What a crappy way to lose a game.
On Wednesday evening, the Edmonton Oilers hosted the Vegas Golden Knights, and were dropped by a score of 4-2 to fall to 6-7-1 on the season. The team had a 2-1 lead going into the third period but the penalty kill let them down again.
With just under four minutes remaining in the first period, the Golden Knights took the lead as Jack Eichel scored a nice goal on a breakaway. How’d he get that breakaway? Well, Evan Bouchard and Jeff Skinner didn’t communicate properly on the rush, with the former coasting back after the breakaway. Not great.
The Oilers tied it with 7:42 to go in the second period, as Brett Kulak of all players deflected Darnell Nurse’s shot past Adin Hill to give the Oilers their first goal since Sunday. The pair of Kulak and Nurse look good so far.
With just over four minutes left in the second period, the Oilers took the lead as the puck took a weird bounce off the stanchion, landing on Zach Hyman’s stick for his third goal in four games.
Midway through the third period, the Golden Knights tied it, as the Oilers allowed another goal on the penalty kill, big shocker there. This time, Noah Hanifin’s shot from the slot handcuffed Skinner in a shot he’d love to have back.
In the final minute of the third period in a tied game, Hanifin scored his second of the game as the Golden Knights’ Ivan Barbashev found Hanifin all alone with a cross-ice pass while the defenceman was streaking in, beating Skinner far post. The Knights tacked on another goal into the empty net.
Takeaways…
This was Vegas’ first road win of the season as they’re now 1-3-1 away from the fortress. Not great. However, the Oilers are still 6-2-1 in their last nine regular season games against the 2023 Stanley Cup champions. This loss was an abberation given how Edmonton has played against Vegas in recent seasons.
Through 14 games this season, the Oilers have gone perfect on the kill just three times. Coming into this game, they had a league-worst 60% penalty kill and went 1/2 in Wednesday’s game. At some point, something has to change as it’s a big reason why they’re losing. Vegas was able to tie the game with the power play because the Oilers couldn’t shut things down.
Stuart Skinner had a decent game despite the loss and the second goal that he’d love to have back. Of the 34 shots he faced, he saved 31 of them, including two crucial saves while the Oilers were leading 2-1 at the end of the second period.
The Vasily Podkolzin/Leon Draisatil/Viktor Arvidsson line looks legitimate. It also allows the Oilers to use Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on the third line alongside Adam Henrique. Throw Evander Kane into the mix once he returns from injury, and that is an incredibly deep forward core. Now only if they had right-shot defencemen that also killed penalties…
Edmonton’s schedule doesn’t get easier on Saturday, as they’ll head to British Columbia to face the Vancouver Canucks for the first time since their meeting in the second round of the playoffs in the spring.
If you enjoy my content, you can follow me on Twitter @Ryley_L_D.
