For a game that couldn't have started any better for the Edmonton Oilers, they sure turned it around late in that game to blow a massive lead. After being up by 3 at one point the Oilers end up losing 5-4. The Oilers allowed 4 unanswered goals, if they hope to go anywhere in the playoffs they need learn to lock it down.
Going into this series one concern was the fact that the Oilers had a week without playing a game. The problem is if being rusty would have been the issue then it would have caused problems during the early parts of the game, for the Oilers that was the best part of the game. So, if anything maybe the Vancouver Canucks showed some rust as they had been off quite a few days as well.
Coming out of this game the Oilers have lots of areas in which they need to improve in. I don't know if this is a good thing or a bad thing though. On the good side, we all know the Oilers can be better than what we saw tonight, on the bad side they are in a spot where they should not have that many issues in a game.
Moving forward they need to keep the pressure on this Canucks team, when the Oilers came out at the start of the game they were playing Oiler hockey. As the game went on they shifted away from that and let the Canucks do what they wanted and clearly, they wanted to score goals.
One big thing that may come out of this game is a potential Leon Draisaitl injury. In this game, there was a moment where Draisaitl went to the dressing room and missed a pretty big chunk of the game. He was out there in the third period but he did appear to be labouring but still continued to play. If this is lingering it could cause problems for the Oilers.
I don't know many people who picked the Oilers to sweep this series, I know I picked the Oilers to win in 6. In order for that to happen the Canucks did need to win at least one game. Hopefully, this is a one-off for the Edmonton Oilers. This series will continue on Friday night. If the Oilers play a full 60 I don't think there will be any issues moving forward.