Revisiting the ghosts of last season is wasted energy when a brand new ghost is turning this season into a horror movie, but you know a chill went up the Oilers spine walking into Amerant Bank Arena.
And walking out was even worse.
Lugging a four-game losing streak into the place where they experienced the worst night of their professional careers, the Oilers knew they couldn’t do anything about the Stanley Cup scar, but they at least wanted to stop the bleeding.
Nope. Just another crushing, one-goal defeat.
The good news is that the 4-3 loss is only the second worst the Oilers have ever felt after losing a game in Florida, but the here and now is starting to look very grim.
This makes it 26 goals against over five-straight losses and 0-4 through the first four stops of this late season measuring-stick road trip.
The Oilers, on the longest losing-steak in the NHL right now, are going the wrong way fast.
To their credit, they were better in this one than they were against Philadelphia (6-3), Washington (7-3) or Tampa Bay (4-1).
They were neck and neck with the Panthers all night, showing none of the fragility they exhibited in letting the Flyers, Capitals and Panthers pull away when the going got tough.
After giving up the 1-0 goal at 12:28 of the first period, Brett Kulak tied it 2:13 later. When they fell behind 2-1 at 15:30 of the second period, Leon Draisaitl tied it two minutes later. That’s seven-straight games with a goal for Draisaitl.
But when Florida scored at 11:08 and 13:51 of the third period, the best Edmonton could do was cut it to 4-3 with the goalie pulled.
“They just ended up finding the back of the net more than us, but I thought we played a good game,” said Kulak. “Guys were working as hard as they could, giving second and third efforts, doing the little things. I thought we competed hard. There were a lot of positives.”
They were close, but the Oilers weren’t quite good enough to solve the Panthers, who’ve won both games against Edmonton this year.
“I think the guys competed really hard, we had some pretty good performances by some guys,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch, who wasn’t thrilled with the entire group.
“To get out of a funk like this, when things aren’t going well and guys are really squeezing their sticks, we need everybody.”
And, as far as the coach is concerned, they didn’t bring a full gang to the fight.
“I felt there were a few passengers, there were some guys who just didn’t put in the effort that we needed,” said Knoblauch. “Most of the guys did pretty much everything they could. A lot of the guys played well, played hard, did everything they could, but a couple not so much.”
In the goaltending battle, Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky was one save better than Edmonton’s Stuart Skinner.
Skinner, as he so often does, fought back hard after giving up nine goals in a pair of losses to Philadelphia and Tampa Bay. He made a handful of big-time stops to keep Edmonton in the game through 40 minutes, but Florida’s third and fourth goals were nothing special.
“I think Stu played a heck of a game, he made some big saves,” said Knoblauch. “Their first goal went in off Kulak’s back side, then another off a skate. The fourth one, we defended it well and it just bounces right to where (Carter Verhaeghe) is going. The way it’s going right now we have to make our breaks.”
The way it’s going right now the Oilers are losing ground on the Vegas Golden Knights and have now been caught (points percentage wise) but the third place L.A. Kings, who are two points back with three games in hand.
“It sucks, we put a lot of internal pressure on ourselves,” said Kulak. “There it lots to build off of tonight, though. I think we took a step in the right direction even though it wasn’t the result we wanted.”
Teams in losing streaks usually have a game or two at the end of them where they play well and lose. The Oilers are hoping this was that game, but with the Carolina Hurricanes up next, there is no taking anything for granted.
Things might get worse before they get better.
“You can’t start pointing fingers in the room,” said Kulak. “We’ve been through a lot together. You don’t start blaming guys, wishing this guy did more, or that guy did more.
“You just look at yourself in the mirror and look at past success personally and as a team and find what works again, find your spot, and everybody come in and play at your best.”
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