GDB 29.0 Wrap Up: Oilers kick off New York road trip with frustrating loss to Islanders
7 months ago
Remember the eight-game winning streak?
Well, that’s in the rearview mirror now, as the Oilers fell to the New York Islanders by a score of 3-1 to kick off their New York road trip. After getting to a game above .500, they’ve lost three in a row and have a 13-15-1 record.
THE WRAP UP IS PRESENTED BY BETWAY
The game started off promisingly, as Leon Draisaitl scored his 13th of the season, breaking down the wing. The Oilers had a few opportunities to score early in the first but were unable to finish on any of their chances for the rest of the game. Warren Foegele and Mattias Ekholm picked up assists on the goal, giving them four goals and 11 points on the season.
What sunk the Oilers on Tuesday was special teams. New York’s first goal game on the power play on a rather weak goal allowed by Stuart Skinner, as he was unable to hold onto the shot as the puck leaked behind him. Skinner had much less on the Islanders’ second power-play goal, as the Oilers allowed a cross-ice pass, missed coverage, and Bo Horvat was within five feet of Skinner in the slot with no one around him.
New York’s third and final goal came on an errant pass from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, which allowed the Islanders to jump on a 2-on-1, which Bouchard didn’t cover so great. The resulting cross-ice pass led to a one-time goal to sink the Oilers.
Overall, New York was two for four on the power play, while Edmonton went 0/4 on the power play against the worst penalty-killing team in the league. The Oilers were doing so well with the penalty kill until their streak-ending game against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
The good news is that the last time Edmonton went on a three-game losing streak, they immediately followed it up with an eight-game win streak. Here’s to hoping they can do that again,, as their 27 points in 29 games ranks as the fourth-worst in the Western Conference.
They sit five points behind Arizona, with five teams to overlap. Thankfully, they have at least one game in hand against most of these teams, so they definitely aren’t out of the race, but they might need to do something drastic soon.
Edmonton will continue its New York Metropolitan Division road trip with a game against the New Jersey Devils on Thursday at 5:00 PM MT. They’ll then wrap things up on Friday with a game at Madison Square Garden with the Rangers. Let’s put an end to this losing streak, shall we?
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