The Edmonton Oilers proved to be road warriors in 2024, particularly during the playoffs. Among other results, there was the 3-2 win in Vancouver against the Canucks in a deciding Game 7, and a dramatic double overtime victory to open the Dallas Stars series in the Western Conference Final.
However, this road resilience was nowhere to be seen this past weekend, during a two-game trip California when the Oilers were the antithesis of what propelled to a successful year on their travels. First, there was the 4-3 overtime loss on Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, as Warren Foegele came back to haunt his former team with a goal and two assist.
Then, just 24 hours later the Oilers really embarrassed themselves, as they lost 5-3 to an Anaheim Ducks team with one of the poorest home records in the NHL this season. The Ducks had entered the game on Sunday afternoon, tied for the second-fewest wins in 2024-25 on home ice.
Oilers unable to hold onto a solid lead
Making it even worse, the Oilers twice gave up two-goal leads which, combined with the Kings result, brought back to the surface concerns about the defensive effort generally, and the goaltending specifically. Calvin Pickard in particular struggled between the pipes, with him being at least partly at fault for three of the Ducks' five goals.
Make no mistake though, that the 5-3 loss was a collective, team-wide failure by the Oilers. In addition, the Ducks just seemed to want it more, as evidenced by a 32-23 advantage in shots on goal, a significant 26-13 edge in hits, and by winning 60 percent of the face-offs.
Draisaitl leads the way
The only real bright spot for the Oilers was Leon Draisaitl scoring two goals, both on the power play. This extended his points streak to 11 games, and he now has 26 goals on the season to put him three ahead of his nearest challengers as of Monday morning.
Not that Draisaitl was too thrilled about this, given the final result against the Ducks. Speaking to the media postgame including Jamie Umbach of NHL.com, he said:
"Not our best. I think we let off the gas a little bit after the first 10 or 13 minutes and kind of gave them a chance to get back into it."
Knoblauch acknowledges failure to close out
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch effectively agreed with Draisaitl, in his assessment of how the game in Anaheim played out. Also as per Umbach, he said:
"I thought we put in a strong effort in the third period. But we shouldn't have been in that situation. When we're up two goals, that's a game that we ought to continue playing hard and I don't think we did."
Certainly it's not a good look, when you have a game seemingly in control and you fail to finish off a supposedly inferior opponent. Providing some more insight on what went wrong, Knoblauch said:
"We lost a battle in the corner and one of our players lost his stick. They were doing that all night, taking pucks to the net, and they had a few wraps and they capitalised on that last one."
Evan Bouchard showed some signs of life by scoring a goal and producing an assist while being on the ice for all three Oilers goals, but it's telling that he still finished the game with a 0 +/- rating. Meanwhile, Connor McDavid nabbed two helpers to tie Mark Messier for third on the Oilers all-time points list at 1,034, but as with Draisaitl, this was scant consolation on the day.
One final note was Jeff Skinner being a healthy scratch for the game, which tells you all you need to know about how much he's struggling at the moment. As for the Oilers as a whole, they will get a chance for revenge against the Ducks, when they face them at home this coming Friday night.