The Edmonton Oilers have dropped the first three games of their crucial four-game road trip after losing to the Carolina Hurricanes by a score of 6-3 on Wednesday (Nov. 22) in Raleigh, N.C.
This wasn’t much of a contest, with Edmonton falling behind 4-0 before the game was 15 minutes old. The Oilers managed to cut Carolina’s lead to 5-3 in the third period, but could get no closer.
Zach Hyman scored twice for the Oilers, who also got a goal from Mattias Ekholm. Stuart Skinner started between the pipes but was replaced by Calvin Pickard after the fourth Carolina goal.
Six different players scored for the Hurricanes. Carolina goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov played the final two periods after starter Antti Raanta left the game due to an undisclosed ailment.
The Oilers are now 5-12-1, including 2-3-0 since firing head coach Jay Woodcroft and replacing him with Kris Knoblauch. Edmonton is 30th in the NHL overall standings and 10 points back of a Western Conference wild card playoff spot. Here are three takeaways from Wednesday’s loss.
Oilers Giving Up Too Many Goals
After being held to two or fewer goals in seven of their first 12 games, the Oilers have now scored at least three goals in six straight games, including the first three stops on this road trip. The problem is, they have allowed at least five goals in three straight games for the first time since 2017.
On Saturday (Nov. 18) Skinner gave up five goals on 23 shots in Edmonton’s 6-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Pickard allowed four goals on 32 shots when they were beaten 5-3 by the Florida Panthers on Monday (Nov. 20).
Related: 4 Takeaways From Oilers’ 5-3 Road Loss to Panthers
Skinner now has an .865 save percentage (SV%), worst in the NHL among all goalies who have appeared in more than seven games this season. After going 3-0 while stopping 81 of 86 shots over his previous three starts, the 25-year-old has allowed nine goals on just 35 shots on the road trip.
Pickard, however, has looked solid in his two appearances, making big saves against both the Panthers and Hurricanes to at least give his team a chance at rallying in the third period. The veteran netminder, who before Monday had gone nearly 20 months without seeing action in a regular season NHL game, should warrant consideration for starting Edmonton’s next game Friday (Nov. 24) against the Washington Capitals.
Oilers Make Their Own Luck
Whether it’s giving up an odd-man rush by tripping over a broken stick or inadvertently knocking the puck into their own net (both of which happened on the same play – to Philip Broberg and Evander Kane, respectively – in Edmonton’s loss to the Panthers), the Oilers have been snake-bitten lately.
That trend continued Wednesday in Raleigh. On Carolina’s first goal, a shot went off two Hurricanes and landed on Skinner’s doorstep where Jesper Fast deposited the puck in the back of the net. The next goal saw Oilers forward Connor Brown blow a tire, leading to a two-on-one for the Hurricanes that Jack Drury finished off for his first tally of 2023-24.
And that’s not even mentioning the lunacy that went on during warmup, when Broberg fired a puck that defected off the crossbar and struck teammate Darnell Nurse in the face, then Skinner wiped out at center ice and slid right past a number of Carolina players, his masked counterpart among them.
But anyone who tries to simply pin these losses on bad luck is doing the Oilers a disservice, because those bad breaks are not why they’ve suffered these latest losses, and it’s certainly not why they’ve only got 11 points all season.
This team is beating itself with chronic defensive lapses (see Carolina’s fifth goal, when four Oilers stood around watching the puck while Martin Necas happily scooped it up and was left unchecked to fire a shot on Pickard and then bury the rebound), spastic meltdowns (four goals allowed in a span of 5:31, the second time giving up four goals in a period this road trip), and fits of listlessness (only 23 shots on Wednesday, including 15 over the final two periods when the Oilers should be pressing).
It’s said you make your own luck. This team can’t catch a break right now, but they have no one but themselves to blame for most of the bad things that have happened to them.
Hyman Keeps Producing
After tallying twice Wednesday, once in the first period and once in the final frame, Hyman has now scored 10 times in 18 games. He’s got the most goals on the Oilers and is tied for 14th in the entire NHL.
Hyman is on pace to score 45 goals, which would far eclipse the career-high of 36 he scored last season. And that’s after a then-career best 27 in 2021-22, his first season with the Oilers.
The veteran winger has done nothing but improve since Edmonton signed him to a seven-year contract on July 28, 2021. In 173 games with the Oilers, he’s got 73 goals, which equates to nearly 35 over 82 games. While Edmonton’s superstars continue to produce far below expectations (Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid have just six goals combined over the last 15 games, and registered just one assist each on Wednesday), Hyman continues to be a bright spot.
Speaking of McDavid, he’s scored in seven straight games against the Capitals, and that’s about the only trend the Oilers hope continues when they close out their road trip with a visit to Capital One Arena for a Black Friday matinee.
