The Edmonton Oilers were back at Amerant Arena for the first time since Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. Only this time, the boys were squaring off against the Florida Panthers to try and get out of their tailspin rather than lifting hockey’s ultimate prize. Not quite the same vibe, is it? Despite the situations being vastly and obviously different, the result was ultimately the same, as the Oilers dropped their fifth straight game by a 4-3 final score.

Make it seven games in a row with at least a goal for Leon Draisaitl as he continues running away with the Rocket Richard race. Not only is he scoring en masse, but the goals he’s scoring are as varied as they are beautiful. Take Thursday’s masterpiece, for example. After seeing he didn’t have any teammates up on the rush with him, Draisaitl drove to the net, fought off the defender with one arm, and then perfectly placed his shot in the top corner of the net. It was ridiculous.

I’ll give you a minute to watch the goal highlight above before we move on.

With the team struggling to score goals, Leon Draisaitl keeps putting the team on his back and coming through with as much offence as he possibly can. The guy has scored at least one goal in each of his last seven games, and I just don’t know what else you can expect from him without getting a little help from his teammates. Even with 44 goals on the year, he simply cannot do everything on his own, but that’s been the situation way too often lately.

I’m a big fan of underrated players, and I would certainly classify Brett Kulak as one of those guys. I’m not saying he’s the perfect defender, but he’s the kind of Swiss Army Knife you need in your roster to be successful. While the guy spends most of his time on the team’s third pairing, it’s not uncommon for him to work his way up the lineup at times of need and do a good job of it while he’s there. I love the guy and wish we had five more players in the lineup who were as versatile as he is. My favourite part of Kulak’s story, though, is the way he’s been giving the Oilers some sneaky scoring when they need it most.

He’s never been an offensive defenceman — no one is arguing that — but you’ve gotta love seeing him hit a new career high in goals in his 10th NHL season anyway. His seventh of the season was a low wrister that beat Bobrovsky on the blocker side, and while there wasn’t much that was special about it, the timing of the goal was huge for his team. Instead of being down by one and getting in their own heads, Kulak evened the score just over two minutes after the Panthers opened things up. That’s big for a group that has struggled so mightily since coming back from the break. That goal may be a small moment in the overall story of the season, but it was what could be the millionth reason to love Brett Kulak.

No matter how poorly the Oilers played this season, they had the ability to avoid lengthy losing streaks. Outside of dropping their first three games, Edmonton hadn’t had a slide like that up until this first week back from the 4 Nations break. We haven’t seen much resilience from anyone outside of Leon Draisaitl, and the result is losing five games in a row for the first time in three years. That’s nowhere near good enough for a team that’s supposed to have Stanley Cup aspirations. Not ideal, to say the least.

The problem with this losing streak isn’t just that the Oilers are losing but that they’re losing in so many awful ways. They’ve been sloppy with the puck, their offence has dried up, can’t get a save when it matters most, and look generally dejected anytime something goes wrong. Where do you start when everything is on fire? As much as I believe that the team can and will turn things around, pretty much everyone on the roster needs to take a real look in the mirror if they’re going to stop the bleeding. I’m not saying I have the answers or anything, but maybe taking a step back to basics would help instead of trying to force things so much.

1. Sometimes you just need a save. That’s all I’m going to say because I’m tired of talking about the Oilers’ goaltending mess. The winning goal needed to be stopped, and you see how having that one go in deflated the bench. Something needs to change. It must.

2. Props to Corey Perry for trying to get the boys going by dropping the mitts with A.J. Greer less than three minutes into the first period. I don’t think I’m talking out of school when I say that the Oilers haven’t had much fight in them this past week, and I, for one, would welcome more emotion out of the group. Respect to the oldest guy on the team for taking it upon himself to try and be that spark.

3. While the NHL site may say that the Oilers had 10 turnovers on Thursday, I don’t know that my eyes believe that number. From my side of the TV screen, I saw the boys fumbling the puck all over the place with the worst offences winding up in the back of the net. On Florida’s first two goals, avoidable mistakes with the puck in the defensive zone led to secondary chances that the Panthers ended up converting. When you get the chance to clear the puck, you have to do it. But for whatever reason, the Oilers are really battling that aspect of their game.

4. If you’re looking for a bright side, it has to be that the Oilers’ PK was able to kill off all six shorthanded situations they faced. For a group that’s been leaking goals over the last seven games, having them run the table against the Panthers was certainly a welcomed sight. Of course, going to the penalty box six times in a game is a disaster, but I’ll complain about the team’s lack of discipline another time.

5. Tough night for Mattias Ekholm, right? He got caught with two bad penalties, turned the puck over at inopportune times, and didn’t look much like the Viking warlord that we’ve grown accustomed to seeing.

6. Viktor Arvidsson may never score again, and it’s certainly not going to happen if he keeps getting one shot per game.

7. We got another two-point performance from John Klingberg on the back end, which was nice to see. He’s a mess sometimes, and I would still like the Oilers to upgrade his position in the lineup, but I’ll still give him some love for producing some offence lately.

8. The worst part of the night could be that the Oilers only won 43.9% of the faceoffs. It could be.

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