With the Oilers kicking off their season 2-4 through six games after saying they weren’t going to have a slow start again, it’s hard not to overreact to everything that’s going wrong. Being in this rut made going up against a solid Hurricanes team all the more stressful, and even though it’s still early, it almost seemed like a game the boys had to win. Carolina had other plans, though, as they came roaring back from a two-goal deficit, completing the comeback with a 3-2 OT win.
We recorded a new episode of Oilersnation Radio yesterday, and a big part of the conversation was about Saturday’s frustrating loss against the Stars. The Oilers dominated that game for nearly 40 minutes until a late goal by Matt Duchene punched a hole in the dinghy that Edmonton could not patch up. The ice was so tilted in the Oilers’ favour that it was almost stunning that they couldn’t grab a lead despite the laundry list of offensive opportunities.
The silver lining in Saturday’s game was that the boys played well, but silver linings don’t get you home-ice advantage in the playoffs. Against the Carolina Hurricanes, they needed to bring the same hustle and energy we saw against Dallas, with the added element of figuring out how to get something past the goaltender. I don’t know if you know this, but it’s pretty tough to win hockey games when you don’t score any goals. Even strength, power play, shorthanded—it didn’t matter how the job got done, as long as someone got something past Freddie Andersen.
So, when Connor McDavid opened the scoring early in the first period with a snipe that beat Andersen clean over the glove hand — I doubt anyone could have stopped that shot, for the record — it already felt like an improvement over Saturday’s matinee. The bad news was that the Oilers weren’t able to dominate the Hurricanes for 40 minutes like they did against the Stars. Carolina is a scrappy team under Rod Brind’Amour, and the last thing they ever seem to do is roll over and die.
Yet, even with the expected pushback from Carolina, the Oilers got a timely power play goal by McDavid to extend their lead and give themselves some insurance. Up by two after 40 minutes, it looked like the home side was in great shape to lock in a win if only they could either further extend the lead or simply hold on. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the game script. Instead, the Hurricanes’ relentlessness shone through once again, as a power play goal by Shane Gostisbehere early in the third gave them life.
With one goal on the board, the Hurricanes attacked in waves, but the Oilers seemed to be doing a nice job of bending without breaking. That was, of course, until the 13:29 mark when they got caught on a bad line change, resulting in an odd-man rush that the Hurricanes executed perfectly for the tying goal. Not only was the tying goal frustrating, but so too was the Oilers’ inability to cash in a third to regain the lead. Gord knows they had the chances, they just couldn’t finish.
When the game got to overtime, it was the Oilers who started the bonus period with all kinds of chances and puck possession. But as we saw in the third, the boys just couldn’t get another one past Andersen despite a plethora of quality chances from a variety of different players. And after what seemed like four or five healthy looks, the Hurricanes got a 2-on-1 break going the other way and converted on it to complete the comeback and leave the rest of us confused about why the team can’t score.
For the second straight game, the Oilers had more than enough chances to run up the score but couldn’t get the job done. Even though I truly believe that Edmonton’s PDO will return to normal and all will be right again, the at-bats it’s taking to get there are becoming increasingly painful. Put another way, I think the Oilers will be fine when all is said and done, but that doesn’t make this 2-4-1 start any less painful. I mean, how can this possibly be happening again? C’mon.

OTHER THINGS WORTH MENTIONING…

  • Connor McDavid opened the scoring (1-0) early in the first period with a snipe from the left circle that beat Andersen bar-down on the glove-hand side after the Oilers broke into the zone in transition. Connor absolutely ripped this puck, and I don’t think many goalies in the league would have stopped that one. McDavid added a power play goal early in the second period (2-0) after a nifty give-and-go with Draisaitl gave the captain a clear lane to the net where he was able to chip the puck over Andersen and into the net. Not only was it nice to see the first multiple goal game of the season for the captain, but he also gave his team its first power play goal in what felt like forever.
  • Shayne Gostisbehere cut Edmonton’s lead in half (2-1) with a power play goal from the left circle after a failed clear gave the Hurricanes the additional zone time they needed to convert. Right before ghost-bear’s goal, Stuart Skinner made what could have been the save of the season, but was it was all for not after a failed clear by Janmark wiped out the elation we all were feeling in the snap of a finger.
  • Martin Necas tied the game (2-2) on a backdoor tap-in just past the midway point of the third period after the Oilers got caught on a bad line change, clearing the lane for an odd-man rush that the Hurricanes executed perfectly.
  • Stuart Skinner has taken a lot of heat around here over the last few days (years), and nothing would shut the noise up quite like a big start against a strong team like Carolina. And since Stu hasn’t been on top of his game yet this season, it would go a long way with everyone if he could shake off this tough run and come up with a rebound performance that we know he’s capable of. And to his credit, Skinner gave his best performance of the season with 30 saves and a .909 save%.
  • Shout out to the Hurricanes for missing all of their grade-A chances. I swear there were at least three or four scoring chances from prime spots on the ice that they either duffed or missed completely, and for that, I thank them. Chances are that without all of those missed chances, we may not have gotten the single point we did get for the OTL.
  • Zach Hyman may never score again. In fact, I’m convinced he’s cursed. This could be the monkey paw effect after a 50-goal season, but the theory will need further investigation.
  • Not to single Hyman out, Nugent-Hopkins and Arvidsson are two other guys that seriously need to get going. RNH sits 4th in team scoring with three assists while Arvidsson has yet to get on the board at all.
  • After what felt like an eternity given how spoiled we’ve been, Edmonton’s power play came through with a goal after a drive to the by Connor McDavid resulted in his team extending the lead at a pivotal moment of the hockey game. Even though the boys only went 1/4 with the man advantage, they had some looks that were very encouraging over and above the goal they scored. Unfortunately, last night was another one of those games where it would have been really nice to get more than one.
  • The PK, however, continues to struggle after giving up one goal on two shorthanded situations. Edmonton came into Tuesday’s game sitting in dead last on the PK at 55.5%, and the wild part about how bad they’ve been is that the 50% they put up against the Hurricanes will pull them down even further.
  • Frederik Andersen is  now 18-2-2 against the Oilers. I don’t what kind of pact with Satan he drew up when his career started, but it has resulted in some kind of hold over this team that doesn’t seem to make sense.
  • The NHL site has the giveaways for the Oilers listed at 17 but that number seems light to me.
  • Death, taxes, and me letting you know that the Oilers won 55.8% of the faceoffs.

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