Three Key Things: Somehow blowing a two-goal lead and losing wasn’t the worst part of the Oilers’ night

9 months ago

With a 1-4-0 record staring them in the face, the Edmonton Oilers took on the Winnipeg Jets last night at Rogers Place with the only goal of getting back in the win column and putting their season back on the rails. Unfortunately, the heartbreak continued for the Nation as the Oilers ended up blowing a two-goal lead and falling 3-2 in overtime.

THE MCDAVID INJURY

How could I not mention the Connor McDavid injury that kept him off the ice over the final handful of the minutes of the game as well as the OT bonus period. While we don’t know what happened yet or how serious the issue is — Jay Woodcroft said in his post game presser that it might be a muscular thing — the fact that McDavid missed the last part of a tie game is every shade of concerning. Talk about a nightmare start to the year. The Oilers are 1-3-1 and now McDavid is/could be hurt? This is a disaster.

BACK-TO-BACK SHORTHANDED GOALS AGAINST

I don’t know what the hell is happening with the power play the last two nights, but they legitimately look like they’ve never played together before. Yeah, I know the Evan Bouchard goal came with the man advantage, but the rest of the time, the team looked completely lost. Frankly, I don’t know when was the last time I’ve seen PP1 as ineffective as they were in the second period, but they were disastrous on multiple levels with no better example than the shortie they gave up at the end of the middle frame. I don’t know what Skinner was doing on the play, but his adventures near the circle ended up costing the Oilers the game. For the second straight game, sloppy puck choices resulted in the opposition coming back the other way and cashing in on the error.

PASSING NO ONE IN PARTICULAR

The NHL site had the Oilers listed with 13 turnovers on the night, but there is no way on earth that number is accurate. If anything, the Oilers were about as likely to pass to a Jets player as they were to a teammate, and the result was burlap sack full of sadness and bonus attack time for Winnipeg. If it wasn’t so troubling, I would honestly be amazed how inaccurate the Oilers are when moving the puck and it’s extremely concerning that things haven’t improved through five games. And if we’re being honest with ourselves, the Oilers got VERY LUCKY that they didn’t get burned more often than they did given how egregious the errors were. For a team that was so good on the offensive side of the puck, watching them fumble f*ck their way around these right now is incredibly disappointing.

OFFENCE FROM THE DEFENCE

If I had to pick some kind of silver lining from that tire fire it would have to be that we got two goals from defencemen last night. Firstly, Darnell Nurse got the Oilers on the board early and seeing him score made me happy because you just knew a handful of people out there still cursed him even when he did something good. Same goes for Evan Bouchard, who followed up Darryl’s goal with a power play marker only a few minutes later. For a team gagging for offence from literally anyone on the ice, picking up a pair of goals from the blue line was a very good result. Not only was the result fantastic, but the fact that those two guys scored was deliciously hilarious. I mean, it would have been nice if these weren’t the only two goals the Oilers scored but I guess that would be me being greedy, huh?

OTHER THINGS WORTH MENTIONING…

I hate being an Oilers fan sometimes. It just hurts, you know?
The first line of Hyman, McDavid, and Draisaitl was easily Edmonton’s best line as they seemed to create offensive opportunities on nearly every shift.
I don’t think I’m talking out of school when I say that Stu’s first two appearances of the year were less than ideal. I mean, giving up eight goals on 31 shots through those first two games isn’t where we need Skinner to be, but the good news is that he was definitely better against the Jets outside of that one horrible thing that happened… you know the one. Stuart Skinner finished the night with 24 saves and a .889 save%.
Make it five games without a third period goal.
On Friday’s Oilersnation Radio, we talked about Evander Kane needing to get in a scrap or something to get the blood pumping and he did exactly that when he squared off against Brandon Dillon midway through the second period. Unfortunately, the scrap didn’t kick things off quite as hoped, but I do appreciate the face punchery. That said, Kane’s comments about his ice time to Scott Oake during the first intermission probably won’t help much. Personally, I think he was just deflecting the question with a joke more so than a shot at the demotion.
I hate how much I like Josh Morrissey. Over and above the goal his scored, the guy is so ridiculously good that it drives me wild how often he does good things out there.
The Oilers finished the night at 51.5% in the faceoff circle. I can’t believe I haven’t been including faceoff stats in these Three Key Things articles over the first four games. How foolish of me? For shame, Baggedmilk. For shame.

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