After what felt like a lucky win in Carolina on Saturday, the Edmonton Oilers rolled into Buffalo to start the back half of this seven-game road trip. Stuart Skinner stole two points against the Hurricanes, but the goaltending has been mediocre all season and relying on miracles is not a plan you can get behind. The Sabres have more than a few guys who don’t need much to make you look stupid, and the Oilers were in no position to gift them the kind of chances they’ve been bleeding all year. Unfortunately, the giveaways didn’t stop nor did the embarrassing results as the Oilers fell apart in Buffalo for a 5-1 loss.

In case you hadn’t heard a million times by now, the Oilers were vastly outplayed by the last-place-in-the-Eastern-Conference Buffalo Sabres. The same Buffalo Sabres who are notably missing five of their top nine forwards due to varying injuries, and the very same team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2011. But instead of flexing their skill and Cup-contending prowess, the Oilers chose to putter their way through what was another flat and depressing effort. There was no urgency, no adapting, no driving the net, no emotion, and nothing close to an effort befitting of a Stanley Cup contender. From the crease outward, Edmonton played about as uninspired as you can get even considering this never-ending road trip.

Outside of Jack Roslovic’s goal that temporarily tied the game at one apiece before the Sabres scored twice in 62 seconds, the Oilers gave us nothing worth watching. Once Buffalo regained the lead, Edmonton folded faster than a cheap lawn chair. And I like cheap lawn chairs! There was no pushback, no spark, no sign that anyone in an Oilers jersey was interested in dragging the game back to life apart from the flash of rage we saw from Vasily Podkolzin when he punched Peyton Krebs into the ground. For 60 minutes, the Oilers got outskated, outworked, and downright embarrassed by a roster missing half its forward group. And for a team that keeps talking about raising its standard, it is baffling how often they fail to meet even the bare minimum.

What makes the Oilers so hard to watch right now is that the offence looks like it’s the first time they’re playing together. Through 21 games, the boys have scored 63 goals and given up 75, and almost every night looks the same without anything changing but the line combos. Lots of puck possession around the edges, shots from the outside, and almost nothing from the places that actually matter. The 5v5 heat map above from last night in Buffalo spells out the problem beautifully. Edmonton lived on the perimeter, and fired low-danger shots from the outside while the Sabres repeatedly attacked the slot and let it fly from prime scoring areas. You do not win many games trading low-danger looks for high-danger ones, and the Oilers are on the wrong side of that equation more often than not this year.

What is even more concerning is how little they seem to fight for better ice. There is no consistent drive to the middle from anyone not named Zach Hyman, no second chances off rebounds, no real traffic to make life difficult in front of the opposing goalie. It is all soft touches, floating wristers, one-and-done sequences, and turnovers that send play right back toward their own net. For a team built around elite offensive talent, they are making the game incredibly easy to defend. And until they start attacking the middle of the ice with intent, getting bodies to the crease, creating chaos, and forcing teams into uncomfortable spots, nothing is going to change. The effort is staying on the outside of the ice, and the goals are staying off the scoreboard.

I was psyched when the Oilers signed Andrew Mangiapane. If you looked through my tweets from July 1st, I probably dropped 10 of them about hoping Stan Bowman would find a way to get the former Capital and Flame in an Oilers uniform. And just as I hoped, Bowman delivered with a two-year contract at $3.6 million. Perfect. So when Mangiapane scored in the season opener against the Flames with a filthy shot from the left wing, I truly thought it was the start of what would be a fruitful relationship. I knew we wouldn’t get the 35-goal guy he was in 2022 in Calgary, but I was certain we would get more than the 14 goals he scored last year in Washington. Through the first 21 games, I’m not so sure.

Even though there are countless names to pick in terms of who needed to be better against the Sabres, Andrew Mangiapane is a guy who hasn’t really gotten out of the starting gates. Even with four goals beside his name, Mangiapane has only a single assist in his last six games, the one he got on Roslovic’s first period goal against Buffalo, and carries a minus-9 rating over that span. I know plus-minus isn’t the most popular stat these days, but it doesn’t take a data scientist to figure out this is a problem. If the Bread Man is bleeding goals and can’t contribute to many at the other end, I wonder how long it will be until he starts getting the Jeff Skinner treatment. Like Skinner, there were reports that Mangiapane took less money for the chance to play in Edmonton, but with the way things are going barring some kind of turnaround, you have to wonder if he suffers the same fate.

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