The Edmonton Oilers opened Q2 in familiar fashion, ineffective at five-on-five play and a step behind for most of the night in an embarrassing 5-1 loss to the Eastern Conference’s last-place team, the lowly Buffalo Sabres.
“We’d better figure out how to win games as soon as possible,” said winger Vasily Podkolzin after Monday’s debacle. “Because we’re not happy with what’s going on right now.”
Yawn. Heard that one before?
No depth scoring, ineffective at even strength, and far too easy to play against in their own zone, the Oilers were manhandled by the Sabres despite Edmonton having shown signs of life recently. On a slumberous Monday night in Western New York, however, the Oilers were no-shows against a far hungrier and more interested Sabres club.
“They did a good job,” Podkolzin said. “They played simple, they scored their goals. So there’s not much to say.”
Head coach Kris Knoblauch united his top two centres — Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid — halfway through the opening period. From there, those two had 23:07 and 23:36 of ice time, respectively, while the fourth line of Noah Philp (6:23), Mattias Janmark (8:36) and Curtis Lazar (9:02) barely broke a sweat.
It’s a chronic issue that has plagued Oilers coaches for years — overplaying the big boys at the expense of the rest of the roster — and now it has fully engulfed Knoblauch’s coaching decisions as well.
McDavid and Draisaitl rank first and third, respectively, in ice time per game among NHL forwards who have played more than two games. Knoblauch is going to the whip in an Olympic year, and not getting rewarded with wins thus far.
Goalie Stu Skinner was Edmonton’s best player, and he still surrendered four goals before Buffalo added an empty-netter. Meanwhile, the usual problems beset the Oilers, a team that doesn’t get it done these days unless McDavid and/or Draisaitl does it for them.
The rest of the Oilers forwards, beyond the top line of McDavid, Draisaitl and Zach Hyman, had just 10 shots in goal. The defence corps chipped in 16 shots, but rookie Colten Ellis was beaten only once, on a Jack Roslovic one-timer.
“We ran into a pretty good goalie over there. He’s playing well,” offered defenceman Brett Kulak. “(We’re) just not really playing to the level we want to get to.
“It’s been spurts of what we want to play like, and it’s just not enough,” added Kulak, whose own struggles have been notable. “We’ve got to put in full 60-minute efforts. Everyone’s got to find some chemistry with their linemates and just (step it) up a little bit.”
Said Knoblauch: “After their power play goal (at 19:03 of Period 1), we let up a little bit. Just with confidence or emotion — we just didn’t have the same jump as we had starting the game. After that, Buffalo played with that emotion, that speed, and were the better team in the second half of the game.”
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Easily deterred, the Oilers went through the motions in the final 40 minutes, losing the high-danger chance battle to the Sabres by a 14-5 count. This loss will look the same in the standings as all the others, though Knoblauch saw it a bit differently than recent setbacks.
“It was a little bit different tonight,” he said. “We’ve been giving up a lot of chances off the rush. Tonight, that wasn’t the case. They had us running around, whether we were getting beat to the net or … just not being aggressive enough.
“Unfortunately, I’m not seeing a pattern.”
With the opening quarter of the season now behind them, the Oilers stand with a 9-8-4 record. They are 4-7-2 on the road, and have just four regulation wins in their first 21 games.
The struggle is real, especially in Buffalo, where hockey’s longest rebuild somehow owns the Oil.
How bad has Edmonton been at Buffalo over the Sabres’ elongated version of the Decade of Darkness (Buffalo has missed the playoffs for 14 straight seasons)? With family and friends in the stands at the KeyBank Center, the Oilers have lost five of their last six in Buffalo, winning only four of their past 11 games at KeyBank.
“I think they’re not what they were last year,” Mattias Ekholm said of the Sabres prior to the game. “They’re definitely working at being better.”
Indeed, the Sabres were vastly better than Edmonton on Monday. They scored, and then after Roslovic tied the game, Buffalo rifled home two goals in 62 seconds and never looked back.
The Oilers, now 2-2 on this seven-game road swing, boarded a plane for Washington, where they’ll play the Capitals on Wednesday.
Oil spills
Roslovic now has goals in four of his last five games, and has seven goals and eight assists in 18 games as an Oiler … After playing just 7:08 in Carolina on Saturday, Frederic had an ineffective 12:23 of ice time in Buffalo: zero shots, two shots, five hits.
