It was all gas, no break.
And the Edmonton Oilers ended up in the ditch.
In a game they had circled on their calendar before the NHL schedule even came out, the team that lost Game 7 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final, 2-1, went full attack mode on the team that won it all.
The result was a 4-2 lead in the second period that turned into a 6-5 loss to the visiting Florida Panthers in Tuesday’s highly anticipated Stanley Cup rematch at Rogers Place.
The good news, of course, with the latest loss is the Oilers live to play another day. This time, they left the ice with the hard-learned lesson that you can’t simply outscore your mistakes — even against an opponent like the Panthers, who came into the game not being able to score at all, having been shut out in their previous two outings.
But it’s tempting for a team with such a high-octane offence like the Oilers to want to simply torque the throttle and hang on for dear life, leaving everything else in a cloud of dust.
And for good reason. After all, they boast a trio of players on red-hot goal streaks, as Zach Hyman scored twice to make it seven goals in six games since returning from injury, Connor Brown contributed a goal in his third-straight game and Leon Draisaitl made it four in a row with a goal, for his league-leading 23rd.
With that amount of firepower, the Oilers defence and goaltending didn’t even need to keep up, they just needed to show up.
Unfortunately for them, the result showed otherwise and the Oilers’ season-high win streak ended at five games, as the defending champs didn’t let the big ring on their finger stop them from waving goodbye at Edmonton out the plane window.
“We’ve certainly given up a couple too many goals in the last couple games,” Draisaitl said. “We played some good teams, you know they’re going to create (chances), they’re going to score some goals. We’ve got to be aware of that, but it’s all about limiting.
“And obviously, if you give up six you’re not giving yourself a great chance at winning. So, we’ve got to tighten that up a little bit.”
He’s right. No catastrophic change is needed here. The Oilers ended up losing this one by the same one-goal margin as that low-scoring Game 7 affair. Offence is their bread and butter, and it’s what had them on a run that saw them win eight of nine games before facing the Panthers.
They just need to find a little more on the back end. And not at the expense of all the firepower up front.
Despite the Florida speed bump, the Oilers are still sitting third in the Pacific Division, five points out of first place. And that’s a far cry more favourable of a position than when they were behind the 8-ball early on in the season, when pucks weren’t going in for them.
“We did a lot of good things last night, and a lot of things we we’ve got to do a lot better,” Draisaitl said. “And I think it’s just more about doing it consistently, and doing it each and every night and get those details dialed in.”
The Oilers are no strangers to adversity. Last year was a prime example, turning a 2-9-1 start into a ticket they punched all the way to Round 4 of the playoffs, where they then had to battle back from falling behind 3-0 in the best-of-7 series.
And while it would have been nice to send their fans home with at least some sense of retribution Monday, a regular-season win against Florida wouldn’t do anything to make amends for lost opportunities. For that, they will have to earn their way back into another long playoff run come spring. And by then, it won’t really make a difference if it’s even the Panthers lined up on the other side of the faceoff dot or not.
“We know that we’re not going to win very many games giving up six goals,” Draisaitl said. “If we keep it to two or three, we give ourselves a pretty good chance most nights of winning games.
“We’ve got a great culture in here. We know that, and everyone’s aware of that. So, we’ll get back to that.”
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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