After nearly a week of waiting, the Edmonton Oilers were back on the ice in Dallas to square off against the Stars for Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. And after a fantastic start by the road team, a run of penalties early in the third period sank the Oilers’ ship in what can only be described as a miserable final 20 minutes of hockey. The Oilers went from being up 3-1 to down 6-3 in a matter of minutes, dropping the first game of the series in miserable fashion.

I’m not even sure where to start with the penalty kill. Not only were the Oilers tagged with an array of sloppy stick penalties, but they also couldn’t kill them off to save their lives. It was a travesty and utterly shameful. How else would you describe a run of three consecutive power play goals against in under six minutes? It was shameful. The Oilers went from being in complete control of the hockey game to coughing up their lead, and it was all due to sloppy stick work and an anemic PK that can’t seem to get things right. If the Oilers are going to rebound and leave Dallas with a split, the penalty kill can’t be gifting the Stars goals like that.

It’s one thing to get burned once or twice, but it’s another problem entirely when the PK is so bad that it literally wipes two-goal leads off the board. And yeah, the players all need to be in better control of their sticks — no one is debating the dumbness of being shorthanded for six straight minutes — but that doesn’t let the group off the hook for getting stomped into the ground when we desperately need a kill. Put another way, the Oilers allowed three PP goals in Game 1 against the Stars while being nearly perfect in six games a year ago. Not good, friends. Not good at all.

Stuart Skinner is going to take a lot of shit for allowing five goals on 27 shots and posting a .815 save percentage, but it’s way too lazy to hang everything that happened on him. There was the breakaway, countless screened shots, deflections, and basically everything that he didn’t have to face against the Vegas Golden Knights all thrown at him at the same time. Outside of the Mikael Granlund and Matt Duchene goals — he’d want those two back — I’d honestly suggest there were much bigger problems happening in front of him on the other three goals over the shots that eventually wound up in the net.

Now that I’ve said my piece defending him, I’m not letting Stu off the hook for that loss either. He needed to be better. In Games 4 and 5 against the Golden Knights, Skinner was not only making the saves we expected him to make, but he also made some that he probably shouldn’t have. That second point wasn’t there on Wednesday. So, while I believe real issues and problems were happening in front of him, Skinner wasn’t able to bail out his teammates when those mistakes occurred. When he was perfect against Dallas, Stu made those extra saves that weathered storms and gave his teammates a chance to breathe. We didn’t get that same level in Game 1, and we’re going to need a rebound performance if our boys are going to knot the series up on Friday.

Having the Oilers go from mostly dominating the first 40 minutes of the hockey game to pissing their pants for the whole world to see was not what I had on my Bingo card for the third period. The Oilers have been a juggernaut in the final frame all playoffs long, so why wouldn’t we think they’d be able to close out a 3-1 win with only 20 minutes to go? Then again, maybe that’s what we get for being overconfident. Maybe the Hockey Gords felt our heads were getting too big, and the only way to remedy the situation was with a dose of blown-lead powered humility?

If not for the Hockey Gords teaching us a lesson, how else would you explain the hot mess that was that final 20 minutes? Frankly, if I hadn’t watched the game and witnessed the horrors of that third period collapse with my own eyes, I would have thought you were talking about a Leafs game and not our beloved Oilers. I know I’m making hacky jokes right now, but I’m genuinely stunned by how the Oilers managed to Sideshow Bobbing their way through a field of rakes to close out what should have been a casual victory. I’m not sure if it was rust from the break or the boys getting high on their own supply, but Edmonton cannot afford to waste opportunities to close out games like that.

1. Five (FIVE!) third period goals for the Stars. Embarrassing. There’s shooting yourself in the foot, and then there’s nuking your leg right off your body… wanna guess which route the Oilers chose?

2. Leon Draisaitl was fantastic on Wednesday, and I’d even argue that might have been his best game of the playoffs. With a goal and two assists, Draisaitl was all over the Stars in the offensive zone — he was dangling, driving the net, and firing pucks like crazy — and I like Edmonton’s odds of getting through this series if our big handsome German can put down more performances like that.

3. Can the Oilers pretty please stop trying to force passes into the middle of the ice instead of taking clear shots on Jake Oettinger? I know he’s a good goalie and all, but there were at least five or six quality chances to shoot the puck that wound up as missed or intercepted passes. I command you to SHOOOOOOOT!

4. As annoying as the end of the game was, I loved the the Oilers started their night. The boys were buzzing all over the place, and it was almost a tragedy that their hard work didn’t turn into more than the one goal by Leon Draisaitl.

5. At least the power play finally scored on the road, right? Anyone? Don’t leave me hanging here. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins’ snipe in the second period marked the first time the Oilers scored a power play goal on the road, which is a mind-blowing stat for a team that is supposed to be power play merchants. Needless to say, we need a whole lot more from the power play. Please.

6. I can’t even give you a bright side with faceoffs wins. Unfortunately, I must report that the Oilers won only 37.9% of the draws, which is not even in the ballpark of being good enough.

7. The Oilers let the Stars’ depth wake up. Problem. Big problem.

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