe distance away and then helped fish the puck out of the net.
That goal seemed to suck the life out of the fragile Oilers.
“Every one is a little discouraged,” said Knoblauch. “They put a lot of pressure on themselves to win, they view themselves as one of the best in the league. We have to put the adversity moments behind us and be able to respond and push back.”
Mix in another goal against on the penalty kill (nine of them in the last seven games) and it’s 3-1 Tampa. In fairness, it was a two-man advantage for 1:12 with Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the box, but the Oilers have taken 16 penalties in the last seven games and killed just seven of them.
An odd-man rush in the third period made it 4-1. And the water keeps flooding in.
“We’re in a bit of a hole right now as a team,” said Ekholm. “It’s about resiliency and sticking with it — we’re going to have to dig one out here sooner or later.”
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE: Draisaitl is basically Tiger Woods at the 2000 US Open or Usain Bolt winning the 100 metres in the Olympics. He is blowing away the field in this year’s Rocket Richard goal scoring race, 10 goals up on second place William Nylander, after drawing a penalty and then scoring for the sixth game in a row to give Edmonton a brief lead.
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