The 4 Nations Face-Off break seemed to come at a good time for the Edmonton Oilers, who entered it with a 5-4 home loss to the Colorado Avalanche. In fact that defeat was indicative of an underperforming team, which had gone just 5-4-1 in their past 10 games.
However, for anyone hoping the rest would help rejuvenate the Oilers, this turned out not to be the case for one game at least. They saw an early 2-1 lead fall apart in the second period, as they went on to lose 6-3 on Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia.
The Oilers were undoubtedly second-best on the day which was evidenced by being outshot 32-18 by the Flyers and winning just 46.5 percent of face-of,fs. However, most telling of all was just how sloppy the visitors were, as turnovers killed them.
Kris Knoblauch tells it as it is
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch, normally so cool, calm and collected, was in no mood to make any excuses for the players. Speaking to the media postgame including Jamie Umbach of NHL.com, he said:
"I think what really cost us was the turnovers and 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, and all of them were just direct result of turnover. We're not in a good position to defend because usually on turnovers, everyone's thinking something else and they capitalized."
Don't put this loss on the goalie
Stuart Skinner allowed five goals on 31 shots for a .839 save percentage, but the reality is that while he had his issues, he wasn't as bad as such a stat line suggests. He deserves zero blame for three of the goals he allowed, and the reality is the final scoreline would have been even more embarassing for the Oilers if not for some of his saves.
In this respect, Knoblauch made sure to back up his goalie and put the onus on the rest of the team for not supporting Skinner better. He said:
"We left Skins out there to dry way too many times giving up breakaways. Two-on-nones and it wasn't a very good or sound effort by us defensively whatsoever."
There really was little to celebrate on the day, with Leon Draisaitl proving to be on of the very rare exceptions. His 41st goal of the season gave the Oilers their 2-1 lead halfway through the opening period, with him also providing the assist on Mattias Ekholm's goal which made it 3-3 in the middle frame.
A rare positive for the Oilers
About the only other player who deserved any credit was Matthew Savoie, who marked his Oilers NHL debut with the primary helper on Draisaitl's goal. In fact you can make the case he was their best player on the day, as he saw 13:02 of ice time and finished with a +1 rating.
Savoie knew it was imperative to make a good impression, with the Oilers needing to come to some decisions on what moves to make ahead of the Mar. 7 trade deadline. Knoblauch was full of praise for the 2022 ninth overall draft pick, as he said:
"I thought Matt was one of the bright spots of our team. I thought he played really well. Obviously he gets on the forecheck, sets up the first goal, and the next shift after that he made an unbelievable play on the breakout that led to a partial two-on-one. He made some defensive plays on the back check. I was very happy with this game."
Overall though the Oilers have plenty of questions looming over them, as Knoblauch attempts to get the team back on track after a subpar run which has now seen them fall 11 points behind the Winnipeg Jets at the top of the Western Conference. They will need to bounce back right away on Sunday, when they visit Washington to take on a Capitals team which leads the Easten Conference and has already beaten they once this season, in Edmonton last month.
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