Connor McDavid admits team is ‘out of sync’ after two losses on the trot

For the second time in three days, Connor McDavid found himself answering variations of the same question: What’s gone wrong with the Edmonton Oilers game? After a 5–3 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday afternoon, the answer came without bluster or excuse.

“Maybe for the first 20 we cleaned it up a little bit,” McDavid said of Edmonton’s early effort, “and then made a few mistakes there in the second period that put us behind the eight ball and didn’t recover.”

The Oilers outshot the Devils 30–23 and controlled long stretches of puck possession, but once again were undone by costly miscues, including yet another shorthanded goal against. It was their second consecutive regulation defeat following Thursday’s 4–2 loss to the New York Islanders and exposed familiar flaws in discipline and special-teams execution.

Saturday’s loss dropped Edmonton to 3–2–0 on the young season and interrupted the momentum they’d built from a strong 2–0 shutout win at Madison Square Garden earlier in the week.

Connor McDavid senses a lack of flow and chemistry

Pressed on what has been missing from Edmonton’s vaunted offensive game, the one that ranked near the top of the league a season ago, McDavid didn’t sugar-coat it.

“Our whole team’s just a little bit out of sync,” he admitted. “Not a lot of flow to our game. Not a lot of… yeah, just not connected enough even on the power play, but even five-on-five.”

That comment might have stung as much as it rang true. Edmonton’s hallmark puck movement on the man advantage has sputtered badly of late.

The team went 0-for-3 on the power play against New Jersey and surrendered a shorthanded tally to former Oiler Connor Brown. It was the second straight game they had conceded a shorty.

Analytics back McDavid’s assessment. Over the past two outings, the Oilers have generated a strong 58 percent shot share at five-on-five but rank near the bottom in expected goals as a reflection of perimeter play and an absence of dangerous net-front looks. As McDavid said, the group appears disconnected, given the passes are there, but the timing and pressure are off.

McDavid unhappy with lack of results

The Oilers’ captain wasn’t in the mood to lean on schedule fatigue or early-season excuses. “These two points still count,” McDavid said flatly when asked whether the matinee setting dulled the team’s energy.

“We talk about getting off to a good start, and we didn’t find a way to win or get better today. Maybe the second part’s more important than the first.”

The afternoon tilt did little to build confidence. Defensive lapses in the neutral zone, including one by Evan Bouchard that led to Brown’s shorthanded marker, erased any early rhythm. The Oilers clawed back to make it 4–3 late, but the comeback bid was too little, too late.

“I didn’t like that we didn’t seem to get any better today,” McDavid said, his tone betraying frustration. For a player accustomed to setting impossibly high standards, “not improving” is an indictment that cuts deep.