You can slice up a 3-2 loss at the KeyBank Center in Western New York any way you want. Break it down, look at the goalie, carve out the turnovers or question the execution.
In the end, however, you lost to the Buffalo Sabres, the worst team in the Eastern Conference.
Hey, the Sabres have to beat someone. You just can’t allow it to be you.
“We’re at a point in the year where a lot of things are driven by results,” began Edmonton Oilers defenceman Darnell Nurse. “We want to make sure that we maintain a level head and stay a course with our game. But that said, we come out on a night like this and our expectation is to play our game and find a way to win.
“We didn’t do enough of that tonight.”
From saves, to structure, to scoring, to a bad turnover and a super-soft defensive play on the Sabres’ game-winner, the Oilers didn’t do enough of anything Monday in a 3-2 loss in which they dominated for long stretches but walked away pointless.
Does four goal posts outline a team that simply had bad luck? Or does it speak to a team that could bear down just that little bit more when a Grade-A chance presents itself?
“Our ability to bear down and put it in the back of the net wasn’t where it usually is,” Nurse said.
Does a botched rebound by Stuart Skinner that led to the Sabres’ first goal get erased by a pretty good night’s work by Skinner over the remaining 46 minutes? Or, in a 3-2 game, do we declare that one free goal cost you two points?
And what about that game winner, where Evan Bouchard — who had earlier blasted home a power-play goal to tie the game at 2-2 — out-raced two Sabres to a loose puck but wasn’t hard enough on the play to avoid getting his pocket picked on Tage Thompson’s winner?
It was the two sides of Bouchard: an absolute weapon at one end, but sadly, just as dangerous at the other.
And between all of that, a whole bunch of guys, who did not contribute offensively, coughed up pucks that fed the Sabres chances.
“We controlled most of the play, we had a lot of time in the offensive zone … I think we had more chances,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “But you look at the turnovers that led to scoring chances off the rush. We spent very little time in the defensive zone, but the puck management and giving chances off the rush was a big, big story tonight.
“It’s frustrating when some of the guys who aren’t contributing offensively are contributing to scoring chances against, which is really hurting us,” Knoblauch continued. “It’s different if you’re making those plays that are leading to offence, but once in a while you get caught. But if you’re not creating that offence and you’re giving up those chances, that’s what’s hurting that team.”
So, who is he talking about?
It was Vasily Podkolzin who attempted a cute pass just inside the offensive blue-line on the Sabres’ winner. The puck got sent down deep into Edmonton’s zone, and Bouchard’s good stride put him in an excellent position to bail Podkolzin out.
Alas, he did not, and Podkolzin — who has spent a season on Leon Draisaitl’s left wing and has a grand total of six goals and 21 points — got the primary minus on the Sabres’ winner.
“We had enough chances to have four or five, maybe six goals,” Knoblauch said. “The goal posts, their goaltender made some really big saves, but … the chances that we give up were just self-inflicted.”
The Sabres had lost six straight coming into a game that marked a meeting between the team with the oldest average age in the NHL (30 years and 40 days) and the youngest in Buffalo (26.09). As such, the career stats were as skewed as you could imagine:
• Career games favoured Edmonton’s roster by a count of 14,856 to 6,520.
• Career goals: 3.606 to 1.080 for Edmonton.
• Career points: 8,884 to 2,718.
In the end, the points that mattered were two for Buffalo and zero for Edmonton, who have played worse this season and won.
Wasteful, really.
OIL SPILLS — With two assists Draisaitl ran his points streak to 15 games (11-12-21), the longest active streak in the league … Bouchard and Nurse each scored and had six shots on net … Jeff Skinner entered the lineup against his former team and had no points and a shot on goal in 11:56 of ice time.
