The Edmonton Oilers’ four-game win streak has come to an end.
On Saturday evening, they played the final game of their road trip against the Vancouver Canucks, falling 3-2 after starting the game down 3-0 (again). Their record now sits at 29-14-3, missing a perfect chance to take control of the division. Let’s take a look at what happened. For the fifth time in six games, the Oilers allowed the first goal of the game. With just over five minutes left in the first period, Quinn Hughes’ pass across the net took a fortuitous bounce off Mattias Ekholm’s skate and past Stuart Skinner while Ekholm’s defence partner, Evan Bouchard, sat in the penalty box.
Just over a minute later, the Canucks extended their lead to two, as Danton Heinen pounced on a loose rebound to beat Skinner. It’s become a common trend for the Oilers to go down two, as it’s also happened five times in their last six games.
With two minutes left in the opening frame, Hughes scored his second of the game as his shot from the top of the circle beat Skinner for the 2-0 lead. Shoutout to the referee for missing a clear trip by the Canuck player beside the net.
As the Oilers have done in recent times, they showed some fight. Four minutes into the second period, Leon Draisaitl pounced on a weak clear into the corner by the Canucks, beating Thatcher Demko at an odd angle to get the Oilers on the board.
The German scored with 6:22 left in the second period, from you guessed it, his office, for his league-leading 33rd goal of the season. After an abysmal first power play earlier in the period, they made no mistake scoring on their second opportunity.
Takeaways…
It’s nice to see the Oilers show some fight, as it feels like they’re never out of a game. However, they can’t consistently fall behind in games when it matters, you know, the playoffs. Not that this game didn’t matter, as the Oilers are in a battle for the division lead with the Vegas Golden Knights. Thankfully, they fell 5-3 to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday, but it was a golden chance to take the division lead.
The Oilers’ penalty kill hasn’t been particularly good the past three games, as they’ve allowed four goals on nine opportunities. After their penalty kill struggled to start the season, it was terrific over two months before recently floundering.
There are quite a few contenders for the Hart Memorial Trophy, but the edge has to go to Leon Draisaitl. On Saturday, the German Gretzky scored two goals to reach 33 goals this season, leading the league by six now. He’s my front-runner.
As I was putting the finishing touches to this article, there were two match penalties in the final seconds of the game. Conor Garland sat on McDavid and could’ve had numerous penalties while the Oilers had their net empty looking for the game-tying goal. Once he got up, McDavid gave Garland a cross-check to the head and received a match penalty after deliberation.
It wasn’t immediately apparent, but another cross-check to the face happened seconds after, as Tyler Myers returned the favour to Evan Bouchard. Unlike the McDavid cross-check, Bouchard hadn’t done a thing to anyone, although it doesn’t excuse either play.
The Oilers return to action on Tuesday, as they return home to host the surging Washington Capitals. If you’re wondering the next time they’ll face the Canucks, well, that’ll be on Thursday. Hopefully, the upcoming suspensions are only one game.
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