The Edmonton Oilers played their first of six consecutive games on the road Tuesday (Dec. 19), losing 3-1 to the New York Islanders at UBS Arena in Elmont, New York. Leon Draisaitl scored at just 1:23 of the first period to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead, but the Islanders answered with second-period goals from Simon Holmstrom, Bo Horvat and Anders Lee.
Islanders’ goaltender Ilya Sorokin stopped 30 of 31 shots in a winning effort, while Stuart Skinner made 18 saves for the Oilers. After going three weeks without a loss, the Oilers have now lost three consecutive games. Here are three takeaways from Tuesday’s tilt on Long Island:
Ups and Downs Continue for Oilers
What a difference a week can make. On the previous Tuesday (Dec. 12), Edmonton spanked the Chicago Blackhawks 4-1 at Rogers Place to win its eighth consecutive game. The Oilers were the hottest team in the league, and the denizens of Oil Country were feeling pretty darn good about things.
Back inside Rogers Place two nights later, last Thursday (Dec. 14), Edmonton led the Tampa Bay Lightning 3-2 going into the third period. Twenty minutes was all that separated the Oilers from a franchise record-tying ninth consecutive victory.
Since then, the Oilers have been outscored 13-3 over the last seven periods: a third-period meltdown resulted in a 7-4 loss to the Bolts, followed Saturday (Dec. 16) with a 5-1 home drubbing at the hands of the Florida Panthers, and now this latest loss to the Isles.
Over 16 games since they relieved head coach Jay Woodcroft of his duties and replaced him behind the bench with Kris Knoblauch, the Oilers’ only consistency has been inconsistency. Edmonton won its first two games under Knoblauch, lost the next three, reeled off eight straight wins, and now have dropped three straight again.
All told, the Oilers are 10-6 following the coaching change, which is still a huge turnaround from their 3-9-1 record before Woodcroft was fired. But Edmonton’s early-season problems that once seemed fixed under the stewardship of Knoblauch and assistant coach Paul Coffey have reappeared.
Oilers’ Fate Sealed on Special Teams
One such issue is special teams play. Edmonton had seen huge improvements, going 44% (11/25) on the power play and 96.2% (25/26) on the penalty kill over its eight straight wins. But the Oilers have now failed to score on their last seven opportunities with the man advantage and during their three straight losses are just 5/9 killing penalties. Special teams were the difference on Tuesday, and that’s not hyperbole, it’s fact: the PP and PK accounted for all of New York’s offence.
The Islanders scored twice on the power play, with Lee tying the game early in the second period, and Horvat notching what proved to be the game-winning goal at 11:30 of the middle frame. But the fatal blow was Holmstrom’s tally a few minutes later.
While the Oilers were in the Islanders’ zone on the power play with a chance to tie the score, an errant pass from veteran winger Ryan Nugent-Hopkins slid out past centre ice. Islanders forward Jean-Gabriel Pageau picked up the loose puck and fed it to Holmstrom, who finished off the two-on-one with his league-leading fifth shorthanded goal of the season.
The Oilers still had a tremendous opportunity to get back in the game, right after the Holmstrom goal, when New York’s Robert Bortuzzo took a holding penalty, giving Edmonton a two-man advantage for just under a minute. But the Oilers failed to convert, and never recovered from the momentum swing that New York generated by killing off a five-on-three and scoring a shorty.
Islanders Keep McDavid in Check
While Draisaitl got off the schneid, picking up his first point in three games, the other half of Edmonton’s Dynamic Duo, Connor McDavid, saw a 12-game point streak come to an end on Long Island. The Oilers captain played a game-high 24:54, registered three shots on goal (and fired another four shots that missed), and drew a penalty on Bortuzzo, but finished the game with no goals, no assists, and a minus-1 rating.
This was McDavid’s sixth game without a point this season. That’s one more than he had in all of 2022-23 when McDavid won the Art Ross Trophy for a third straight year.
Related: Oilers Enter Tough Stretch of 6 Straight Road Games to End Year
The Oilers will need more from both Draisaitl and McDavid when they continue their Tri-State travels. Edmonton visits the New Jersey Devils on Thursday (Dec. 21) and the New York Rangers on Friday (Dec. 22).
With the Arizona Coyotes scoring four unanswered goals to beat the Ottawa Senators 4-3 on Tuesday, the Oilers are now seven points back of the Desert Dogs for the final wild card playoff spot in the NHL’s Western Conference, and at risk of a double-digit deficit by Christmas if they can’t win at least one of their next two games.
