Remember when we were talking about home ice advantage through the entire playoffs? About the Oilers winning their division for the first time since the 1980s?
That all feels like a distant memory with the team picking up just two regulation victories in 14 games since the end of January.
Edmonton’s most recent loss came on Thursday in New Jersey during the first leg of a back-to-back. They had a 2-1 lead early in the third period but the Devils escaped with a 3-2 win. The Oilers will look to avoid falling into a three-game losing streak when they play the New York Islanders on Friday.

Oilers can’t hold lead against injury-riddled Devils

The Oilers and Devils were scoreless in the first period and the two teams exchanged goals in the second, leaving the score at 1-1 heading into the third frame. Evan Bouchard put the visiting team in the lead for the first time four minutes into the third but New Jersey responded with two goals two minutes apart to take the lead back.
Despite a flurry of chances in the final moments of the game, the Oilers weren’t able to get another puck past Jake Allen, who turned aside 31 of 33 shots in the win. Stuart Skinner was solid for Edmonton, allowing three goals on 22 shots. He came up with some big stops on two-on-one opportunities and got beat on a couple of screened shots from the point.
While the story in Edmonton on many nights is poor goaltending, it was a stagnant offence that led to this loss. The Oilers got offence from Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Zach Hyman while the other three lines mostly skated around doing cardio.
“It’s a little bit of everything,” head coach Kris Knoblauch said when asked after the game what’s been going wrong for the struggling Oilers. “Whether that’s the power play or penalty kill. Whether it’s depth scoring or making mistakes. Whatever it is, there are a lot of things we need to improve on.”
“I thought our guys put in a really good effort,” Knoblauch continued. “The first 40 minutes I thought was a pretty even game. The third period I thought we really pushed hard and had a lot of scoring chances.
“The turning point in the third period is turning the puck over in the neutral zone against their top line. It’s our fourth line against their top line and we turn the puck over and they capitalize on it. It’s something that absolutely can’t happen, especially with a 2-1 lead.”
The Devils have buckled down despite being dealt a very difficult hand right before the trade deadline. The team lost top centre Jack Hughes to shoulder surgery and defenceman Dougie Hamilton to a lower-body injury in early March. Hamilton might return in the playoffs but Hughes is done for the year.
Despite that, New Jersey is now on a three-game winning streak with their victory over Edmonton. While other teams are getting themselves into playoff mode, the Oilers are having their worst stretch since October.

Leon Draisaitl continues career-high scoring streak

The bright spot for the Oilers in this game was that Leon Draisaitl continued his streak of consecutive games with at least one point. His goal in the second period made this the 16th game in a row that the German pivot has found the scoresheet, which is a growing career-high.
Draisaitl is running away with the Rocket Richard Trophy this season, as his 47 goals are 11 clear of second-place William Nylander. Nathan MacKinnon leads the way with 102 points, four ahead of Draisaitl with 98 points.

Kings jump into second place in Pacific Division

While the Oilers lost in New Jersey on Thursday, the other top teams in the Pacific Division picked up commanding wins. The Vegas Golden Knights went into Columbus and beat the Blue Jackets 4-0 and the Los Angeles Kings hosted the Washington Capitals and won 3-0.
The Golden Knights are now seven points clear of the Oilers with 17 games remaining for both teams. The Kings are in second place in the division standings, one point ahead of the Oilers with one game in hand.