This isn’t the start that anybody expected. The Oilers dropped their fourth-straight game last night, this time at the hands of the quick, skilled Carolina Hurricanes, who feasted on Edmonton’s sloppy defence. The Oilers had a strong game offensive, as you can see by the fact they more than doubled Carolina in the shot column, but too many defensive breakdowns led to their undoing.

Highlights

The Hurricanes took a quick 2-0 lead in the first five minutes of the game to put the Oilers in a hole. There were two goals specifically from last night that I think personify why the Oilers had a rough time.

On the first goal, just a minute into the game, Oscar Klefbom made an ill-advised pinch as three Oilers forwards were down low in the offensive zone. The mobile defenceman Jaccob Slavin was able to jump up and take advantage as Carolina’s forward chipped it up last Klefbom, giving the Canes a two-on-one against Adam Larsson. Teuvo Teravainen isn’t going to miss when he has that much time.

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1:23 AM · Oct 18, 2017

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Carolina’s fifth goal is the other one. This goal by Slavin was really the icing on the cake that killed Edmonton’s chance of a comeback. With just under 10 minutes to go in the third and Carolina up 4-3, Jordan Staal takes an outlet pass, moves up the ice with ease, and hits Slavin for a slick finish in front of the net.

Again, like the first goal, the Canes utilize the breakout pass into the middle of the ice and they have a ton of real estate to work with. Staal moves up the ice with ease as both Oilers defencemen collapse into the net, failing to realize that the mobile Slavin is jumping into the play offensively. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins back checks hard, but fails to pick up Slavin, who’s the true threat on this play. Slavin, within a second, has bolted past all three Edmonton players down low, and takes a pass from Staal before deking out Brossoit for a beautiful goal.

The defence on this play is simply way too passive as two defencemen are waving their sticks at the same player and the back checker comes in and joins them, leaving the dangerous Slavin all alone.

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Jaccob Slavin and the @NHLCanes making alllllll the right moves.

3:54 AM · Oct 18, 2017

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But there were still things to like about this game. For example, Ryan Strome had a couple of very intelligent offensive plays within a few minutes to help drag the Oilers back into the game. On the power play in the third period, Jussi Jokinen makes a nice shot-pass that Strome deflects into the top corner for his first as an Oiler.

A couple minutes later, Strome carries the puck into the offensive zone, uses his body to shield the puck, takes a hit, and, with his head on a swivel, finds Milan Lucic in the faceoff circle for a shot he buries past Cam Ward. At this point, the Oilers were flying, generating chances in Carolina’s zone, moving nicely in transition, and had come within one goal. But, ultimately, Carolina pulled ahead by two on that aforementioned Slavin goal, and didn’t look back.

By the numbers

This game is the perfect example about how shot attempt numbers can be somewhat misleading. I do think the Oilers did quite a few things well last night. Their offensive attack was strong and they generated a lot of shots and chances in Carolina’s zone, as you can see by the heat map above. But defensively? The Oilers struggled. They were adequate in not allowing Carolina to set up in the offensive zone and were keeping pucks to the outside, but their transition defence was a disaster. The Canes were able to break the puck out of their zone with ease frequently and generate odd-man chances the other way. Even if you gutter the other team 51-21 in shots like the Oilers did, if you make that many mistakes and allow that many rushes on your net, you’re going to pay for it.

Thoughts

As I’ve already said multiple times, this loss really did come down to poor defensive play. Adam Larsson and Oscar Klefbom, in particular, had a rough night and didn’t look like the top pairing that they need to be. I don’t know how many times I can say this before I sound like a broken record, but it’s become very noticeable how much the team misses the steady, calming presence of Andrej Sekera. But beyond the blueliners, the forwards weren’t all too helpful on the backcheck. Carolina frequently was able to break out and carry the puck up with ease without much pressure from the forwards coming back to check them. The Canes are a very good skating team, and the Oilers forwards, save for a few efforts, looked quite slow last night.
Since I crapped on the defencemen in general, I should say that Darnell Nurse and Eric Gryba had solid games. Nurse had a couple lapses, including that Slavin goal I talked about earlier, but was very effective in using his skating and physicality to push around Carolina’s quick forwards. Gryba was also very low-key effective. He plays within himself, doesn’t take risks, and makes the path to the net very difficult.
Laurent Brossoit wasn’t very good tonight. Last season, the Oilers would have games like this, in which they outshot the other team but broke down and allowed a flurry of chances or an odd man rush or something in the middle of it, but Cam Talbot was able to bail them out. Since the first game against Calgary, that hasn’t happened at all this year. Last night, Brossoit didn’t come up with a single big save, and while the defence wasn’t particularly helpful, you need your goalie to bail you out every once in a while to keep the momentum flowing.
Kailer Yamamoto played what I thought was his best NHL game last night. Obviously, he’s going to look a lot better playing alongside Connor McDavid rather than being buried in the bottom six, but Yamamoto looked more comfortable and creative than usual. That could partially be because Carolina is a smaller, skilled team, which bodes well for an 18-year-old of his ilk in the pros, but it also speaks to him developing confidence over time. With Leon Draisaitl injured, I have a difficult time seeing how the Oilers are going to return Yamamoto to the WHL anytime soon.
The offence had a pulse last night, which is a good sign. The past few games, the forwards have looked pretty limp, but last night, they were flying into the zone, generating shots, and winning battles and races in the offensive zone. Ryan Strome and Jussi Jokinen played their best games as Oilers and looked smart in the offensive zone. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins played a very solid 200-foot game. And, like I said, Kailer Yamamoto looked very natural next to Connor McDavid. With a couple new faces, we knew it was going to take a little bit of time for the forwards to gel, and that seems to be happening. But the blueline? That’s a little more worrying.

Source: NHL.com, Official Game Page, 10/17/2017, 10:00pm MST