EDMONTON — Free goals. Lots of penalties. Dumb hockey.
Pick one. It loses, every time.
Sure, it happens fast. We get that.
But guys like Kailer Yamamoto and Warren Foegele, they are NHL players because they can deal with that speed. Or they wouldn’t be here.
Evan Bouchard has a great shot. But his shot selection?
Not always so great.
Ryan McLeod, flying the zone, cheating for offence. How’s that working out?
The Edmonton Oilers took six minor penalties and gave up four power play goals, losing 5-4 in Washington to run their losing skid to three games. Their penalty kill is in shambles and the one solution — not taking so many penalties — appears to be beyond this team’s abilities right now.
“We’ve got to get things back on the rails here We’ve come off of what our game is,” said head coach Jay Woodcroft. “It comes down to simplifying things. Simplifying what our game plan is. The way we’re going about things right now, we can’t outscore our mistakes.”
Yamamoto took an obvious hooking penalty with his team already down a man in Period 2, and on the ensuing five-on-three the Washington Capitals extended a one-goal third period lead to two. Edmonton took five of the game’s first six minor penalties, losing to a Washington club that is decimated by injuries and playing a backup goalie in Charlie Lindgren.
“Can’t win with that,” Zach Hyman, Edmonton’s best player on the night, said of the effort. “Can’t win taking penalties like that. On the fourth one we were trying to score, but we’re taking too may penalties. Five-on-five we were just OK. I think we have a lot more to give throughout our lineup. Forwards, D — we have more to give here.”
The Caps fielded a lineup without the following pillars of their program:
Nicklas Backstrom
Carl Hagelin
Tom Wilson
Connor Brown
T.J. Oshie
John Carlson
Led by Alex Ovechkin (goal and an assist), Washington still managed five goals — just one at even strength.
“We’re just giving up too many goals,” said Leon Draisaitl. “We give up goals on the (penalty) kill, we give up two-on-ones… Just not good enough right now.”
The penalty kill is a disaster. It entered the game in 27th place in the NHL and coughed up four.
Yeccccch!
“We’re a little hesitant,” Draisaitl assessed of the PK. “We don’t really know when to pressure and when not to pressure. Teams take advantage of that. We need to clean that up.”
Hyman was a workhorse Monday, keeping his team in the game with a work ethic that forces teammates to follow.
“You can build momentum off a good PK,” he said. “It can swing momentum. We weren’t able to do it.”
As for Woodcroft, he left no doubt what he thought of his special teams unit: “Flat out not good enough,” he said. “I didn’t think we needed to take all of those penalties, and that doesn’t help when you’re struggling on the PK. Not good enough.”
Stuart Skinner was alright in goal, but could not find a way to rescue his penalty killing units.
“We gave up five shots on the PK – four of them went in,” Woodcroft said. “They were high quality chances.”
Puljujarvi Promoted
In the mixed up lines that resulted from Saturday’s poor effort against Dallas, Jesse Puljujarvi found himself on the top line with Connor McDavid and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins.
Honestly, fans hoped he’d snag that spot eventually through a deserved promotion, but with just two points in his first dozen games the “promotion” fell to Puljujarvi mostly because Yamamoto wasn’t producing anything either. While Yamamoto fell to the fourth line and did not distinguish himself there Monday, Puljujarvi had three shots on goal and zero points despite a handful of set-ups via McDavid.
Right wing, after Hyman, is a not a strength of the Oilers. And with Yamamoto’s game falling through the floor, and Puljujarvi killing as many plays as he makes, it’s hard to see how the improvement will come internally.
Edmonton laces ‘em up again in Tampa Tuesday, still looking for the game that earned them a five-game winning streak not so long ago.
“We’ve got to go play a real good Tampa team and play to our standard,” said Hyman. “We’re looking forward to that.”
