The Edmonton Oilers’ final game of 2025 ended with a loss.

On Wednesday evening, the Oilers fell 6-2 to the Boston Bruins, bringing their season record to 20-15-6. Let’s take a look at what went on in this one.

Eight minutes into the first period, the Bruins opened the scoring on a power play. Connor Ingram overcommitted on a shot that missed a goal, allowing David Pastrňák to bank it in off the Oilers’ netminder and into the back of the net.

In the final two minutes of the first, the Bruins took a 2-0 lead as Casey Mittelstadt scored his ninth of the season. Just over a minute later, the Oilers had a response. Connor McDavid did Connor McDavid things, deking through the middle of the ice and laying it off to Zach Hyman for the goal.

It was all the Bruins from there. Seven minutes into the second period, the Bruins regained their two-goal lead thanks to a goal from Hampus Lindholm. Then late in the second, the Oilers turned the puck over in the offensive zone with a defender jumping, leading to a three-on-one. No one picked up Jonathan Aspirot on the backcheck, allowing him to score his second career goal.

The game was put out of reach in the first five minutes of the third, as the Oilers turned the puck over near their blue line. After just avoiding being offside, a drop pass to the trailing Elias Lindholm in the slot led to the Bruins fifth goal. Just over seven minutes into the third, the Oilers finally got on the board, as Jack Roslovic’s shot from the faceoff dot fooled Jeremy Swayman to make it 5-2.

With just over five minutes left in the game, the Oilers lost Pastrňák in the faceoff dot, allowing the Czech forward to wire it home for his second of the game, making it 6-2. Not great, but the game was well out of hand at this point.

On Monday, Calvin Pickard stopped upwards of 40 shots in a 3-1 victory, stealing a game for the Oilers for the first time in a while. It was the total opposite in this one, as Jeremy Swayman stopped 34 of 36 shots for a .944 save percentage. The Oilers outshot the Bruins 36 to 29.

That means Connor Ingram stopped 23 of 29 shots for a .793 save percentage, by far his worst start as an Oiler in the four games he’s played. It wasn’t all his fault though (he even picked up an assist), as Ingram faced a fair bit of high-quality shots. The Oilers’ defence was pretty rough in this one, something they’ll need to fix ahead of the Mar. 6 trade deadline.

Evan Bouchard was robbed of a spot on the Olympic roster on Wednesday, with what some describe as “bad defence.” Well, he made two goal-saving blocks in the third period to help out Ingram’s save percentage. In about 28 minutes of ice-time, Bouchard was a-2 with one shot, a hit, and those two blocks.

So, what was the biggest reason the Oilers lost this game? Their inability to score on the power play, or even really get any momentum from it. Overall, they were 0/5 on the man advantage, and on the penalty kill, the Bruins were able to score a power play goal at the end of a five on three.

There aren’t a lot of positives to take away from this game. Connor McDavid picked up an assist on Zach Hyman 12th of the season, extending his point streak to 14 games. Over those 14 games, McDavid has 13 goals and 34 points, but has been held to just one point in each of his last three games.

Matching Hyman’s goal total was Jack Roslovic. He’s been such a good addition for the Oilers, as he has 12 goals and 20 points in 28 games so far this season. Not all free agent additions don’t work out in Oil Country.

After being scratched on Monday, Andrew Mangiapane was elevated to the second line alongside Leon Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin. Mangiapane was getting involved in scrums and even got a 10-minute misconduct, which is probably a good thing, but he was dropped to the third line in the final frame, not a good thing.

It was a pretty feisty affair in general, with most of the beef coming in the second half of the game. Max Jones dropped the mitts with Jonathan Aspirot in the dying moments of the game, while Mattias Janmark got into it with Nikita Zadorov. With 20 seconds left into the game, Darnell Nurse also got a 10-minute misconduct. Too bad the Bruins and Oilers don’t play again until next season.

The Oilers will enter 2026 at the top of the Pacific Division. The Vegas Golden Knights lost in regulation and the Anaheim Ducks lost in overtime, meaning the Oilers have a one point lead over both teams.

Next up for the Oilers is a matchup with the Philadelphia Flyers at Rogers Place on Saturday at 1:30 PM MT.