Top 3 Oilers duds from disheartening 5-2 loss to Predators
Still dealing with the fallout from Saturday’s demoralising 5-2 loss to the Predators, here’s a look at three Oilers players in particular who disappointed.
As much as a 10-game winning streak to begin 2023-24 was unfathomable for the preseason Stanley Cup contender, so was a 2-7-1 start. The Edmonton Oilers are already in a desperate situation.
You know it’s bad, when the Oilers are second-best to a team they have dominated in recent years. Consider that entering Saturday afternoon’s tilt versus the Nashville Predators, they had a 10-1-2 record versus them over the previous four seasons.
However, rather than following up the recent 6-1 win against the Predators with another victory, the Oilers fell flat on their faces. As a result of the 5-2 loss at Rogers Place — where they have yet to win this season — they have the second-fewest points in the NHL as of Monday morning.
Next up, the Oilers face the Canucks Monday night in Vancouver, where they were humiliated 8-1 on opening night. Before then however, here is a countdown of the three players who disappointed most versus the Predators:
3) Vincent Desharnais
This is Vincent Desharnais’ first appearance as one of our three duds this season. While not being a standout up to this point he hasn’t been terrible either, at least not until Saturday’s game.
We would point towards Desharnais being partly responsible for at least two of the Predators goals. Both came at crucial points, when the Oilers were still in with a chance of getting something from the game.
The 27-year-old’s first mistake came when the Oilers were down 2-1, and trying to stifle a power play for the visitors. He needed to do a better job of breaking up the two-on-one pass which consequently led to a wide-open O’Reilly scoring his second goal and making it 3-1.
The other error came after the Oilers had got back to within 3-2, and time was winding down in the second period. Desharnais moved too far up the ice and was caught out of position, as the Predators got behind him and subsequently made it 4-2.
In fairness, everyone’s entitled to a bad game every now and then and we don’t expect the Laval, Quebec to have many similar disastrous outings this season. It’s just that when the Oilers are struggling as a whole, every mistake an individual makes is magnified tenfold.
In this respect, Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft was asked postgame what it’s going to take for the team to push through and be who they’re meant to be. Speaking to the media, he said:
“We’re very clear that when you’re in a funk, in it up to your knees, the only way forward is to stick together … and work your way through it. But it’s about addressing parts of the game that have to be cleaned up. We’re aware that for us to win, right now it has to be on the defensive side of things.”
For Desharnais specifically, this means continuing to be the big physical presence who can intimidate opponents. As long as games like Saturday afternoon are a rarity for him, he’s going to be just fine.
2) Connor McDavid
Harsh or not, Connor McDavid must shoulder more than his fair share of the criticism. The best player in the game is just not getting it done thus far in 2023-24.
There is some suggestion McDavid is still not fully recovered from the recent injury, which caused him to miss a couple of games. However, the reality is he wasn’t playing like his usual self even prior to said injury.
We appreciate that last season raised expectations through the roof for the 2015 first overall draft pick. Regardless, just two goals in eight games is simply not good enough for a player who led the NHL with 64 in 2022-23.
The contest versus the Predators saw McDavid’s goalless streak increase to five games. He also won just four of 19 faceoffs, which is terrible even for a player with a career 47.3 faceoff win percentage.
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In addition, the five-time Art Ross Trophy winner was at fault on two of the Predators’ goals. This included the second goal when, as pointed out by Devon Hladunewich, he could have read the play better and been on the point man faster.
Following the game, McDavid was asked what was most frustrating about the latest loss. Speaking to the media, he said:
“It’s just death by a thousand cuts, that’s what it feels like. It’s just like one mistake and it costs us, and another mistake, and it kind of just snowballs. It’s tough to chase games.”
As a final point, which is not on McDavid specifically, this is the worst start the Oilers have had to a season since he arrived in Edmonton. In this respect, recent history does not look particularly kindly on this team when they get off to slow starts.
1) Jack Campbell
We’ve stated it before and we’ll state it again, that the Oilers goalies have been hung out to dry too many times this season by the players in front of them. At the same time however, this does not mean the guys between the pipes are blameless in the disastrous defensive showing thus far.
As of Monday morning, the Oilers duo of Jack Campbell and Stuart Skinner are dead last as a team in the NHL, with a .867 save percentage. Individually speaking, Campbell is 10th-worst at .873, while Skinner is fourth-worst at .861.
The Goals Against Average is understandably just as poor, with the Oilers third-worst in the NHL at 4.10. For some context, last season they gave up an average of 3.12 goals per game, and that was theoretically a poorer defensive team.
This alludes to the Oilers’ new defensive zone gameplan not working. At some point, when does it stop being about bedding in and getting used to a new scheme, and become a case of the players just not being capable of executing it?
As for Saturday’s game specifically, let’s get back to the goaltending situation. Campbell has to take his fair share of the blame, particularly for the part he played in allowing the first two Predators goals.
For the first one, the 31-year-old over-committed too much to one side and left his net exposed. No matter the skill Filip Forsberg displayed on his goal, it shouldn’t have come to fruition in the first place.
As for the second goal, we’ve already noted the part McDavid played in allowing it. However, it ultimately came down to Campbell not doing a better job of controlling the rebound which led to Ryan O’Reilly scoring the first of his hat-trick.
We’ll give Campbell a pass of sorts on the other three goals, which he really couldn’t do much about. However, as with the blue line, he really does need to cut down on the amount of unnecessary mistakes he’s making if the Oilers are to get on track.
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Overall, while these three players might have stood out, there’s plenty of blame to go around for a team which just shouldn’t be this bad. Nothing is going right for the Oilers right now, as evidenced by Leon Draisaitl leading the way with 13 points, but having not scored a goal for seven games.