Three things that contributed to the Edmonton Oilers 6–2 loss in Game 2

The Edmonton Oilers lost a tough one 6–2 last night in Game 2 against the Los Angeles Kings.

The first period ended with the game well in reach for the Oilers, but slowly just disintegrated in front of them in the second period and onwards. Stuart Skinner was pulled, Vasily Podkolzin was tossed from the game for doing his best lumberjack impression, and towards the end of the game there was a shot of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl looking like they had sat down at an expensive restaurant and were promptly served a bowl of oatmeal and raw broccoli.

That look of utter dejection on the faces of the Edmonton stars summed up the game perfectly. Nothing went the Oilers way, and they did very little to help themselves. Here are some of the more glaring problems.

Are you there Oilers defence? It’s me, Adrian Kempe

What I’ll say is the Oilers could really use Mattias Ekholm back in the lineup as soon as possible. The game was a cacophonous symphony of errors from both the defence and the forwards. Adrian Kempe scored two goals last night and has seven points in the series so far.

On the first goal, Jake Walman got caught vividly imagining his hockey stick was a pool cue and the puck a cue ball as Warren Foegele deftly stepped past him on the rush. Foegele laid a saucer pass over the prone form of Darnell Nurse and onto the waiting stick of Brandt Clarke who directed it into the net.

Immediately preceding the second goal Draisaitl was more interested in getting revenge on Gavrikov than playing the puck, but if you were worried he was lonely in this pastime then don’t fret because Nurse also stood still. Nurse watched lord knows what while Quinton Byfield skated in from the Canadian border, picked up the loose puck and roofed it on Stuart Skinner.

The third goal against was a power play goal that saw Andrei Kuzmenko plant himself on the post behind Skinner, Walman, and Nurse before slamming home a ricochet off the back boards from a Kempe slap shot.

Between Evan Bouchard and Viktor Arvidsson the Oilers made more successful passes to the Kings than they did to their own team.

There is nothing more hypocritical in this world than my criticizing these NHL players but in this aspect they just need to be better.

Special teams nightmare

This problem is really threefold. The first problem is that the Oilers could not stay out of the box. While there is an argument to be had about the quality of the refs, towards the end of the game they took at least two purely retaliatory penalties. You will not win a playoff series taking penalties like that. Let the opponents take bad penalties then show them how stupid they are on the power play.

The second problem is the penalty kill which was 2/5 tonight and is now 50% in these playoffs. This was the Oilers secret weapon last year but has quickly turned into their Achilles heel. In the Oilers defence, the Kings power play looks very impressive but it may simply look that way because the Oilers are playing timid like a baby deer. They badly need to get in the King’s faces and force them to make a mistake. They’re going to try to make that cross-ice pass anyways, at least make it hard for them.

The last problem is the power play which was 0/3 last night and is now 0/5 in the series. It’s difficult to pin-point the problem exactly since that’s always been a strong point for the Oilers. One thing that I personally have noticed is that McDavid needs to shoot the puck more, just as he did when he plotted 64 goals in 22–23. When he receives that pass from Bouchard while moving toward the blue line, then button hooks towards the goal he needs to shoot more often so that the defenders respect the shot and leave the pass to Draisaitl or elsewhere open.

The uncertainty in the goalie

Honestly, it would be difficult to pin this loss on the goaltending because the team defence was so abhorrent but the fact is, whether it was his fault or not, Skinner has now let in 11 goals in two games which is no doubt awful for a goalies confidence. Skinner was pulled half-way through the third period last night.

The Oilers will most likely start Calvin Pickard next game and while Pickard is capable of being a very solid goalie he now has exactly 145:25 playoff minutes under his belt. That being said he did play well in the three playoff games he appeared in last year for the Oilers.

The only way to console yourself after a game like this is to remind yourself that the Oilers will be coming home for game three on Friday and for the love of all things holy or otherwise Oilers nation you need to be loud.