3 Takeaways as Oilers suffer disastrous 6-3 loss in Carolina
The hits keep on coming, as we take a look into the latest debilitating loss in Carolina for an Edmonton Oilers team which is its own worst enemy.
This whole situation is getting out of hand now for the Edmonton Oilers, and we’re not even a quarter of the way through their regular season yet. A 6-3 loss in Carolina on Wednesday night now has this team sitting at 5-12-1 and having little to be thankful for at a time when Americans are celebrating thanksgiving.
It’s confounding just how bad this team truly is. This is essentially the same roster which last season led the league in scoring and recording 50 regular season wins for the first time since 1986-87.
In some respects, the tone was set for the latest defeat before the action had even started. A helmetless Darnell Nurse was hit in the face by an errant puck off the crossbar during warmups, and he missed the start of the game as he had his bloodied cut tended to.
These are dark days in Edmonton, and not just because winter is nearly here. Let’s get to our three takeaways from yet another demoralising loss:
1) First period buries the Oilers
The Hurricanes have been dominant at home so far this season, but there’s still no excuse for what transpired in the first period. The Oilers made the hosts look like the NHL team of the decade, during a depressing opening 20 minutes.
Even for a team as pathetic as the Oilers are defensively, they outdid themselves on Wednesday night. They were down 4-0 before some people had even finished their first pint. (Or should that be pitcher, given how much the Oilers must be making their fans feel like drinking these days.)
The Hurricanes blitzed their opponent for four goals in a span of just 5:31 in the first, taking advantage of a team with little confidence. Right now, the Oilers are struggling to successfully complete even the most basic of defensive tasks.
The fourth Hurricanes goal ended Stuart Skinner’s night at the 14:48 mark of the first period. However, while four scores allowed on just 12 shots does sound horrible, he can only really be blamed for the last goal he let in.
As is often the case with losing teams, the Oilers are getting a significant amount of bad luck at the moment. Skinner was helpless on the first two goals, with both coming as a result of fortuitous deflections.
The third goal was the result of a mad scramble behind the net, with Skinner again having no chance to stop the resulting goal. And while the Oilers did get one back courtesy of Zach Hyman after falling behind 4-0, the game was effectively over by the end of the first period.
Postgame, Evander Kane was asked what contributed to the slow start by the Oilers. Speaking to the media, he said:
“No energy. They were faster. They kept it simple. … We didn’t handle the pressure well at all, and they capitalised on their opportunities.”
2) Jeff Jackson played his hand too soon
The Oilers have had 10 different head coaches since 2010, with half of these during the Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl era. This speaks volumes about the lack of stability in Edmonton, despite having a generational talent and a superstar on the same team.
They always say it’s easier to fire one person rather than a whole host of them, i.e. the coach rather than a team of players. However, at some point you need to stop making the coach the scapegoat, and realise the issues go way deeper.
We have and will continue to stand by the opinion, that the Oilers fired Jay Woodcroft way too soon. The powers that be needed to look at his overall record behind the bench in Edmonton, rather than just the first 13 games of this season.
Woodcroft easily has the best winning percentage in Oilers coaching history, even taking into account the poor start to the 2023-24 campaign. He didn’t suddenly become a bad coach overnight.
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Of course we appreciate what’s done is done, and there’s no going back. However, we would still contend that CEO Jeff Jackson has shot himself in the foot.
It’s common knowledge that Kris Knoblauch was Jackson’s prime candidate to take over as head coach and he’d had his eye on him for a while. Ken Holland might well be the general manager, but this hiring was ultimately made from higher up the food chain.
Here’s the quandary for Jackson though – what happens if the Oilers continue to lose as consistently as they have done, with Knoblauch as coach? How much losing is acceptable, before the Oilers CEO is almost forced to get rid of Woodcroft’s successor?
We appreciate that Knoblauch’s leash will probably be a longer one than standard, given he is Jackson’s choice. However, if the losing continues, not only could the young coach have his confidence destroyed, but the optics will look even worse that the Oilers gave up on Woodcroft too soon, especially with the proof/reality that he wasn’t really the problem.
3) Oilers can forget about the playoffs
The Oilers have endured several slow starts to a season before, during the McDavid era. However, it’s tough to think of a worse start than this one, especially when considering all of the preseason hype.
As already mentioned, the Oilers are not even a quarter of the way through their regular season games. However, as of Thursday morning, they already sit 10 points out of the final wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Never mind the Pacific Division already being out of reach for the Oilers. At this point, it’s difficult to imagine them even making the playoffs; heck, even making a genuine and sustained challenge for the playoffs.
If you look back through history, there is at least some hope that the Oilers can still recover. Think back to the 2018-19 season, when the St. Louis Blues were in last place in the league in January, but came all the way back to miraculously win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
Not quite as dramatic, but if the Oilers can somehow come back and sneak into the playoffs, again, there is hope. The Los Angeles Kings qualified as they eighth seed back in 2011-12, and went on to win the Stanley Cup.
If you go back even further to the 2005-06 season, the Oilers themselves made it all the way to the Stanley Cup final as a number eight seed. Yes they ultimately lost in seven games to the Hurricanes, but it was still an impressive feat.
The major issue with this train of thought though, is that the aforementioned achievements are the exceptions rather than the rules. It’s going to take a herculean effort by the Oilers to get into the playoffs from this point, even if they are only 18 games in.
We won’t go as far as saying it’s impossible, whether it be because this is still effectively the same roster which won 50 games last season, or just purely mathematically speaking with still 64 games remaining. However, in our humble opinion, the Oilers are not going to the playoffs this season. (Not that there would be any issue with being proven wrong about this.)
Quote of the day
Kane was asked how the team as a collective moves on from an effort such as the one in Carolina. He said:
“…….(pause)………*sigh*……………Good question, good question.”
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Winless so far in three road games, the Oilers will complete their trip out East on Friday afternoon in Washington, D.C. While a win wouldn’t compensate for their disastrous road trip, they desperately need to get something from the Capitals game; hell, even an overtime or shootout loss would be a positive at this point.