No team in the NHL can score like the Edmonton Oilers — aside from the Colorado Avalanche — yet if they can’t figure out how to keep the puck out of their own net, they’re going to have an extremely difficult time getting anywhere close to a third straight Stanley Cup Final.
For years, the blame has been placed on the goaltending and, at times, on the defense as a whole — coaching and personnel included. Those areas are certainly still responsible for some of the Oilers’ defensive woes, but after Saturday’s 5-4 loss to the Sharks, one reporter pointed out what some are often afraid to say: Edmonton’s best players let them down.
In a postgame column for Sportsnet, Mark Spector dove into what went wrong in San Jose, pinpointing a lack of detail and engagement from the Oilers’ core — despite the usual suspects, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, producing offensively.
“This is about the Edmonton Oilers’ best players. The guys who wear the letters. Darnell Nurse. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Leon Draisaitl. Mattias Ekholm. Zach Hyman. Yes, even Connor McDavid, who had a marvellous three-point night only to cough up a puck on the Sharks’ game-winner…”
He added:
“The most concerning element? It was Edmonton’s best players — the letter wearers and leaders — who let them down the worst in San Jose. A sure sign that a team isn’t as engaged as it needs to be is when not enough players are selling out to block shots. On this team, at this time, that is a noticeable shortfall. Another area? The second defensive pairing of Nurse and Jake Walman. Together they’ve been a liability. Individually, Nurse’s game hasn’t woken up all season. He was fighting it again on Saturday.”
The trio of McDavid, Zach Hyman, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins — who have, for the most part, been tremendous together on a line — were on the ice for four of the Sharks’ five goals at even strength, while McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins were also out there for the power-play tally. Frustration from the captain was evident after each goal, often shaking his head and looking skyward, seemingly in disbelief at what was unfolding.
Darnell Nurse, on the other hand, was on for three goals against — one coming while shorthanded — and, as mentioned, Mattias Ekholm was caught in no-man ’s-land, screening his own goalie on Shakir Mukhamadullin’s game-winner.
Frustrations Are Boiling Over for the Oilers
Each loss in which the Oilers score enough to win but don’t has become increasingly frustrating for everyone involved, and that was on full display postgame Saturday.
Nurse, in particular, had a night to forget, struggling to handle the puck with several turnovers and losing net-front battles on a few San Jose goals. He was asked about his rough outing, but didn’t appear eager to dive into it: “Good analysis… Yeah, no, for sure.”
Draisaitl, who’s been especially vocal of late, is clearly sick and tired of the same issues continuing to haunt his team: “Sounds like a broken record, but just giving up too many goals. It’s hard to score five, six goals every night.”
While there’s not a whole lot of positivity in Edmonton right now, they can at least be thankful to reside in the weakest division in hockey, where they still sit in third place despite all the ups and downs. That said, the fourth-place Kraken have a higher points percentage, and the fifth- and sixth-seeded Kings and Sharks aren’t far behind. So, if the Oilers don’t clean things up soon, they could find themselves battling just to make the playoffs.
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