The bad times continue.
On Tuesday evening, the Edmonton Oilers lost their fourth consecutive game, this time falling 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Things started well for the Oilers. With about eight minutes left in the first period, Leon Draisaitl scored his league-leading 43rd goal. It was the Hart Trophy hopeful’s sixth straight game with a goal. Unfortunately, the good vibes didn’t last long as the Lightning scored almost immediately after.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: The Oilers turned it over in the neutral zone, they don’t defend well in transition, and the opposing team put it by Stuart Skinner. Would that surprise you if that’s what happened on the Lightning’s first goal? It took the Lightning 30 seconds into the second period to score the game-winning goal, as Canadian legend Brandon Hagel scored an old-school wrap-around. Skinner needs to have this one. The goal that sealed Edmonton’s fate was the Lightning’s third one. After the Oilers took a pair of penalties, the Lightning capitalized on their 5-on-3, as Victor Hedman’s shot deflected off Mattias Janmark and into the net.
To add insult to injury, the Lightning buried a fourth goal on a 2-on-1 to dash any hopes of a comeback from the visiting team. Brutal.
Takeaways…
On paper, Stuart Skinner didn’t have a great game, allowing four goals on 37 shots for an .892 save percentage. However, the only reason the game was tied after one was because of Skinner and his big saves through a first frame largely controlled by Tampa.
A team isn’t going to win often only scoring one goal. The Oilers were outshot 37 to 24 in this game, the fourth consecutive game that has been the case. On Sunday, they were outshot 35 to 25 and on Saturday, they were outshot 32 to 18. Even before the 4 Nations Face-Off break, they were outshot 31 to 27 by the Colorado Avalanche.
Say what you want about goaltending — it’s not an unfair position to believe they need to bring in someone who can alleviate Skinner’s workload — this team has issues right now that run far deeper than just Skinner and Calvin Pickard. Whether there’s an illness running rampant or something else, they have to start playing better soon.
It’s nice that Leon Draisaitl scored a goal in his sixth consecutive game to bring him to 43 goals this season but it was short-lived because this team has been unable to defend rushes since the break and continuously turn it over in the neutral zone. Matthew Savoie looked solid, nearly scoring his first career goal. He certainly hasn’t been the reason they’ve been losing games. With the loss, the Oilers have a 34-20-4 record with 72 points, two behind the Vegas Golden Knights with an equal number of games played. The Golden Knights have six more regulation wins than the Oilers, which happens to be the next tiebreaker.
Edmonton’s road trip isn’t going to get any easier, as they have a Stanley Cup rematch against the Florida Panthers on Thursday. The Oilers are currently on their longest losing streak since November 2023 and hopefully, they can put an end to it Thursday.
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