Two teams came to town this weekend on the second half of a back-to-back set. The Dallas Stars, who were playing their third game in four nights and who were severely banged up, came in on Friday night and beat you 3-2 in regulation time. They scored less than a minute into that game and Edmonton had to play catch up the rest of the night.
Last night, the Oilers hosted the Rangers, a team they played quite well just over a week ago and who was also playing their second game in as many nights. They too scored early, less than two minutes into the game, and eventually went up 2-0 and went into cruise control. Score effects made the underlying numbers look a little bit better, but the Oilers weren’t ever in that game when it came to the scoreboard.
A weekend where two wins would have been nice, but at least one was expected, ended up being a pointless weekend where Edmonton was beaten by tired and, in the case of Dallas, injured hockey teams. That is not a good sign.
I get a lot of crap on Twitter for being negative when it comes to this team (the past ten years will do that to the best of us), but it’s tough to deny this simple fact: The Edmonton Oilers have lost the cushion they built for themselves in the month of October.
The luster of starting 7-1-0 is now gone. The club is 2-5-1 in their last eight games, not the mark of a playoff team or one that has turned north. Could that record be better? Yes, the Oilers easily could have won in Pittsburgh and New York, but the bottom line is they found ways to lose those games.
October was a feast, but November has been a famine.
The Oilers had cushions of eight points on the division and nine on a playoff spot just a short while ago. Those cushions are now, as of this writing, down to one point in the division and four points for a playoff spot. Nashville, who Edmonton currently leads for a playoff spot, also has two games in hand.
Now yes, it’s obviously very early and checking the standings on a daily basis now is almost comical because so much will change between today and the start of the playoffs. That said, if Edmonton continues playing the way it is right now, they will soon find themselves behind the playoff line and slipping out of the race. That, to put it in frank terms, cannot happen.
This is a hockey team that made a statement when it traded Taylor Hall and signed Milan Lucic this off-season. This is a hockey team that has one of the top five players in the world on a value contract for a limited amount of time. Falling to take steps forward and missing the playoffs is, to me, unacceptable.
Edmonton’s hot start gave the team a nice cushion, but after just 14 days in November, that cushion is all but gone. The Oilers, like good teams do, took advantage of a favorable schedule in October, but they simply have not been up to the test in November against quality competition and true playoff teams.
It’s gut check time for Edmonton. Losing all three games on this upcoming road trip should get the alarms sounding and it should get people to realize that it is, in fact, panic time for this hockey club. Giving six points to Anaheim, Los Angeles and Dallas simply cannot happen if this Edmonton team is to truly turn it around.
This is a roster that was built to compete with these exact teams. Failure to do so will reflect poorly on Peter Chiarelli and his management team, and will be a huge red flag for this franchise as a whole. Yeah, this week is pretty damned important if you ask me.
A weekend that favored the Oilers ended up being a nightmare for them. The team dropped two games that they had a clear advantage in and that is a bad sign. Their inability to be ready for the drop of the puck is a huge red flag and, quite frankly, the lack of scoring from some key players is quite alarming.
The cushion is gone, and Edmonton’s good start to the season has simply allowed them to stay in the race during a stretch where wins have been scarce. An inability to shake this funk, especially coming off of a weekend that appeared favorable, will have me pushing the panic button.
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