If you were looking for a measuring stick game to see where the Edmonton Oilers are actually at as a team, there was no better test than a Saturday afternoon dance with the Dallas Stars. Unfortunately, it was a test they failed by a 4-1 margin, and it was back in the loss column for the Oilers.
I always feel split when there’s a matinee on the schedule. Part of me is happy to have an excuse for an afternoon Nation Beer and watch the boys do their thing. The other part of me knows how painful so many of these daylight games have been for this team over the years. Then again, I suppose it’s nice not to be annoyed about sports by the time we go to bed. But as much as we may dislike matinees, the boys have gotten better during the daylight hours, even posting an 8-2-1 record last season. Even so, they needed to be exceptionally sharp to beat Jake Oettinger and the Dallas Stars.
Yet, even with Dallas being a more than worthy foe, I was hopeful that some of the playoff disdain would carry over and be the spark our boys needed to win a fifth straight game against the Stars dating back to the Western Conference Final. The Oilers were heavily underestimated going into that series, and they used that underdog mentality as fuel to get the job done. I don’t know if the same logic applies since the good guys knocked Dallas out of the playoffs, but I was hoping the boys would channel the same energy anyway.
So, when the Oilers opened the game with the puck on a string and a laundry list of quality offensive chances, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before they could make something click. Yet, despite outshooting the Stars 11-2 through 20 minutes, Jake Oettinger was back to being his annoying old self, keeping his team tied even though they were heavily outplayed. Even though the Oilers probably deserved at least a goal or two for their efforts, what I thought they deserved didn’t really matter when the $66-million man looked worth every penny.
Unfortunately, Oettinger being annoying was a storyline that carried into the second period too. Picking up right where they left off, the Oilers carried the play for most of the period and had plenty of looks that could have ended up as goals with a little luck. But with bagels on the scoreboard, it was only a matter of time until the Stars started fighting back since they were still in the fight despite the ice being heavily tilted in Edmonton’s favour. Near the midway point of the second period, Dallas started to produce a few decent chances of their own. And thanks to a late power play opportunity off a bad play by Stecher, it was Matt Duchene who opened the scoring.
Yes, the Stars were being outshot 2:1 after 40 minutes, but they were the ones taking a 1-0 lead into the third period thanks to a late goal that Stuart Skinner would probably want to have back. And even though the Oilers dominated more than their share of the first two periods, they entered the third period chasing a game that they once looked to have in control. But instead of the comeback we needed, the Stars did what they always do and locked the game down. Instead of giving Edmonton any space to get the equalizer, Dallas put their foot on the gas and extended their lead.
In a span of just over a minute, Dallas picked up two goals by Matt Duchene and Roope Hintz to put themselves firmly in the lead and the Oilers back on their heels. It was like the third goal against took any remaining wind out of their sails, and everyone was content to ride out the clock. Even when Leon Draisaitl scored to make it a two-goal game, the Oilers put themselves in a spot where it was still a massive hill to climb. It’s all well and good to win the Corskis over 40 minutes, but it doesn’t matter unless you get the goalskis to match.
Depending how you look at it, you can choose to see the loss or that the Oilers were clearly the better team for nearly 40 minutes and just couldn’t score. In the interest of not ruining the rest of my weekend, I’m choosing the latter path. Sometimes you run into a hot goalie like Oettinger and things fall apart from there, and that’s where my Oilers biased brain is leading me. Others may choose to focus on a dire special teams situation, another sub-.900 goaltending performance, or key players struggling to produce, but that’s their business. Have a great weekend, everybody.
OTHER THINGS WORTH MENTIONING…
- Matt Duchene opened the scoring (1-0) at the 19:34 mark of the second period after a tough play by Troy Stecher gave Dallas a late chance with the man advantage. And after a clean faceoff win (!!!), the puck made its way to Duchene’s stick before being ripped past Skinner on the glove side. Personally, I thought it was a shot that Skinner had to have given the clear lane he had to see it, but either way, it was a tough one to give up in that situation. Duchene added a second goal (2-0) at 12:06 of the third period to give the Stars some insurance after a mistake by Bouchard at the far blue line resulted in a rush chance against. The Oilers couldn’t recover and in the snap of a finger, the road side was down by two.
- Roope Hintz iced the game for Dallas (3-0) with a goal that came just over a minute after Duchene extended the lead.
- With the goalie pulled and the Hail Mary in play, Leon Draisaitl got the Oilers on the board (3-1) with a shot from a sharp angle after Nugent-Hopkins found him at the side of the crease with an open cage to fire at.
- Unfortunately, Jason Robertson scored an empty-netter (4-1) to reclaim the three-goal lead and nail the coffin shut.
- Saturday’s game was a pretty good reminder to me about the difference between a special goalie like Jake Oettinger and a good goalie like Stuart Skinner. The Stars had no business being in that game, but Jake Oettinger played fantastic and our side couldn’t get the same execution at the other end. What is the difference between and .968 save% an .870 save5? A lot. This loss wasn’t all on Stu — the skaters in front of him need to score — but he was outduelled by one of the NHL’s best in round one of the season series.
- Mattias Ekholm got caught puck watching pretty badly on Duchene’s second goal, and it’s not often that he loses track like that. Combined with Bouchard’s bobble at the far blue line, and that goal against was a rough sequence for our top pairing.
- I wrote about it as one of my prediction in the GDB, and the special teams did end up being a massive part of the story Saturday in Dallas. Had the Oilers been able to score on either of their two power plays or prevented the goal they gave up on the PK, the story in the third period would have likely been much different. Instead, Duchene scored late in the second period and the Stars never looked back.
- The Oilers outshot the Stars by a 31-24 margin, had a 55.05 CF%, and a 54.01 xGF% but could not get the win they needed to get back to .500. That’s sports, man. It’s tough sometimes.
- Looking at the NHL’s recap, they had the giveaways listed at 23-15 for Edmonton, and I’d add that most of those 23 came in the first and 10 minutes of the first and third periods.
- I will not rest until every Oilers fan on earth knows that the boys won 62.9% of the faceoffs. What a waste, I can’t even enjoy it.
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