The Edmonton Oilers entered Saturday night coming off of two straight losses, losing them both in brutal fashion by coughing up 2-0 leads.
Saturday was much worse. The Oilers were obliterated 9-1 by the top team in the Western Conference, the Colorado Avalanche. At no point throughout this game were the Oilers in it, giving up the first goal to perennial Norris Trophy candidate, Cale Makar less than seven minutes into the opening frame.
From then on, it was a bloodbath and it would take until after the game was 5-0 for the Oilers to answer back with a powerplay marker by captain Connor McDavid. Scoring the Oilers lone goal on the powerplay is poetic in a way given the even strength scoring struggles the team has faced to start the year.
Oilers poor play is a major concern
It is important not to put too much stock into the performance in one game but coupling this game with the slow start the Oilers have had to the season, it starts to look concerning. Scoring struggles, shaky goaltending performance, letting the game get away from them, all of it was evident on Saturday night.
Using moneypuck.com to look at the underlying numbers in this game shows just how much the club was dominated and decimated. The Avalanche finished the game with an 8.28 expected goals for, compared to the Oilers 2.63.
This is a game the Oilers will hope to be able to wake up from and forget. However, there has to be something positive to glean from this mayhem, right?
Positives
It is nearly impossible to see the positive when your team loses this badly but there are a few glimmers of hope for Oilers fans to cling onto. Backup goalie Calvin Pickard, who came in for relief when starter Stuart Skinner was pulled, had a good game despite giving up five goals against. He faced 7.097 expected goals against, meaning that he had a positive 2.097 goals saved above expected.
There were also a number of lines that performed well, most forward lines had a positive expected goals differential at 5-on-5 with the lone exception being the Mangiapane - Nugent-Hopkins - Podkolzin trio. However defensively, the Oilers defensive pairings did not fare so well.
The top defensive pairing of Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard were the only ones to have a positive xG differential with the pairings of Nurse-Regula and Kulak-Walman all failing to outchance their opponents.
The Oilers play next on Monday against the Columbus Blue Jackets and hope to be able to turn things around with a winning effort then.