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The return was fun. But the game that put the Edmonton Oilers in a 5-2 hole is the one they’ve been trying to overcome all season.
“We were a little soft in front of the net,” head coach Chris Knobloch said after a 5-4 loss in Columbus.
The Oilers have missed the net on both ends of the rink on too many nights this season. Like losing the line of scrimmage in football, you won’t win many games when the other team dominates the low slot on both ends.
There was a lot going on in this game, with many Columbus goals coming on tips, close-in rebounds, or shots from within eight feet.
“We’re giving a lot of looks from the slot,” defenseman Darnell Nurse said, “and making the puck (Kelvin Pickard) made a lot of big saves.”
Offensively, with Zach Heyman having missed the entire season so far, the Oilers haven’t scored enough foul shots from tight spots that are uncomfortable to dwell on. They’ve been a perimeter team on offense, and in their own end, soft play in front of their goalie has become the norm.
On Thursday, a big, tough player like Columbus’ Matthew Oliver camped just in front of Pickard, scoring twice from close range. Columbus Bruiser had a three-point night, and perhaps because of the beating he put on Trent Frederick three nights ago in Edmonton, the Oilers were just ready to check Oliver. No one was putting a shoulder to the jacket’s beef wing.
“(The Oilers have to) make it hard for them to get inside position on us,” Knobloch said. “Most of the time they were left alone in front of the net with just (Pickard) himself.”
Pickard’s numbers this year are terrible: a 4.17 goals-against average and an .830 save percentage. Forget about changing the start skinner, as many fans are calling. Pickard’s game has a long way to travel before he is the viable backup that won key playoff games last spring.
The Blue Jackets hit six goal posts on the night, and we’ll let you decide if that was just good luck for the Oilers goalie, or if it was all Columbus snipers firing with Pickard in perfect position. In the end they scored five times on 25 shots, a recipe for a road loss if ever there was one.
Oliver Line, along with Charlie Cowell and Cole Slanger, had three goals and seven points between them. Not bad for a third line.
“They have a lot of guys that can put up points and scores when you give them time and space, and we gave a lot of that,” Nurse said.
However, give the Oilers some credit. Their defensive play was poor, but they had the momentum to turn the game around and push Columbus to the final buzzer.
Trailing 2-0, then 5-2, the Oilers took the Blue Jackets’ net to the right end on Thursday night in a thriller at Nationwide Arena in Columbus. Another night on a back-to-back, the Oilers got stronger as the game wore on.
Early on they didn’t have the look of a team that had this kind of comeback, with just six shots on goal at the midway point of the game. At one point they trailed the Jackets by 18 in shot attempts, but by the end of the game they led State 61-52.
Oil spills – Heyman, who hasn’t played since leaving Game 4 of last spring’s Western Conference finals with a sprained wrist, is finally ready to make a comeback. “We expect him to be ready to play Saturday (at Carolina),” Knobloch said … The Oilers are 40-20-8 all-time against the Blue Jackets, but they’re now 14-14-3 in Columbus — and Edmonton hasn’t won at the Nationals Arena since 2019 … He’s two goals short of 1,000 career goals … Career assists number 740 and With 741, McDavid passed Norm Ullman and moved into 51st place on the NHL’s all-time list. Next up, Denis Potvin (742) … Edmonton is on a streak of 12 road games in its next 18 games. They have now dropped eight of their last 10 on the road.
