We probably should have known exactly what was going to happen at Rogers Place on Thursday (Nov. 21) night when the Edmonton Oilers hosted the Minnesota Wild.
As the saying goes: fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. And the Oilers have already fooled us several times this fall.
The latest such instance saw the Oilers lose 5-3 to Minnesota, in a game that wasn’t anywhere near that close. The loss drops Edmonton to 10-9-2, and much like the score Thursday, that record flatters the Oilers.
With 21 games played, captain Connor McDavid’s team is now more than one-quarter of the way through its 2024-25 schedule, and the consistently inconsistent Oilers remain stuck in the mud, spinning their wheels.
Every time it seems like the defending Western Conference champions might be getting on track, as appeared to be the case with their impressive and encouraging 5-2 road win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday (Nov. 19), the Oilers follow up with a stinker like Thursday’s loss to the Wild. Edmonton has yet to win back-to-back games in regulation this season.
Here’s some good, some bad, and mostly ugly from what Oilers fans suffered through in downtown Edmonton on Thursday evening.
Horrendous at Home
The Oilers are now 4-6-1 at Rogers Place, leaving them tied for 28th in the NHL with a home points percentage of just .409. They have just one regulation win at home, the fewest in the Western Conference.
Edmonton’s home goal differential of minus-1.18 per game is the worst in the league. Among all 32 NHL teams, the Oilers are scoring the second-fewest goals per game at home, 2.27 and allowing the sixth-most goals per game at home, 3.45.
These numbers are even more maddening when contrasted with how well the Oilers have performed away from their home rink: Edmonton’s road record of 6-3-1 is among the best in the NHL; and the Oilers are averaging 3.30 goals on the road, an increase of more than one per game from their scoring output at Rogers Place.
Another Lost Lead
Those aren’t the only baffling statistics making Oilers fans want to pull their hair out. Let’s talk about another issue that reared its ugly head on Thursday: playing with the lead.
Oilers Leon Draisaitl
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) November 22, 2024
3rd career goal within the first :30 of a game pic.twitter.com/pcabOhJaPz
Edmonton received a gift against the Wild when Leon Draisaitl scored just 27 seconds into the first period: from inside his own blue line, the Oilers forward played the puck up ice, and it proceeded to deflect off two skates and then slide through the five-hole of Wild netminder Marc-Andre Fleury, who whiffed trying to clear it to the corner. Not long after, Minnesota had a goal questionably disallowed; the Oilers challenged for offside, allowing Edmonton’s early lead to stand up.
Later in the opening frame, Matt Boldy scored to tie the game, and the Wild never looked back. They went ahead 2-1 early in the second period, led 4-2 after 40 minutes, and were leading 5-2 before Jeff Skinner scored a garbage-time goal at 19:35 of the third period to make the score more respectable.
This marks the Oilers’ fourth loss in 10 games when they get the opening goal, giving Edmonton a win percentage of .600 when scoring first, which ranks among the lower half of the league. This was also the fifth time in the Oilers’ last eight games that they have blown a lead and either lost in regulation or been forced into overtime.
Kapanen Makes Debut
Thursday marked the Oilers debut of winger Kasperi Kapanen, who Edmonton claimed off waivers from the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
The 28-year-old had a solid first game with his new team, logging 12:10 of ice time and registering a team-high four hits. He also had a shot on goal and finished the night with a minus-1 rating.
Kapanen, who was drafted 22nd overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2014 and made his NHL debut in 2015-16 with the Toronto Maple Leafs, showed enough to warrant more ice time next game.
Oilers Missing Regulars
Against Minnesota, the Oilers were without the services of wingers Viktor Arvidsson and Zach Hyman, as well as defenceman Darnell Nurse.
This was Edmonton’s first game of the season missing Hyman, who was hurt against the Ottawa Senators. Arvidsson missed his fifth consecutive game, as the veteran forward continues to recover from an undisclosed injury. Nurse has been sidelined for three games with concussion symptoms after receiving a hit to the head from Ryan Reaves against the Maple Leafs on Nov. 16.
Of course, Edmonton could have used any or all of Arvidsson, Hyman and Nurse in its lineup on Thursday, but not having them is no excuse for the team’s poor performance. All teams have injuries at this stage of the 82-game campaign, and it’s not like Arvidsson or Hyman have been making much of a difference, anyway: the two forwards have combined for just five goals so far this season.
Related: Oilers’ 2024-25 Quarter-Season Awards
Nurse’s absence was felt most profoundly. The veteran has arguably been Edmonton’s best defenceman this season, and averages more than 20 minutes of ice time per game.
Arvidsson has been placed on injured reserve, while Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said on Thursday that Hyman will miss four to seven days with an undisclosed injury.
The good news in Oil Country is that Nurse was back on the ice at practice on Thursday, and chances are he will be back in the lineup for Edmonton’s next game, Saturday (Nov. 23), at Rogers Place against the New York Rangers. The Oilers will then be off for five days before returning on Nov. 29 when they visit Utah HC.
