You just can’t make mistakes against elite teams.
That’s the main takeaway from a game where the Oilers lost 4-2 despite holding a 2-1 lead with ten minutes remaining in the game.
The first half of Wednesday’s loss to the Vegas Golden Knights was a snoozefest, with both teams playing safe, defensive hockey while also managing to be too sloppy to capitalize on scoring chances.
The only excitement of the first half hour was a highlight-reel breakaway goal from Vegas’ Jack Eichel, who capitalized on lax defence from Evan Bouchard and Jeff Skinner to burst through the Oilers’ zone and undress Stuart Skinner. That’s mistake number one, 1-0 Golden Knights.
The Oilers finally got on the board just after the 12-minute mark of the second period. Their barrage of low-percentage point shots finally paid off when Brett Kulak deflected a point shot from Darnell Nurse — you read that right, Brett Kulak — past Adin Hill to tie the game at 1.
“Not in the NHL,” Kulak said with a smile after the game when asked if he had ever scored a deflection goal before. “First time.”
Jack Eichel Scores.
Perry Nelson-Imagn Images
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It took an all-too-rare lucky bounce to give the Oilers the lead about three minutes later. Vegas defender Alex Pietrangelo was trying to ring the puck around the boards in his own end when it took a funny bounce off the board and landed right on Zach Hyman’s stick. Hyman made no mistake, banking the puck off Hill to put the Oilers up 2-1.
Between Kulak’s out-of-character goal and Hyman’s fortuitous bounce, it looked like the Oilers’ luck was finally beginning to turn. When Stuart Skinner made two remarkable saves after a Leon Draisaitl turnover, that feeling grew even stronger.
Then came the third period.
The game had settled back into the same slow rhythm as the first half until Ryan Nugent-Hopkins took a holding penalty midway through the third period. The Oilers had already killed one penalty in the game, but that luck couldn’t hold.
Scrambling after a Vegas cross-ice pass, the Oilers couldn’t get back into position as Noah Hanifin let fly a shot from the point. It snuck through Skinner, who should’ve had no problem with it. Two more mistakes, tie game.
Incidentally, that dropped the Oilers’ penalty kill to 59.5% through 14 games, the third-worst ever through that many games.
But it wasn’t over.
Just as the game seemed destined for overtime, Mattias Ekholm was left all alone in a puck battle in the Oilers’ end. When he lost that battle, the puck was sent past and out-of-position Evan Bouchard to Noah Hanifin, who beat Skinner over the shoulder for the dagger, his second goal of the game. Two more mistakes, 3-2 Golden Knights.
One empty-net goal later, and it was all over. A few little mistakes snowballed, and the Oilers lost 4-2 to a division rival to drop their season record to 6-7-1.
“It has to stop,” Ekholm said after the game, “and it has to stop right now.”
Player Of The Game: Brett Kulak
Despite the loss, Kulak had one of his best games of the year. Not only did he score a goal — and a tip-in, at that — but he also played solid minutes on two different pairs, switching between Darnell Nurse’s right side and Ty Emberson’s left.
Head coach Kris Knoblauch has made a habit of playing Kulak on his off side next to Nurse recently, to positive results. If he can do that consistently, the Oilers will have another solid option for their struggling second pair.
Play Of The Game
Back in the halcyon days of the late second period, Stuart Skinner kept the Oilers in the lead with two massive saves. We were all so young and full of hope back then.
Simply put, this is a loss that can’t happen for the Oilers. Especially not now, when they’re fighting just to get their heads above the water. The mistakes are what kill you against teams like Vegas, and the Oilers made too many on Wednesday night.
They’ll get another chance to prove themselves on Saturday night, in Vancouver.
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