The Edmonton Oilers finished a lengthy homestand last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs. This was a team the Oilers beat solidly on their ice a couple months ago. The Leafs have also been decidedly not-very-good this season. Another win wouldn’t be too difficult, you would think. However, that is forgetting one key thing.
Groundhog Day was a couple of days ago, for the folks who forget about its existence. It’s the date that, famously, spawned the hit movie titled similarly, in which a news reporter finds himself stuck in a loop of re-living Groundhog Day. As such, Groundhog Day is also now a part of the pop culture lexicon, to refer to a perpetual re-occurrence.
For the Oilers, that re-occurrence is getting stonewalled by an opposing goalie’s best night of their season. It’s also questionable officiating, and a penalty kill that only kills whatever momentum the Oilers had. Just because the Oilers didn’t play on Groundhog Day itself, doesn’t mean it can’t come a day late. Take a wild guess as to what happened. It was a day late, but certainly not a dollar short.
Oilers lose 5–2.
The only saving grace at this point is that the Vegas Golden Knights can’t win, either. But now a win tonight will be necessary for Edmonton; we’ll get into that later. Here’s the game story.
The penalty kill needs a full reset coming out of the Olympic break
This was a 2–2 game in the third period. Like they did on Saturday, the Oilers played a lacklustre middle frame, ending it down 2–1 to Toronto. But they evened it up at 2–2 less than five minutes into the third period. This was a very winnable game.
But then, of course, penalty trouble emerges. The calls themselves, and non-calls throughout the game, can be debated ad nauseam. Yes, NHL referees still leave quite much to be desired. But likewise, let’s treat this like the fanbase seems to treat goaltending (which we will also get to later on): make a gosh-darn kill or two when it’s required.
Even killing off one of those two minor penalties, and only trailing 3–2, would have helped. At the very least, the Oilers would have been able to hold off a little longer on pulling Connor Ingram for the extra attacker. Giving up two power play goals there is inexcusable. Mattias Janmark, in the post-game, was aware of this, saying that when “pucks start going in, we can’t snap out of it,” and that the team needs to work on “everything” about their penalty kill.
The penalty kill has been in arguably its worst rut of the season lately. When teams are able to start practicing again before the break ends, the penalty kill needs to be at the forefront for the Oilers. You cannot go on the California road trip at the end of February without doing a full reset of the penalty kill corps. Period, end of discussion, that unit must be leagues better than they have been recently.
The Oilers have to get “greasier” goals when the other goalie is hot
At one end of the ice, the goalie was lights-out on this night, allowing just two goals against on 36 shots. That amounts to a .944 save percentage, which is really, really good. The goaltender that posted these results was not the one in the Oilers crease; it was instead Anthony Stolarz.
One underlying theme has remained consistent and obvious throughout the campaign. The Oilers aren’t as high-octane as they were before. And the reason for that is simple: they can’t score the greasy goals as often as they used to. Corey Perry nearly scored 20 goals as a 39-year-old largely by feasting on net-front opportunities. Evander Kane was another player who would just simply crash the net and pot a good chunk of his goals that way.
Outside of Zach Hyman (and occasionally Leon Draisaitl), not enough Oilers on the current roster do that. As a result, several goalies have had their way with Edmonton this season. That needs to stop happening; not every goal is going to be a fancy steak dinner at the Chateau Lacombe. Sometimes, you have to rely on your local donair shop to fuel your day. This team collectively has to commit to making the lives of opposing goalie’s far more difficult.
A rare night where the stars can’t score, but other players can
Part of the reason the Oilers didn’t win this game was a lack of production from the top dogs of the roster. Have the Oilers ever won a game where both Draisaitl, and Connor McDavid, don’t score? It sure feels like the answer is a resounding “no.” Heck, not even Hyman, Evan Bouchard, or Ryan Nugent-Hopkins found the scoresheet.
This, at the very least, did not mean the Oilers got shut out. Jake Walman got the Oilers back to even terms after Toronto had opened the scoring. Set face-off plays have been used against the Oilers to back-breaking success for other teams this season. Here, Walman avenged a couple of those with this reception of a face-off win, letting it fly through a maze of traffic in front of Stolarz.
Kasperi Kapanen got the other Oilers goal on a nifty passing play with Vasily Podkolzin. This observer has, rightfully so, waxed poetic about how good these two players are as linemates for Draisaitl. The fact that they complement each other well, too, is bonus gravy, and reinforces the need for them to stay super-glued to Draisaitl’s flanks.
In a season where depth scoring has been hit-or-miss, it was a hit on this night. Just for that alone, the Oilers deserved a better outcome. But this should inspire much confidence moving forward, nevertheless. Kapanen, in the post-game, seemed eager to carry that momentum onward, saying that the team has “gotta focus on tomorrow, and it’s going to be a big two points for us.”
Could we see Connor Ungar at some point after the break?
The magic has worn off for Tristan Jarry and Connor Ingram, it would seem. Neither goalie is having a great go of it right now. Though, Ingram has been playing better than Jarry, and you can build a case that his keeping San Jose off the board for the last 50 minutes of that game last week helped the Oilers rally for the win.
In this game, sure he was sabotaged by atrocious penalty kill work in front of him. The stats, however, still say he stopped just 22 of 26, which is not what the Oilers can afford right now. But again, Jarry got pulled from his start against Minnesota thanks to dismal performance. Of the two, Ingram is clearly playing better.
This begs the question: with Calvin Pickard recently clearing waivers and being sent down to AHL Bakersfield, do we see one more goaltending move this season? Goaltender Connor Ungar has been lighting up the A this season. Some of his finest work came over the weekend, as he paid homage to Ben Scrivens and stopped 51 of 53 shots in a heroic winning effort.
Do you call him up as a third goalie, and see what he’s got? His entry level contract expires this summer, anyways, and he’ll be a restricted free-agent. Can’t hurt to see if he can maintain that form at the NHL level, and if he can’t, he doesn’t need waivers to go back to Bakersfield. There’s little risk to this scenario.
Give the game in Calgary tonight everything you got
No excuses, no “second half of a back-to-back,” nothing of that sort. Go down the road to Calgary, and find a way to win. It is of absolute necessity.
Vegas, for all their flaws, gets Vancouver as their opponent tonight, and then the Los Angeles Kings tomorrow. For sure they should get two points out of those games, possibly even four. So to keep pace with them atop the Pacific Division, you must win this game tonight. And you’re going into the Olympic break anyways, so leave it all out there tonight.
Photo by Curtis Comeau/Icon Sportswire
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