Oilers' Dangerous Luck And Dangerous Habits Return In Irritating Loss To Devils

The October Oilers had been again on Monday towards New Jersey.

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Regardless of outshooting the Devils 31-16, they had been unable to seek out the again of the web in a 3-0 loss that dropped them to 6-6-1 on the season. Sound familiar?

The Oilers’ sticks appeared cursed from the start, with Adam Henrique lacking two wonderful probabilities from proper in entrance of the web towards his former membership. The Devils did not wait lengthy to make them pay. Stefan Noesen took benefit of Dougie Hamilton’s net-front presence to fireplace one previous Calvin Pickard to place New Jersey up 1-0 simply 5 minutes in.

That rating held by way of the primary, regardless of the Oilers’ greatest efforts. Zach Hyman was robbed on two harmful probabilities by Devils netminder Jake Allen, whereas Henrique was stymied but once more after a troublesome turnover from Satan Jonas Siegenthaler.

The Oilers’ rotten luck continued into the center body. Vasily Podkolzin, nonetheless on the lookout for his first purpose as an Oiler regardless of displaying nice chemistry with Leon Draisaitl, missed a game-tying marker by millimetres early within the interval.

The Oilers dominated the shot clock within the second, outshooting the Devils 10-3. Regardless of that dominance, the Oilers had been undone by their different early-season bugaboo: the penalty kill.

Edmonton took a too-many-men penalty with simply 4 minutes left within the second, by no means an indication that issues are going nicely. Positive sufficient, Jesper Bratt made them pay, squeaking a shot beneath Pickard’s pad from the slot. 2-0 Devils after two.

From there, the Oilers unravelled. They nonetheless outshot New Jersey 8-3 within the last body, however they had been listless and flat and appeared completely disinterested. It was just like the powerplay marker fully deflated them. Dawson Mercer and Timo Meier took benefit of a Zach Hyman turnover on the Devils’ blueline for a highlight-reel purpose, and that was that.

The analytics are extra variety to the Oilers. MoneyPuck gave them a slight edge in anticipated targets: 3.29 to 2.81, or 65.3% on the Deserve To Win O’Meter. Head coach Kris Knoblauch agrees, mentioning after the sport that the Oilers have been creating a number of high-danger probabilities all season lengthy.

However ultimately, these probabilities have to show into targets, and the Oilers cannot wait for much longer. Knoblauch additionally mentioned that the penalty kill deserves higher than it is gotten up to now this season. Which may be true, nevertheless it does not excuse the truth that the Oilers have far and away the worst PK unit within the league.

One loss is not the tip of the world, and the Oilers did nonetheless outplay workforce on Monday evening. But it surely will get late early within the NHL, and the Oilers cannot afford to be dogged by these similar points all 12 months lengthy.

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