One more home game to close out the stand for the Edmonton Oilers happened last night. Hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning, this was yet another opportunity to continue the quest to win the very weak Pacific Division. However, much like their in-state rivals, the Lightning are never an easy out no matter the situation.
The Bolts came into this game not having Captain Victor Hedman available due to injury. They ended up not needing Hedman’s Norris-calibre prowess, because even with a gaffe that’s going to challenge for Top 10 in “Misplays of the Month,” they allowed the Oilers just two goals. At the other end, Nikita Kucherov essentially did the rest, because he is Nikita Kucherov and he can do that.
Oilers lose 5–2.
The best way to describe things, at this point, is that the Oilers are trying to be the luckiest Division winners in NHL history. Not only did the rest of the Pacific lose for the second day in the last three, but the team Edmonton is chasing, the Anaheim Ducks, have to deal with the red-hot… Buffalo Sabres. Still weird to say out loud.
Here’s the game story.
Interested in joining our writing or social media team? Apply here.
The special teams let the Oilers down in this game
It’s hard to win in the National Hockey League when you don’t have good special-teams. For the most part, entering this game, the Oilers *did* have good power play and penalty kill units. The man-advantage most times isn’t the issue; rather, it’s killing penalties off. That had been happening with frequency lately.
The penalty kill’s first two opportunities ended early. At least the second time was because Tampa Bay negated their power play with an infraction of their own. The first opportunity ended because Jake Guentzel was allowed to walk out in front of the net.
The Lightning took another penalty not long after the Oilers began their first power play of the night. For nearly a full minute and fifteen seconds, Edmonton had a five-on-three. They did well to get shots on goal early on in it, but then seemed to try setting up the perfect passing play, rather than create net-front traffic. So they ended up not scoring on the five-on-three, and then to compound matters, Connor McDavid gets decked trying to do it all himself.
We’ll get to Kucherov in a moment. But when these are the results your special-teams unit produces, you fully deserve to lose. Count this game as an “earned” loss for Edmonton.
Kucherov lords over everything because of course he does
Those two goals only accounted for half of Kucherov’s points on the night, by the way. Kucherov had an earlier assist, putting on goal the initial shot that caused chaos in front of the Edmonton net. Anthony Cirelli eventually put it home on the rebound to tie the game at 1–1.
And with the Oilers just one shot away from tying things up, Kucherov essentially called game. He got himself open for a pass from behind the net, and no Oiler picked him up. Bang, in the net, second goal of the game, fourth point, it’s Kucherov’s world and we just live in it apparently.
Hockey Night In Canada panelist Kevin Bieksa ended up playing the role of “prophet” on this night. In the first intermission, he pointed out how Kucherov seemed to be off his game coming out of the gates, and declared that eventually, he would find his footing and take over the contest. Dadgummit, Bieksa ended up being correct, as that’s exactly what happened. Kucherov now leads the NHL scoring race by two points; unbelievable.
This team cannot score regularly and even McDavid has no answer
The Oilers actually got the first goal of this game and led 1–0 after the first period. McDavid redirected an Evan Bouchard shot in the final minute of the frame to get Edmonton on the board. That right there should have served a blueprint for the rest of the night. Get as much traffic to the net-front as you can, and shoot from anywhere where you find a sliver of a lane.
To some degree, that stayed the game plan in the second period. But after Tampa Bay made it 3–1, it’s like the Oilers forgot that strategy, and reverted back to old habits. Which, come playoff time, the Oilers must resist doing at all costs.
Josh Samanski at least got his first NHL goal, albeit in the funkiest of manners. This observer can somewhat relate, though even then it’s only somewhat. This first NHL goal is the anti-Jordan Eberle: instead of being the fanciest steak dinner served in La Ronde atop the Chateau Lacombe, it’s you accidentally eating someone else’s order of french fries.
But the point ultimately stands: that amount of goal-scoring is not good enough. The Oilers are better than this, and they showed as much against the San Jose Sharks. They just have to find better ways to score when the fancy stuff isn’t available. And McDavid’s comments after the game were not inspiring, to say the least. Does Kris Knoblauch need to put in a better system? Is McDavid trying to give a non-answer here? Who the heck knows, just please score more than twice next game.
Alors, on danse (And so we dance -through the raindrops, that is)
Seventeen years ago, the Belgian artist Stromae released the hit single “Alors On Danse.” The song narrates all the troubles, in life and the world, one may face, and a common method of coping with them. Paraphrased and translated: “We want to forget all our problems, and so we dance.”
There cannot be a more apt description of what the 2025–26 Edmonton Oilers are experiencing. They’ve only had one winning streak all year, they only have one decent goalie at the NHL level right now, and only once in the last six games have they scored more than two goals in a game, not counting empty-netters. Sometimes this team appears to be turning a corner, then they trip over their skates and allow a breakaway.
Yet, somehow… the Pacific Division crown is still within reach. To boot, the Ducks face Buffalo tonight, which won’t be easy for them. They’ll only have a single game in hand when both they and Edmonton are in action Tuesday night.
It largely comes down to this week’s games, for the Oilers. The Utah Mammoth, Vegas Golden Knights, and Anaheim are their opponents. The outcomes range from Pacific lead, to teetering on the edge of the playoff bubble. One way or another, this week will show us what this team is made of. But for now… so we dance.
