Where were you when New Jersey Devils netminder Jake Allen “goalie’d” the Edmonton Oilers on Monday? I was in my room crying, because the Oilers should’ve defeated the Devils given how heavily they outshot them. Instead, the Oilers fell 3-0 to bring their season record to 6-6-1.
The Devils scored the opening goal about five minutes into the game, as there was a ton of traffic in front of Calvin Pickard and he was unable to stop Stefan Noeson’s shot from the slot. Surprisingly, the goal counted.
Noeson scored his second goal of the game late in the second period. The Oilers took a too-many-men penalty and after a zone entry, Noeson was found all alone in front of the net, beating Pickard five-hole for the 2-0 lead.
Zach Hyman had a horrific giveaway at New Jersey’s blue line midway through the third period. This led to a breakaway for Timo Meier, who slipped it past Pickard to seal the deal at 3-0.

Takeaways…

It’s hard to say any team “deserved” a win, but when you outshoot a team with nearly double the shots (31-16), you expect more than what the Oilers got. Instead, Jake Allen saved 31 of 31 shots, while Pickard saved 13 of 16 shots for an .813 save percentage.
With that being said, it wasn’t the worst game for the Oilers on a back-to-back. After beating the Flames on Sunday, the Oilers controlled most of the game and were beaten by their own mistakes. Interestingly, the Oilers are 0-3-0 on the second game of a back-to-back, making up half their regulation losses.
The special teams remain an issue. Already last in the league with their penalty kill, the Oilers allowed a goal on the only penalty kill they had in this game. Of the 13 games the Oilers have played this season, they’ve only killed off every penalty in a game three times. It’s a far cry from their penalty kill during the 2024 postseason. Their power play hasn’t been much better. Coming into this game, their 15.2 PP% ranked eighth-worst in the league and the Oilers went 0/1 in this game.
How about the Amazon Prime broadcast? It wasn’t the same experience without the usual team doing commentary but the visual quality of the stream was excellent. Edmonton will have three more games on Amazon Prime this season.
The Oilers return to action on Wednesday, as they host the Vegas Golden Knights at 8:30 PM MT. It’ll be a tough game, especially without McDavid, but the Golden Knights are 0-3-1 away from home, compared to 8-0-0 at home.
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