The bright side

• Ugh. This is the same deal with Florida again. I’m going to have a hell of a time looking for positive things to say about that game. How has BM done this for all these years?!
• The fourth line was consistently the team’s best line tonight. I’m not sure if that’s a bright side or a positive but I’m looking for good things to say so I’ll roll with it. Brodziak, Kassian, and Khaira played with consistent energy and physicality and made life difficult for the Avs. While the Oilers frequently got beat to pucks tonight, the fourth line went out there and gave the Avs hell. Kudos to them for that. The team needs all four forward lines doing that on a shift-by-shift basis.
• Mikko Koskinen played well in relief of Cam Talbot, stopping 12 of 13 shots Colorado threw at him. He also made a few big saves in the third period to keep Edmonton’s faint comeback hopes alive when the game opened up and the team was going into attack mode.

The face palmers

• This was a perfect opportunity. The Oilers were coming home from a tough four-game road trip and had an opportunity against another slumping team to make a statement. They did the opposite. The Oilers didn’t look like a team playing at home hungry for a win tonight. They came out especially slow and just got blown away by Colorado in the first period. This is an Avs team who, beyond one line, really doesn’t have much depth. Despite that, wave after wave, the Avs just blew past the Oilers, making them look slow, tired, and disinterested.
• Cam Talbot had a rough game, allowing three goals on 15 shots. I mean, the team in front of him didn’t help out whatsoever so I’m not going to pin tonight’s loss on him by any stretch, but we’re seeing too many of these mediocre outings from the guy who is supposed to be the team’s No. 1 guy.
• The Oilers have virtually zero offence behind Connor McDavid. When he isn’t on the ice, there’s virtually zero threat to score from this team. Alex Chiasson and Tobias Rieder had a nice streak with Leon Draisaitl for a few games, but we’re back into that mode in which the team looks like they’re just killing time without McDavid on the ice. When there isn’t an attack behind McDavid, it becomes that much easier for opposing teams to contain him. That was the case tonight as McDavid was held off the scoresheet and Gabe Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon were constantly on against him making life difficult.
•  I thought the refs missed quite a few calls on the Oilers, so that’s one face palmer in itself that we’re used to, but, in the same vein, the power play wasn’t good again tonight. Edmonton went 0/3 on their opportunities with the man advantage and looked pretty stagnant out there.

Scoring summary