The Edmonton Oilers suffered their third consecutive defeat, but at least picked up a point in a 2-1 overtime loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning at Benchmark International Arena on Thursday (Nov. 20).
Related: Lightning Make Late Comeback to Down Oilers 2-1 in Overtime Thriller
Edmonton’s lone goal came from Trent Frederic, assisted by Leon Draisaitl. Jake Guentzel and Nick Paul each scored for the Lightning.
Tampa Bay outshot the Oilers 35-25. Edmonton netminder Calvin Pickard stopped 33 shots, while Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy made 24 saves.
Edmonton now has a record of 9-9-5 for 23 points, tied with the San Jose Sharks for fifth most in the NHL’s Pacific Division.
Strong Start, No Finish
The Oilers have two problems, which are actually one big problem. Sometimes they sleepwalk into games, other times they can’t put the game away. But whether their struggles come at the beginning of the game or end of the contest, the Oilers almost never play strong from start to finish, and that was made painfully obvious over the last two nights.
At Capital One Arena on Wednesday (Nov. 19), Edmonton fell behind 2-0 early to the Washington Capitals and never could quite catch up, pulling within one goal on four separate occasions before ultimately losing 7-4. Wednesday’s loss marked the ninth time in a span of 18 games that the Oilers trailed by a score of 2-0, and the 13th time in a span of 19 games that Edmonton gave up the game’s first goal.
The Oilers seemed to take what happened in Washington to heart because they came out with guns blazing on Thursday. Frederic put the puck past Vasilevskiy at 1:32 of the first period, giving Edmonton its earliest goal of the season.
Edmonton continued to put forth a tremendous effort, but the ice slowly started to tilt as the game wore on, and by the third period, the visitors were on their heels. Tampa Bay outshot the Oilers 14-4 over the final 20 minutes, and finally got to Pickard when Paul scored on a slapshot with 2:32 remaining in regulation.
Despite leading for nearly 56 minutes, the Oilers found themselves headed for overtime, and after Vasilevskiy robbed Edmonton’s Jack Roslovic early in sudden death, Guentzel scored on the counterattack to end things at 1:43 of OT.
Edmonton’s winning percentage when leading after 40 minutes is .556, which is the third lowest in the entire NHL. In the last seven games in which the Oilers have held a lead in the second or third period, they have blown it and wound up either losing in regulation or going to overtime.
Those numbers are almost inconceivable, but they say it all about the Oilers. They’re a team that doesn’t lead often, and when they do, they simply can’t protect a lead.
Fighting Spirit
Final result aside, it can’t be said that the Oilers lacked energy and competitiveness against Tampa Bay. While they’ve too often appeared listless this season, that wasn’t an issue on Thursday.
Edmonton’s effort was epitomized by Darnell Nurse, as the veteran Oilers defenceman dropped the gloves with 6-foot-8 Lightning forward Curtis Douglas. Nurse was standing up for fellow blueliner Jake Walman, who got rocked on a hit by Douglas.
It was only the third scrap of the season for the Oilers, who have been accused of being too passive and not tough enough. Nurse stepping up against the mammoth Douglas was no small gesture, and the kind of thing that can positively rub off on a team. While Nurse was assessed the extra two minutes for instigating, his energized teammates killed off the ensuing Lightning power play.
Praise for Pickard
One night after Edmonton’s No. 1 goalie, Stuart Skinner, had arguably his worst outing of the season, stopping just 14 of the 19 shots against Washington, the Oilers’ backup netminder delivered arguably his strongest performance of 2025-26.
Pickard kept the Lightning at bay for nearly 60 minutes, stopping the first 32 shots he faced. The veteran netminder made several big saves to keep Edmonton ahead throughout the game, and had the Oilers been able to tack on an insurance goal at some point, the result likely would have been different.
Edmonton now heads to Sunrise to take on the Florida Panthers at Amerant Bank Arena on Saturday (Nov. 22) night, in a matchup of the finalists from the last two Stanley Cup series.
In light of Edmonton’s recent goaltending performances, it will be interesting to see if Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch gives Pickard a second straight start against the Panthers.
