Instant Reaction: Edmonton Oilers blown out by Stars in 5-0 loss
3 months ago
Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, and sometimes you play a disastrous game like the Oilers did on Wednesday night, as the Dallas Stars throttled them 5-0.
This wasn’t a great look for the Oilers because if they wish to make a deep playoff run, there’s a good chance they will face the Stars in the Western Conference Finals. Let’s look at what happened.
Early in the first period, the Stars took the 1-0 lead as Leon Draisaitl tried to break out of his own zone and turned it over, leading to a 2-on-1 and a Radek Faksa goal. Simply put, Draisaitl needs to stop doing this.
Late in the second period, things started unravelling for the Oilers as Mattias Ekholm took a penalty. On the ensuing power play, Jason Robertson made a nice pass across the crease for Tyler Seguin to one-time it home for the 2-0 lead.
Three minutes later, the Oilers had an unsuccessful power play, and on the tail end of it, Darnell Nurse made a horrendous pinch, which led to a 4 on 1 with Wyatt Johnston coming out of the box. With that many numbers, the player who was picked on selection after Xavier Bourgault buried it for his 100th point in the NHL.
Two minutes later, the Stars put another on the board as Corey Perry was pressured in his own end, passing it to Draisaitl, whose pass was picked off Johnston. He got the puck back from Logan Stankoven and ripped it for a Jamie Benn deflection.
Thankfully, the Stars only scored one more goal as the Oilers lost a puck battle, Mattias Ekholm overcommitted, and Sam Steel found the back of the net fairly easily.
Things worth mentioning…
That was one of the worst games of the season. While it was closer than the score said for a large part of the game, the Oilers’ allowing four goals in seven minutes can never happen in the playoffs. They need to tighten it up now.
Connor McDavid didn’t score a point, obviously, while Nikita Kucherov scored three in the Tampa Bay Lightning’s win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. McDavid is now four points behind Kucherov in the race for the Art Ross trophy.
Calvin Pickard had a rough start, saving just 27 shots on 32 attempts for a .844 save percentage, by far his worst performance as an Oiler. Still, it’s hard to really blame him on any of these goals as the Oilers’ defence left him out to dry.
Up next it doesn’t get any easier for the Oilers, as they’ll host the Colorado Avalanche on Friday at 7:00 PM ET. Hopefully, they can pick up a win and play better than they did last time against the 2022 Stanley Cup champions.
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