I love watching the Oilers play hockey on a Saturday night, and last night’s matchup against the Blackhawks was no exception. And with Connor McDavid and Connor Bedard both looking for their first win of the season, this first of three meetings between Edmonton and Chicago had the makings of a beauty.
After getting beat down and going scoreless against the Winnipeg Jets in Wednesday’s season opener, the last thing anyone wanted to see was another lacklustre performance on home ice. So, I’ve got to admit that I did have a healthy chuckle when the Oilers went scoreless in the first period despite producing a laundry list of quality chances for themselves. The results weren’t there, but it wasn’t for a lack of opportunities. For the second straight game, the Oilers couldn’t cash.
The good news is that Corey Perry finally broke the drought 4:55 into the second period with a lucky bounce he earned off a fine second effort near the net. The bad news is that the Blackhawks immediately responded with two quick goals: not only to reclaim their lead but also to buy themselves some insurance for good measure. Chicago capitalized on their chances, but Edmonton couldn’t match. And for the second time in as many games, the Oilers found themselves in a multi-goal deficit at home heading into the third period.
Down by two goals with 20 minutes to go, the Oilers got an early power play chance that could have turned their night around if their bread and butter power play could come up with a clutch goal when they needed it most. But in the most unfortunate of plot twists, it was the Blackhawks that converted on their PP chance to extend their lead to three goals and really start nailing the coffin shut. In the span of only a few minutes, the Oilers went from having hope to fighting for their lives again.
It was almost like they couldn’t get any momentum going, and it’s not hard to understand why, given how every mistake they made seemed to wind up in the net. The boys didn’t get much help in net for the second straight game, and that’s unfortunate given the rust that this team is clearly working through. As much as no one wants to hear it, these last two games have felt almost like watching a replay of the same mistakes that were burning us a year ago at this time.
Even so, it will take more than two losses to shake my belief in this hockey team. They’re better than what we’ve seen so far, and it’s annoying that it looks like it’s going to take a minute for them to get going again. Over and above the mistakes and losing to the Blackhawks on the second night of their back-to-back weekend, the most frustrating part of this result was how it took being down by three goals for the Oilers to start playing with some urgency.
If the Oilers played for 60 minutes like they did in the third, then I think we’d probably be talking about a different result. Instead, Edmonton is starting the year at 0-2 and putting themselves back in a position to fall behind again if they can’t find a way to get themselves going.  I don’t know what the deal is with this team and slow starts, but they had better figure it out in a hurry before the city starts to implode on itself again. Here’s hoping Sunday’s Battle of Alberta is exactly what they need to make that happen.

OTHER THINGS WORTH MENTIONING

  • I’m not sure how you outshoot a team 38-20 and lose 5-2, but that’s what happened in game two of the 2024-25 season. We are so back, baby.
  • Philipp Kurashev opened the scoring (1-0) for Chicago after he chopped the puck up and over Pickard on the blocker side. Taylor Hall threw the puck toward a pile of bodies in front of the net, and that’s where Kurashev altered its course with quick hack that worked out perfectly.
  • Corey Perry tied the game (1-1) after he found a loose puck near the crease and got a lucky bounce on his centering pass attempt. Perry was actually trying to put the puck back in the slot, but it ended up bouncing in off of the Blackhawks defenceman for the hometown bounce.
  • The Oilers’ PK struggles continued when Seth Jones restored the lead (2-1) with a heavy wrister from the high slot that made its way through Pickard, puck trickling over line almost like it was slow motion.
  • Connor Bedard increased the Blackhawks lead with a snipe from the slot (3-1) that he ripped over Pickard on the glove-hand side. The Oilers gave the kid all kinds of time to make a play, and as we saw with his first goal of the season, he’ll punish you when that happens. Unfortunately, the Oilers didn’t seem to learn their lesson at any point because Bedard finished the night with three points after what was a very strong performance for the sophomore forward.
  • Teuvo Teravainen made it a three-goal lead (4-1) with Chicago’s second power play goal of the night with a well placed tip from the slot that deflected up and over Pickard. Teravainen scored a second power goal — Chicago’s third of the night — in garbage time (5-2) on a blast from the circle that beat Pickard low on the glove side.
  • Leon Draisaitl cut the lead to two (4-2) on the power play with a one-touch shot from the slot that beat Mrazek down low as he was trying to slide across his crease. The Oilers had the puck move from Nuge to Draisaitl to McDavid back to Leon in a snap, and it twisted Chicago’s PK up like a pretzel.
  • With Skinner scheduled to play tomorrow night against the Flames, Calvin Pickard was making his first start of the year after coming into the last game in relief after Stu gave up five goals on only 13 shots. And while he was certainly better than Stu was on night one, the five goals he gave up on 20 shots gives the Oilers two straight games with goaltending well below a .900 save%. I’m not trying to be a jerk or anything, but it’s pretty tough to win games when you’re struggling to score goals in combinations with .750 goaltending.
  • Big props to my man Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for picking up his 700th NHL point with the assist he registered on Leon Draisaitl’s second period marker. It would have been really nice if he had scored on his chance right near the crease late in the third perild, but I’m choosing to ignore that unfortunate miss for the time being.
  • Shout out to Brett Kulak for playing in his 500th NHL game. Kulak is such an underrated part of this defensive group, and I always appreciate how his versatility quietly bails the Oilers more often than not. Unfortunately, Saturday’s game was one of the “not” nights after he got tagged with a pair of goals against, as he and Emberson look to forge some chemistry as a duo.
  • I’d like to thank the Hockey Gords for preventing Taylor Hall from scoring in his most recent return to Rogers Place. Hall did get an assist, though, which gives him eight points (2G, 6A) in 12 career games versus the Oilers since being traded for Adam Larsson in June of 2016.
  • Make it two games in a row where the Oilers struggled with their special teams. Even with the power play scoring a goal on three attempts with the man advantage, that silver lining was heavily outweighed by the three goals they gave up on all three shorthanded situations they faced. In total, the Oilers have now given up five power play goals against on six total chances. That’s an ugly stat to start the season.
  • Did you really think I would leave you to finish this article without telling everyone that the Oilers won 33.3% of the faceoffs? An awful display on the dot, and I’m embarrassed to be reporting the number to all of you fine people.
  • I say the Oilers fire Jay Woodcroft again since he’s technically still on their payroll.

ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365