The term “déjà vu” refers to going through an experience that you have already gone through before, for the most part. Déjà vu, for the Edmonton Oilers, has been losing to the eventual Stanley Cup Champions four years running. It is also making the two most recent instances Stanley Cup Final losses to the Florida Panthers.
Coming back home after beating said Panthers 6–3 and looking complete, déjà vu, last night became something else. It became coming home from a long, average-joe road trip, and getting pasted by a Central Division opponent with whom the Oilers have 1990s, and 2020s, playoff history with. On this night, the Oilers completely forgot they had a work shift, yet again.
This isn’t going to be a long postgame; there’s no reason for it to be. Oilers lose 8–3 to Dallas. This made the road game in Dallas earlier this month look like a complete game marred by bad luck. If only.
Skinner and Pickard follow up their best games with a collective worst
Just when it looked like things were turning a corner. Calvin Pickard stole the Oilers a point against the Tampa Bay Lightning after the team ran out of gas in the third period last Thursday. Two nights later, Stuart Skinner put forth his best foot, stopping 35 of 38 shots to preserve the win over Florida. The goaltending was back to challenging one another.
Not on this night. Once again, neither goalie could make a save when it mattered. Skinner couldn’t bail his team out with all the slot and in-tight shots being allowed. Pickard couldn’t help his team kill two second-period penalties when a sliver of hope existed.
Depending on who you trust most, this tandem either is getting broken up after the Seattle Kraken game on Saturday, or has until the three-day holiday break to assert themselves. If it’s the latter, no more games like this can be accepted. Full stop. And the players have allegedly already used their “please don’t trade our goalie friend” card.
Make some saves. It’s a thankless job, but it has to be done. No excuses.
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Throw this defensive scheme into the North Saskatchewan River
Not one of the first-period shots from the Stars came from distance. Everything was in-tight, as were their power play goals in the second period. How does this keep happening?
Either the new system needs to be extensively practiced in the coming days, or it needs to be burned. Burned, buried, never spoken of again, return to the old way of doing things. We would all be better off not speaking of this abomination ever again.
At least Clattenburg scored. Nobody is mad at him
Connor Clattenburg provided a healthy dose of who he is on Saturday. He generated two shots on goal, was physical whenever on the ice, and helped cause an A.J. Greer crash-out at the end of the game.
Turns out the kid has offensive instincts, too. He gets his first NHL goal by driving to the net, Corey Perry style. The Oilers have been starved for this kind of goal all season long, and it’s good to see someone provide it. It also made TV play-by-play guy Jack Michaels lose his voice for a brief spell, though he managed to recover, with his partner Louie DeBrusk doing a superb job filling in the gap with analysis.
Congrats on your first one, Clattenburg! Keep scoring ’em that way!
The Oilers would get two third-period goals, one from Evan Bouchard and one from Jack Roslovic. At that point, however, they were meaningless goals that put lipstick on the pig that was the end result. Getting those in the first period would have been a lot better, guys.
They just had to play like this right before their autograph session?
Bleh. Of all the times to proverbially poop your pants, this team does it two days before the West Edmonton Mall autograph session. The timing couldn’t be any worse.
This observer recommends everyone take a break from the social media vacuum today. Go do something relaxing, or maybe take out your frustrations on that punching bag in the basement you keep forgetting about. Let’s get all of our emotions out of the way tomorrow.
And most importantly, let’s treat the Oilers with lots of respect and gratitude on Thursday. They are human beings, at the end of the day, doing us a major service by distracting us from the upended state of the world in 2025. Let’s show some class, and no matter what we think of the players’ performance, support them. Be kind, everyone.
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