One game after the Edmonton Oilers roared out of the gate in Dallas with their best 30 minutes of the season, only to lose 4-1, they were once again caught in an uncontrollable speed wobble on their way to the finish line Tuesday.
Sure enough, they went over the handle bars with six seconds left in overtime.
In a fierce goaltending battle that the Oilers were winning 2-0 at the second intermission, they let the evening deteriorate into a fire drill, with the Canes scoring twice in the third period and Sebastian Aho scoring in overtime to steal a 3-2 decision.
Whether the Oilers were lucky to be up 2-0 in the first place is up for discussion, but the bottom line is that they let another one slip away and are now 2-4-1 on the season.
“I think we see good signs,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who scored both of Edmonton’s goals, one in the first period and another in the second. “We had an opportunity to win tonight and we didn’t. I thought we gave ourselves a chance to win in Dallas and we didn’t.
“We’re playing the way that we know we can play, we just haven’t seen it enough.”
Parts of Edmonton’s game were tracking in the right direction in this one. They scored once on the power play and got an outstanding 30-save performance from goaltender Stuart Skinner, but offence remains a significant issue.
The lowest scoring team in the NHL stuck with its 2.0 goals per game average. And it didn’t help that the penalty kill surrendered its 10th goal in seven games.
Those two stats alone will make you 2-4-1 in a hurry.
“There’s lots of things we need to work on,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch, running through the mounting checklist. “Our special teams. Our five-on-five scoring. We can always get better checking.
“Obviously the penalty kill needs to be better. We need to make strides in all areas. We’re not going to turn the ship around immediately but we can make strides in each little area and if we do that things will start going our way.”
DRY ICE
McDavid put the Oilers on the board at 3:34 of the opening period and early in the second for his second and third goals of the season, moving him ahead of defenceman Brett Kulak and winger Jeff Skinner for the team lead in scoring.
That doesn’t speak well for the rest of the high-end players on this team, many of whom are still stuck on zero (Zach Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Viktor Arvidsson).
“They don’t need to be reminded that they haven’t scored,” said Knoblauch, well aware that one more well-timed goal would have made the difference on this night. “There were a couple of times where we could have put up some insurance, or scored the go-ahead goal after they made it 2-2. The outcome of the game would have been a little bit different there.”
As for the power play, it finally connected for a goal, but 2-for-19 on the season is a far cry from what the Oilers need it to be.
“I thought we generated chances, we scored a goal,” said McDavid. “I think we still have another level to get to, obviously, but I thought it was a step in the right direction.
“I don’t see any other option than to keep plugging away. Guys are getting chances and getting looks that they want, eventually it’s going to go, it’s just the law of averages.”
So the Oilers are back at practice Wednesday, shaking off their second tough defeat in a row and hoping to find some answers to this two-week riddle.
“I think we can be better, absolutely,” said defenceman Mattias Ekholm. “Right now it is just a matter of finding wins and we can’t really do that right now so it’s back to the drawing board a little bit.”
The top of the division is pulling away a little bit, but the Oilers remain confident that they are going to figure this out, especially given that most of their current weaknesses have proven track records of success.
They know they can score. They know they can kill penalties. They know their power play can be a force. If there is a switch somewhere that needs to be flipped, they can’t find it right now.
“I’ve been on this team for a year and a half and I know that when we get hot we get really hot,” said Ekholm. “We have a good team in here and we get our looks and we get our chances, but it’s about that last little percentile to bear down and score those goals.
“Give kudos to their goaltender, he was good tonight, but if we can just tighten it up a bit defensively and keep getting these looks, things are going to turn.”
LATE HITS — Zach Hyman was all alone in front on a two-on-one with McDavid and couldn’t convert, extending his pointless streak to seven games. … Leon Draisaitl’s cross-checking minor in the first period keeps him in the team lead in penalty minutes with five minors in seven games.
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