The Edmonton Oilers are going to be heading back to Edmonton down 2 games to 0 after losing to the Los Angeles Kings again tonight by a score of 6-2. In a game where the Oilers started off controlling play, they fell apart and ended up losing the game in convincing fashion.
The Oilers once again found them down by multiple goals getting down 3-0 in consecutive games. They once again were able to crawl back to within 1 but that was the highpoint of the night for the Oilers, after that they let in 3 more goals to a Kings team, that looks like they can do no wrong so far in this series.
The way the Oilers are playing right now, they are playing the way they play when they get into a funk. They will completely control the play for a large chunk of time then the opposition will come down and the Oilers will make a bad play or bad read and the puck will end up in their own net. That is what happened tonight.
The Oilers were the more undiscipline team by a long shot. They took way more penalties, and not good penalties either, against a team whose power play is rolling like the Kings you can't do that. The Kings scored 3 goals on the powerplay, and the other goals were on mistakes made by Oilers players. Tonight was a classic "the Oilers beat themselves" game.
If the Oilers do not pick up their play, there is no chance they will make it out of the first round. The Kings are playing nearly perfect hockey, and the Oilers are playing almost the exact opposite. As a fan of this team, I am starting to get nervous. I know they haven't played a home game against the Kings yet this series, but if they keep playing this way they will be lucky to win a game, period.
There are a lot of people blaming Stuart Skinner for these loses and believe me I have already seen it everywhere on the internet. I just don't think that he is to blame as much as people think. While you would love him to make a save on one of the wide-open looks, you can't expect him to. The main issue here for the Oilers is the fact they need to stop hemorrhaging high danger chances against and keep the Kings off the powerplay.
The Oilers will have a chance to get back within one game on Friday. In the pregame article I wrote that tonight's game was almost a must win cause know the Oilers need to win 4 of 6 games. It will be even more true on Friday. This team has the ability to play really well, but winning 4 games in a row against the Los Angeles Kings just isn't going to happen... So here is to a win on Friday and not a round one exit.