Another Failed Attempt In Beantown

With ten minutes to go in the third period of last night’s tilt with the Boston Bruins, it looked as though the Edmonton Oilers were about to end of couple of streaks. While Dallas Eakins’ squad came into this one on a three game losing skid, it had been almost eighteen years to the day since the Oilers last walked out of good ol’ Beantown with two points in their backpocket. 

Unfortunately for them, both streaks are still going after blowing a 2-1 lead and eventually dropping a 5-2 decision to an injury-riddled Bruins side. While Edmonton played their second straight game without Taylor Hall, Boston was missing defencemen Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug from their lineup but did have the good fortune of centre David Krejci returning to action after missing a pair of games. 

On a night in which the visitors had more than a few bounces go their way, it looked as though Mark Arcobello’s third period marker would be enough to get Edmonton their first road win of the season but it took this group a grand total 2:34 to have this one spiral completely out of control. After watching Loui Eriksson tie things up with 8:56 left on the clock, the Oilers proceeded to self-destruct. 

A pair of back-to-back penalties from defencemen Keith Aulie and Nikita Nikitin led to power play goals from Carl Soderberg and Dougie Hamilton over a span of sixty-nine seconds and in the blink of an eye, the Oilers were staring at a two goal deficit and a fourth straight defeat. Despite playing fairly strong game in between the pipes, Ben Scrivens was once again unable to come up with a stop when his team needed it most, while at the other end of the rink Edmonton continued to struggle to create offence without their best player in the lineup. 

While his head coach may have referred to him as having an “off-night”, Nikitin was downright awful from start to finish for the team that now sits alone in the basement of the Western Conference standings. The former Columbus Blue Jackets defender was a disaster in his own of the rink, directly costing the Oilers a pair of goals while being in the penalty box for a third, all this coming against what was a less than impressive Bruins squad. 

Boyd Gordon scored his first of the year during a first period man advantage, which was Edmonton’s first since Jordan Eberle’s third period tally against the Carolina Hurricanes way back on October 24th. Not surprisingly the Oilers have gone 1-4 since and remain the only team in the league to have won a game on the road. Considering they are in the midst of a five game trip away from Rexall Place, one would think eking out a win somewhere along the way might not be such a bad idea. 

As usual, here is your chance to have your say and rate the players and coach on what you saw unfold in Boston and let’s hope a trip to Buffalo is what this team needs to get out of their most recent funk…as this act is starting to get real old.