The bad news: the Edmonton Oilers lost 4-3 to the New Jersey Devils in a game that, despite going to a shootout, didn't necessarily feel like it would go the distance.
The semi-good news: the Oilers found a way to get a loser point, and they're now 11-2-3 on the season as a result. And with the Carolina Hurricanes losing 4-1 to the Nashville Predators, the Oilers are now the only team in the NHL with less than three regulation losses.
Having played 16 games, the Oilers are over a third of the way to matching the 40-game stretch that last year's Colorado Avalanche strung together before losing their third contest in regulation. Edmonton is also one result away from matching the 2024-25 Winnipeg Jets' start to the season in terms of the number of games played before hitting three regulation losses. At the same time, the Oilers just surpassed the 2023-24 New York Rangers in that same metric; that team played 15 games before losing their third contest in regulation.
Two of the aforementioned three teams led the league standings by the time they hit three regulation losses, but all of them would go on to win the Presidents' Trophy. In fact, four of the last five teams to be the last to three regulation losses went on to win the Presidents' Trophy; the only exception was the 2023-24 Boston Bruins, who started the season with a 14-2-3 record.
With a run to the Presidents' Trophy potentially in the works for this Oilers team, let's take a look at how this result came to be.
Good first period, not-so-good start to the second
Talk about getting McCooked by Connor McDavid? The Oilers got McBattered by the Devils for much of the second period.
The team put together a pretty decent start to the hockey game, one that allowed them to gain an early advantage in the contest.
While the shots total might not reflect the Oilers' early offensive control (it hasn't really done that so far this season), Evan Bouchard once again proved that the metric means relatively little in the grand scheme of the Oilers' start to the season.
From the conclusion of the power play, the momentum reversed. The Devils were able to create significant offensive pressure and maintain possession of the puck in Edmonton's zone. And there wasn't much that the Oilers could do; save for a few instances, it seemed that the Oilers were stuck in their own end for minutes at a time.
The Oilers got very lucky in the opening eight minutes of the second period. They gave up a goal, but it could have been a lot worse.
Unfortunately for the Oilers, it got worse.
The Devils continued to pressure the Oilers after that first goal, and they eventually got a second and the lead seven minutes later. A third followed one minute later; that goal came as a result of a needless elbowing penalty taken by Jake Walman.
Edmonton eventually turned things around, but that was a brutal 80% of the second period.
Absolutely brutal.
Another good game for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins on both sides of the ice
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has had a great start to the season, and it only got better for him on Tuesday.
Against the Devils, Nugent-Hopkins recorded his third multi-point game in four tries; the contest also represented his fourth multi-point game of the season. He recorded an assist on the opening goal of the game before scoring the second of the game for the Oilers.
Though Nugent-Hopkins' defensive effort included a penalty, he played a big role in keeping New Jersey from building too much of a lead during the second period. He recorded a few defensive clearances during that offensive push by New Jersey, all of which helped to alleviate the pressure on the Oilers and allow for the team to make critical line changes.
A dismal special teams performance gets salvaged
The Oilers' special teams performance during the first half of the game? Not great at all.
Not only was Edmonton unable to convert their first-to-second-period power play opportunity, but they also gave up two power play goals during New Jersey's mid-contest dominance.
That said, the Oilers were able to turn their special teams performance around and, in doing so, salvage the game as a whole. A late-second-period penalty kill helped the Oilers regain some momentum; they would quickly turn that into their second goal of the contest. The Oilers were then able to capitalize on a five-on-three power play early in the third period to completely erase the deficit.
At game's end, the Oilers went two-for-four on the power play and managed to get through three of New Jersey's special teams opportunities.
Given that the special teams play also cost the Oilers two goals, that isn't the worst stat line.
Blame the goaltending?
I wouldn't.
The struggles are back after a strong run of games, but it wasn't the most nightmarish performance. Tristan Jarry was able to withstand the pressure thrown his way by the New Jersey offense, stopping 31 of the Devils' 34 shots during the game en route to a .912 save percentage.
Given that Edmonton struggled mightily when it came to preventing defensive zone spells, it's better to wait and see how the Oilers fare against the Anaheim Ducks before once again over-analyzing the goaltending.
What's next?
The Oilers will return home for another multi-game homestand. This time, it wil be a four-game homestand that starts Thursday against the Ducks. The game will represent the second meeting between the two division rivals; the first matchup ended in a 5-2 victory for the Oilers.
The game will start at 7:00 p.m. Alberta Time.
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