The rollercoaster ride continues for the Edmonton Oilers.
Returning home from a 1-1-1 road trip through Eastern Canada, the Oilers played host to the Minnesota Wild and were shoved aside in a 5-3 loss.
The effort against Minnesota was similar to the team’s showing when they lost 3-0 to the Montreal Canadiens earlier this week. If the effort isn’t good enough to beat the basement-dwelling Habs, it obviously won’t be enough to beat the Wild, a team competing for the top record in the Western Conference at the one-quarter mark of the season.
“I don’t think we’re far off,” veteran forward Corey Perry said after Thursday’s loss. “It’s just the compete level. Competing, night-in, night-out. Some nights we look great when we do it, and when we don’t it’s ugly. They definitely out-competed us tonight.”“Our goalie is seeing too many shots and we’re trying to be too cute with our perimeter game. It just doesn’t work.”
Despite the score, this game never really felt close. The Oilers had 57 shot attempts compared to Minnesota’s 48 but the Wild had more scoring chances and high-danger opportunities, according to Natural Stat Trick.
All three of Edmonton’s goals came from fortunate bounces rather than quality looks or hard work in front of the net. Leon Draisaitl opened the scoring when a pass from the neutral zone somehow made its way past Marc-Andre Fleury and the other two goals from Perry and Jeff Skinner deflected in off Wild players.
“I thought right off the bat that we didn’t really have the same jump that they did. I think they had a little more juice,” defenceman Mattias Ekholm said. “It’s up to us to basically be better and come better prepared.”“I don’t think we have played close to our potential many nights, but before the game tonight we were two points out of the (Pacific) Division lead. We know we played a lot better hockey in stretches last year, but in order to get there, it starts with the work.”
Last season saw the Oilers get out to a 3-9-1 start before making a coaching change. They went 46-18-5 the rest of the way and rode eight and 16-game winning streaks back up the standings.
It was right around this time last year that the Oilers really found their groove. They won Kris Knoblauch’s first three games behind the bench and then fell back into a similar lull to before the coaching change, dropping another three. On American Thanksgiving, they hammered the Washington Capitals on the road by a score of 5-0, the first of eight consecutive wins. That win over the Caps was the real turning point of Edmonton’s 2023-24 season.
As last year taught, the hockey season is a marathon and not a sprint and the Oilers don’t need to be the best version of themselves in November. That said, it’s a little worrying that measuring stick games keep coming up in favour of the challengers.
Through 21 games this season, the Oilers have a 10-9-2 record, good for fourth in the Pacific Division and the second wild card spot in the Western Conference. At a glance, that seems decent for a team struggling with a Stanley Cup Final hangover yet to hit their stride.
But of those 10 wins, only one has come against a team that currently occupies a playoff spot. So other than a 4-2 win against the Calgary Flames in early November, Edmonton has dropped all eight of their games against playoff opponents. They’re 9-3-0 against teams outside the playoffs and 1-6-2 against teams in playoff spots.
“This league’s tough,” Perry said. “Everybody comes in and wants to play their game against us. We have to respond to that.”
So far this season, the Oilers haven’t been able to respond to having a target on their backs. They’ll be presented with another test on Saturday when the New York Rangers come to town. Despite owning a 12-5-1 record, the Blueshirts are in fourth in the highly competitive Metro Division.
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