On the second stop of their five-game road trip, the Edmonton Oilers lost by a score of 4-1 to the host Montreal Canadiens at Bell Centre on Sunday (Dec. 14) night.
Related: Canadiens Defeat Oilers 4-1 with Complete Team Effort
Zach Hyman scored Edmonton’s lone goal, while the Canadiens got goals from Ivan Demidov, Nick Suzuki, Alexandre Texier, and Joe Veleno. The Oilers were one-for-five with the man advantage, compared to Montreal going two-for-four on the power play.
Oilers netminder Calvin Pickard stopped 23 of the 27 shots he faced. Montreal goalie Jakub Dobes made 27 saves in a winning effort. The game was scoreless through 20 minutes, and the Canadiens led 2-0 after the second period.
Edmonton’s record drops to 15-12-6 through 33 games. With 36 points, the Oilers now occupy fourth place in the Pacific Division.
Oilers’ Streak Ends at 2 Wins
The reason Edmonton sits in the middle of the standings is because it has not been able to string together wins so far this season: Sunday marked the fifth occasion already in 2025-26 that the Oilers have entered a game riding a two-game winning streak, and they have lost every time.
Not since 1999-00 has Edmonton gone this far into their schedule without at least one winning streak of three or more games. The Oilers are one of only five teams in the NHL this season that have yet to win more than two straight games.
Coming off a pair of impressive victories, 4-1 at home over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday (Dec. 11) and 6-3 against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday (Dec. 13), the Oilers seemed poised to finally win three games in a row for the first time this season. The Oilers had been playing pretty well of late, going 4-1-0 in their last five contests, while Montreal had won just one of its last four outings.
But Edmonton was simply outplayed by Montreal, and once again failed to get some real momentum going. As the midpoint of the season fast approaches, the Oilers continue to spin their wheels.
Oilers Come Up Empty on 2-Man Advantage
Speaking of momentum, it shifted dramatically early in Sunday’s contest when the Oilers failed to capitalize on a glorious opportunity.
At 6:04 of the first period, Montreal was assessed a pair of minor penalties, one to Oliver Kapanen for cross-checking and the other to Juraj Slafkovsky for holding, leaving Edmonton with a five-on-three power-play for a full two minutes.
This is the kind of situation that might present itself once or twice a season. Before Sunday, the Oilers had been given only one other five-on-three opportunity in 2025-26, and that was for less than two minutes.
Facing a power-play unit that boasts the likes of Hyman, Evan Bouchard, Leon Draisaitl, and Connor McDavid, the Habs must have felt like sitting ducks. It seemed a foregone conclusion that Edmonton would score at least one goal during the man advantage.
But while the Oilers fired five shots on goal and had three missed shots over the course of the two minutes of 5-on-3, they couldn’t put the puck past Dobes. Instead of Edmonton taking an early lead, Montreal got a massive boost from its successful penalty kill that propelled the Canadiens to victory.
Pickard Hung Out to Dry
Conceding four goals on 27 shots isn’t exactly a goaltending performance to write home about, but Pickard was arguably Edmonton’s best player at Bell Centre. The veteran netminder made a number of big saves to keep his team within striking distance, including stopping four – yes, four – breakaways by the Canadiens.
Edmonton’s defensive play has vastly improved of late, but Sunday saw Oilers skaters hang their goalie out to dry by committing one horrendous turnover after another, the worst of which came from McDavid in the defensive zone slot, leading directly to the game-winning goal by Veleno.
Heavy Minutes for Top Oilers
Bouchard led all players with four giveaways on Sunday, but part of the reason the 26-year-old coughed up the puck so many times is that he was on the ice for nearly half the game, logging a career-high 29:49.
Meanwhile, forwards Draisaitl (25:55), Hyman (24:52), McDavid (25:52) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (23:27), and defenceman Mattias Ekholm (24:26) all played their most minutes in a non-overtime game this season, as Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch leaned heavily on Edmonton’s players to attempt a comeback.
This isn’t out of the ordinary for Knoblauch, but the Oilers seem to be more successful when they utilize their depth rather than overplaying their stars: Edmonton is just 3-8-5 when Bouchard plays 24 or more minutes, 1-3-4 when Draisaitl plays 24 or more minutes, and 4-5-5 when McDavid plays 24 or more minutes.
The aforementioned individuals are all supremely conditioned athletes in their prime years, but there’s something to be said for fresh legs, especially on the second night of back-to-back games in different cities.
Edmonton’s schedule isn’t getting any lighter either, as the Oilers will play five more games before the NHL breaks for Christmas on Dec. 24. The Oilers are next in action when they visit the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday (Dec. 16).
