Was anyone else not surprised that it took an all-world comeback for the Oilers to finally win their third game in a row? This team is ridiculous, and it only made sense for them to get the monkey off their back in the most impossible way imaginable. Down three goals to winning in overtime. If the lesson was that this Edmonton team is never out, no matter what the scoreboard says, I was really hoping they wouldn’t feel the need to test that theory again when the Wild rolled into town. Go down by a field goal to Minnesota, and you’re usually staying there. They’re too stingy and too good to be serving up pizzas.

And yet, here we are again. It sure would have been nice to beat a good team without looking utterly outclassed, but instead, we didn’t get much in the way of an A-game or any real belief that the boys could erase yet another three-goal deficit. The push never came, the margin never closed, and the Oilers limped their way to a 7-3 loss to wrap up the month.

I always love it when I get to connect Leon Draisaitl to Mark Messier, and last night, No. 29 tied the Hall of Famer for fourth in franchise scoring with the goal he scored at 3:16 of the first period. The goal was his 27th of the season and 1,034th career point, tying Messier in eight fewer games played. Draisaitl now sits behind only Wayne Gretzky, Connor McDavid, and Jari Kurri on the Oilers’ all-time list, and with just nine points separating him from Kurri, it feels inevitable that third place is coming sooner rather than later. Wild. Watching our Dynamic Duo both chase Gretzky for the franchise lead is incredibly cool, but it’s also a reminder of how quickly their careers are flying by.

As lucky as we are to watch these guys on a nightly basis, I can’t help but think about how fast the clock is ticking, even when it doesn’t feel like it should be. And just as those thoughts were settling in, Draisaitl left the bench early in the second period and headed down the tunnel alongside head athletic trainer T.D. Forss. I’m not sure what the issue was, but if you listened closely enough, you could practically hear Oilers fans everywhere holding their breath. As we’ve seen before, this team is simply not the same animal without Leon in the lineup. The good news is that he returned to the bench and the ice shortly after, but it was a brief reminder of just how much everything changes when Leon isn’t out there.

After carrying two separate leads in the first period, the Wild found a way to knot things up at two apiece heading into the intermission. Despite blowing those leads, I still thought the Oilers were in a decent spot with two periods left, provided they could take better care of the puck. Unfortunately, they could not. Instead, we got a run of costly giveaways and tactical errors that paved the way for four uncontested Minnesota goals. There were blown assignments, giveaways, missed saves, and a greatest-hits list of mistakes you simply cannot make against a team as good as the Wild. The Oilers went from being in a position to keep their run going to chasing the game against a team that thrives on being stingy.

In the third period, the Oilers had a mountain of work ahead of them if they were going to make the game interesting at all, and it was always going to require near-perfect hockey. As we’ve learned this season, playing anywhere close to perfect hasn’t been something this team can consistently muster. And right on cue, the Wild tacked on another with a revenge goal from Tyler Pitlick to essentially nail the coffin shut. Not only did the Oilers find another way to get torched on home ice, but it also served as a reminder of how far this group still has to go to compete with the league’s best. As much as I want to believe the boys can finally gain some traction, it’s getting harder to feel excited when another dose of humility comes from a team they’re chasing in the standings.

After getting tagged for five goals on 20 shots and eventually getting the hook, a conversation popped up on Twitter/X about whether or not Tristan Jarry is giving the Oilers anything that Stuart Skinner wasn’t. Four of his last five appearances since shutting out the Canucks have finished well under a .900 save percentage, and he’s had just three starts above that mark during his time as an Oiler. Needless to say, that’s a frustrating trend given that those are the exact numbers we were all mad about with Stu in the first place. The good news is that Jarry has six wins in those 10 appearances, but it’s also fair to say he needs to find some consistency sooner rather than later.

The concern when the Oilers traded for Jarry was that he was too similar to Stu to justify moving assets to acquire him, and through our first 10 looks, it’s hard to argue that hasn’t been the case. Even though wins are ultimately the most important number, the Oilers are going to need more from Jarry if he’s going to help take this team anywhere meaningful. No one should be writing him off yet, but I do think it’s fair to ask whether it might be time to give Connor Ingram a run of games. His numbers are better, he looks calmer between the pipes, and I don’t see a reason beyond the cost of acquisition that he shouldn’t get a chance to reclaim the role he held while Jarry was out with injury.

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