The Edmonton Oilers, coming off back-to-back losses in the New York/New Jersey region, headed westward for another afternoon game against the Detroit Red Wings. Their last afternoon game was the previous day; that game did not go well whatsoever. The hope was that facing a Wings team without Patrick Kane would be a get-right game for the Orange & Blue.
The first (nearly) half of the game was more of the same lethargy, though goaltender Stuart Skinner had their backs. The rest of the game got dicey, as Detroit scored three times in the back part of the second period. A Noah Philp goal in that span, and a Leon Draisaitl third-period finish made things interesting. But yet again, Edmonton looked slow and sluggish, had no puck luck, and allowed defensive lapses to hand the other team the win for the third straight time. After five out of six points in the first three games, the Oilers have none in the most recent three.
4–2 final score after tacking on a Detroit empty-netter. Here’s the game story.
The lack of offence is beyond ridiculous at this point
This was game four of a five-game road trip through metropolitan New York/Newark, Detroit, and Ottawa. The Oilers have only scored more than two times once, last afternoon against the New Jersey Devils. That third goal came in the waning seconds of garbage time, presumably because Curtis Lazar wanted to spite his former team.
In a “3–2 league,” as the NHL has been so commonly referred to, two goals per game isn’t going to win many contests. Wouldn’t you know it, two goals per game have not won the Oilers many games on this roadie. In the past two games, it has actually had them playing from behind for a major chunk of time.
This starts with your stars not playing like your stars. Connor McDavid has now gone six games without a goal to start the year. Leon Draisaitl has been more of a mixed bag, as he finished off a beautiful passing sequence to keep this game competitive:
However, he too had many moments on this day of looking subpar. Be it passing up shooting chances, mishandling the puck, or firing a shot well wide of the net, they’re not getting the job done well enough. Most of the top players are struggling with it, too.
The good news is that Noah Philp, ushered back into the lineup, tallied his second of the new year. With Kasperi Kapanen exiting this game, Philp may actually stay in the lineup and have more of a chance to prove his offensive value to this team. The bad news is that too many other forwards posted zeroes in this one yet again.
It’s not just the lack of goals, it’s the lack of shots on goal
When a team is going through an offensive slump, sometimes the answer can be to just throw everything at the net. Eventually, one or two that normally don’t go in will at some point. There’s a reason 40+ save shutouts aren’t common.
The Oilers tested this theory well at home to start the year, but on the road trip haven’t taken nearly as many shots. Yesterday, it reached an all-time low, as Edmonton managed just three shots in the entire first period. After two frames, it was 11 shots, and by the game’s end, it was 18.
Just like how you aren’t going to win many games scoring only twice, you aren’t going to win many games with only 18 shots through 60 minutes. John Gibson’s save percentage started with an “8”, but he ultimately got the win. The Oilers have to stop over-passing the puck and find ways to get the puck on net, even with traffic in front.
Second-period swoon does the Oilers in, in several ways
Put summarily, the offence or lack thereof is the main reason the Oilers lost this game. The secondary reason, however, was the final 12 minutes of the second period. Defence for the Oilers, while not as egregious as past nights, still looked suspect to start. Skinner stopped the first 10 shots he faced, a couple of them being legitimate scoring chances.
The Red Wings’ Dylan Larkin finally hit the back of the net off of, all things, a set face-off play.
1–0 when you’re being outshot 11 to a piddly amount is an expected result. The good news for the Oilers, though, was that Jack Roslovic drew a tripping penalty on Andrew Copp soon after. The recently-maligned Oilers power play, instead of giving up a shorthanded goal, put in some solid work that shifted the momentum a bit, and could have led to a tie game.
What you can’t do after a power play like that, however, is allow a rush chance. The Oilers did, and while initially it led to nothing, rookie Emmitt Finnie eventually converted it with help from Larkin.
Following Philp’s tally, Larkin scored again by doing exactly what this observer is preaching the Oilers start doing. Larkin threw a puck towards the Edmonton net, looking for some fortunate event. Skinner wasn’t ready for it, and even if he were, he got no help from Mattias Ekholm, who perfectly screened Skinner, allowing the puck to slide through uninterrupted. Just brutal awareness all around.
Of course, that stood as the game winner. All one team had to do was put pucks on net, cliched as that sounds. Detroit did so and got rewarded. Edmonton’s lack of punch and lapse of defensive awareness cost them.
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The next game on the schedule
Edmonton wraps up this road trip in the Canadian capital on Tuesday, with a 4:30 PM MT start against the Ottawa Senators. The Sens will be without Brady Tkachuk for this one, as he recovers from injury. Only six games in, this already feels like a must-win; not just to get the Oilers back to a .500 winning percentage, but to salvage this road trip with a second win. This club posted an early-season victory over Ottawa last season when they really needed one. History will have to repeat itself on Tuesday night.
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