Welp…that sucks. Don’t fret, though, Edmonton Oilers fans. Soon, you too will get a break from this team, a much-needed and much-deserved break at that.

However, if you crave one more game – the 58th of the NHL regular season already – well, the Battle of Alberta is tonight.

After an important homestand finishes 4-4, with three of those losses against teams that played the Calgary Flames the night before, maybe the magic elixir is to be the team on a back-to-back playing the Flames.

Or something like that.

It was an exciting contest, nevertheless, against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night. But after some unfortunate calls against, and a myriad of mistakes, the Oilers lost 5-2.

A pair of goals while shorthanded broke the 2-2 tie, and that was all she wrote. That undersells how many are feeling afterwards. What is this Oilers team?

“It’s a little bit of everything,” said Knoblauch post-game.

“Whether you’re fighting for first place or fighting for the playoffs – urgency always ramps up. We’re at that point.”

There will be multiple weeks to armchair GM the flaws and faults, the good and the bad. But in the meantime, this game against the Calgary Flames now bears a bit of significance.

A loss will make the next three weeks feel like an eternity. A win leaves Oilers fans in a lighter mood at least, as the country shifts focus to the first Olympics in twelve years with NHL players.

Is Edmonton going to leave the NHL slate with a sour taste in their mouths, soothed by margaritas on their February tropical holiday?

Not-so special teams

Part of this zig-zag Oilers team that is zagging the hardest at the end of the homestand is the special teams.

The first-ranked power play in the league hasn’t scored in the last three games, but has only drawn four penalties. More concerning is how hard the penalty kill has dipped. After flirting with top-10 status in the league, the Oilers penalty dropped to 24th, going 4/11 in the last four games.

I struggled in math when I went to school, but 36 per cent is not a good run on the penalty kill, albeit for a small sample size of four games.

However, for the entire homestand, that puts the penalty kill below 70 per cent.

“I think it’s too early for me to comment on exactly what it is. There’s always times you go through funks,” said Knoblauch when asked about what he’s seen from the kill lately.

“It has to be short. It can’t prolong it. I can’t really comment on what’s going on. Henrique, whose been our top faceoff guy, we’ve obviously been missing him for some time. I know we’ll welcome him back when he becomes available, but I can’t say exactly what the issues are.”

I, for one, would appreciate some comment about it, as trite as it may be.

There’s a lot of noise surrounding Kris Knoblauch right now. Some of it has merit.

‘No quit’

To the opponent, which is usually the function of these articles… can you tell I’m mailing this one in an Oilers-esque fashion?

The Calgary Flames snapped a five-game skid on January 31 in a 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks, but overall have lost six of their last seven, primarily at home as well. The tank commanders have been lining up. General Jonathan Huberdeau registered four points in January. Admirals Nazem Kadri and Blake Coleman may end up on opposition fleets by March.

That doesn’t mean the efforts are poor. Calgary fought tooth-and-nail and almost came back from a three-goal deficit against Toronto on Monday.

The belief is not crushed in this dressing room, despite sitting 29th in the NHL with a 22-27-6 record.

“I think it would have been easy just to kind of ride it out and see how the game went, but we have a lot of guys that battle hard in this room, and we have really good leaders that lead the way,” said Joel Farabee post-game.

“There’s no quit ever in this locker room, and I’ve always appreciated that since I’ve come here.”

What is exciting for the Flames is the return of Zayne Parekh, who played his most impressive game of his young NHL career, according to coach Ryan Huska. The organization is being very cautious after an injury layoff, some time with Team Canada at the World Juniors, then the Calgary Wranglers. He played a career high 20:05.

That’s 1-1-1 head-to-head

Although convenient for the schedule-makers, this is really a dud of a time for a Battle of Alberta, the last of the regular season.

When the Oilers are moving pucks effectively, they can whollop the Flames 5-1, as they did on December 23. Leon Draisaitl scored three goals on the power play that night. He hasn’t scored one since (16 games).

When the Flames get their heavy forecheck going, they can stifle the Oilers and create turnovers and scoring chances, as they did in a 3-2 win on December 27.

If the Oilers get up early, but sit back and fiddle around with the puck, like they did opening night, they’ll lose but get a point.

The options are all there, and if you have any bloody idea of what type of game it’ll be, you’re lying.

Notes:

Matt Coronato leads the Flames with 14 goals, but will have to go on a wicked heater to reach last year’s 24 goals and 47 points.
Despite the gulf of scoring – the Oilers have 195 goals to the Flames’ 138 – each team has the same number of double-digit scorers with seven.
Trent Frederic extended his goalless drought to 32 games on Tuesday. The longest slump of his career was 34 games. He’s also gone 26 games without a point.
Martin Pospíšil finally made his season debut on January 21 after a long recovery from a concussion. He remains in search of his first point after six games.
However, he is the lone Flame headed to Milan-Cortina, as he’ll don the Slovakia sweater.
Another young Olympian, Josh Samanski, earned another assist vs TOR. Now with two in four games, he’s approaching the Frederic-Regula tier of points.
Morgan Frost has three goals in his last five games.
Joel Farabee is tied for the NHL lead with four short-handed goals with Joel Armia of the Kings and Ryan McLeod of the Buffalo Sabres.
Oilers record vs Pacific: 7-2-3
Flames record vs Pacific: 7-6-2

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