PHILADELPHIA — They returned from their break in body, but the Edmonton Oilers‘ heads were still somewhere between the swim-up bar and the buffet down in Cabo, or the 4 Nations rinks in Montreal and Boston.
The result? A sloppy game rife with stunning giveaways, back-door tap-ins and happy Flyers fans, as Philadelphia smoked Edmonton 6-3 on Saturday in a clumsy opening to a five-game Eastern swing.
There are games where you don’t play your best and still win, sure. But you can’t play this bad and find points, it is as simple as that.
“The turnovers,” began head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Trying to make plays when there’s not a play to be made, or not being able to get the puck in deep.
“Four even-strength goals: All of them were just a direct result of turnovers,” he said. “We’re not in good position to defend because usually on turnovers everyone’s thinking something else (is going to happen with the puck). We left Skinns out there to dry waaay too many times, giving up breakaways, 2-on-0s. It wasn’t a very good, sound effort by us defensively, whatsoever.”
Ah, the goaltending.
As the Flyers scored on back-door tap-ins, a breakaway, an open Matvei Michkov burying the rebound off a shot gone wide, a Sean Couturier open-netter as Evan Bouchard stood nearby idly, a sports writer’s timeline blew up with critiques of Stuart Skinner.
What would defenceman Mattias Eklholm say to those who pinned this loss on the goalie?
“They should probably rewatch the game and see where the problem started,” Ekholm replied. “I don’t think there’s a goalie in the league that would have saved many of those.
“That’s certainly not the biggest part of the problem right now.”
Knoblauch, asked about his netminding, let out a sigh.
“You can’t win hockey games turning the puck over like that, giving up odd-man rushes. There’s no fault on Stuart Skinner tonight.”
Do you want some spectacular saves on those cross-crease one-timers? Of course you do.
But on a night where Skinner made all the saves he’s supposed to make, but not nearly enough of the ones he’s not, Knoblauch never thought of pulling Skinner as he did in the last game before the break.
“Breakaways. A high tip on the penalty kill. His workload was way too high,” Knoblauch said. “We’re not going to play a perfect game, and there’ll be breakdowns where he does have to come up with a big save. But we put him on that position to make a big save way too many times today.”
Ekholm and Connor McDavid returned to the NHL from the 4 Nations Face-Off to each post a minus-3 in Philly. Bouchard gifted two of the Flyers goals on turnovers, as a speedy Flyers team turned every poor bout of Oilers puck management into a jail break.
The Oilers were soft, an affliction that becomes more obvious in games where they are asked to defend as much as they were on Saturday.
“As D-men we didn’t deny the line enough, and then we didn’t get back fast enough also. That combination, against a team with skill, it’s going to sting you,” Darnell Nurse said.
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Asked what was lacking, despite three spirited practices that followed a nice, 10-day break, Nurse was frank.
“Execution,” he said. “When we’re playing our best there’s a level of simplicity to our game as well. And I think you have to bring more of an element of simplicity — especially going into the next game against a really good team in Washington.”
“It’s probably the simplest of simple things that we need to start doing,” added Ekholm said. “It starts with skating, with backtracking … We gave up way too many odd-man rushes today, and that starts a lot of problems.
“It won’t work. If you’re gonna give up three-on-twos, two-on-ones, breakaways. That’s just fundamentals.”
Leon Draisaitl was one of few bright spots, scoring his 41st on a tidy feed from young Matt Savoie. It was Savoie’s first NHL point in his first game as an Oiler for the kid who grew up in St. Albert, Alta. He previously played one NHL game as a Buffalo Sabre.
“I thought Matt was one of the bright spots of our team,” Knoblauch said. “He gets on the (scoresheet), sets up the first goal. The next shift he made an unbelievable play on the breakout that led to an impartial two on one. He made some defensive plays on the backcheck…
‘I was very happy with his game.”
Edmonton flew to Washington D.C. on Saturday, where they’ll get a do-over against the best team in the East on Sunday, the Washington Capitals.
A veteran team should be able to flush a game like this inside 24 hours, wouldn’t you say?
“You’d think, right?” Ekholm agreed. “We only have 24 hours, but guys have been through this before, so you’d think that we’ll be a different team tomorrow, and I certainly think so.
“Every now and then you’re going to have an off night. But we’re going to have to figure it out quickly, because this road trip won’t get any easier.”
