Well, that was horrendous.
On Monday evening, the Edmonton Oilers fell 3-0 to the Montréal Canadiens, bringing their season record to 9-8-2.
The Canadiens opened the scoring with the game-winning goal in the final minute of the second period, as Brendan Gallagher deflected in the puck from the inside the hashmarks to make it 1-0.
While Gallagher’s goal was all the Canadiens needed, it never hurts to get an insurance goal. Defenceman Kaiden Guhle beat Calvin Pickard from the right faceoff dot to double up the lead, a goal the Oilers’ netminder wishes he could have back. The Canadiens scored an empty net goal as well.

Takeaways…

That was probably the worst game of the season for the Oilers. For a team loaded with firepower like Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, and many others, their scoring has been woeful this season. They only had four high-danger scoring opportunities all game, according to Natural Stat Trick.
Three key players for the Oilers had rough games on Monday, as Mattias Ekholm, Leon Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard all finished with a -3, while Zach Hyman and Connor McDavid had a -2. Jeff Skinner has been a non-factor since early in the season, as he was a -1 with three shots on net in 12 minutes and 19 seconds of ice time.
Calvin Pickard had a solid game between the pipes, saving 22 of 24 shots. However, deflections continue to be an issue for both him and Stuart Skinner, as the first goal of the game was once again scored on a deflection. Opposition teams clearly see this and have been using it to get on the board.
There is some positive news from this game, however. The Oilers have gone four straight games without giving up a goal on the penalty kill dating back to their game against the New York Islanders last Tuesday. They are 10/10 in that span.
Hopefully, the Oilers can dig in for their next game, which comes Tuesday at 5:00 PM MT against the Ottawa Senators. Coming into Monday’s game, the Oilers were 2-1 in the first game of a back-to-back and 0-3 in the second game. They really need a win here.
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