Make It Nine In A Row!!!

So at what point can fans of the Edmonton Oilers expect this silliness to come to an end? 

On a night in which they found a way to score three goals on just sixteen shots and received an all-world performance from their netminder, it looked as though the hockey gods were going to finally throw this team a bone and allow them to head home from a tough three game trip with their first win of the season against a Western Conference opponent. 

Instead, what the Oilers ended up with was a blown third period lead and their second overtime loss in as many nights, falling 4-3 to the St. Louis Blues. After watching Filip Forsberg and Pekka Rinne steal two points the Nashville Predators had no business getting on Thursday night, it looked like Dallas Eakins’ crew was going to pull off the identical feat against one of the best teams in the league. 

Unfortunately for them, Vladimir Tarasenko continued his red-hot start to the 2014-15 season with his third game-winner of the year and promptly send the Oilers to their ninth consecutive defeat. While playing three games in four nights is never easy, the fact they were in a trio of buildings this franchise has traditionally struggled to get points out of, always made this a trip in which they would have been lucky to come away with anything other than three more losses…and that is exactly how things played out. 

In a season in which Edmonton has watched the goaltending duo of Viktor Fasth and Scrivens cost them more than a few points in the standings, both delivered solid performances over the last couple of nights in Nashville and St. Louis but essentially neither one was enough to get this team over that hump. Not exactly a promising sign and considering how inconsistent both guys have been, expecting either one to maintain that level of play would be nothing more than wishful thinking. 

So where do they go from here? 

Frustration has clearly set in with this group and for the second consecutive night, an Oilers goaltender smashed their stick in disgust after allowing overtime winners. While one can understand their disappointment with the outcome, showing up your teammates is never a good idea and it is especially ironic when it is coming from two guys who have played rather large roles in this team currently sitting where they are in the standings. 

Add that to the fact they seemingly cannot buy a break and are on the verge of having their most recent losing skid reach the double digit mark and there is no question this group will be gripping their sticks come Monday night at Rexall Place against Devan Dubnyk and the Arizona Coyotes. 

After posting a disastrous 2-9-3 record in month of November, the Edmonton Oilers are now the “proud” owners of 6-14-4 mark after twenty-four games. While it is hard to imagine things getting much worse than they currently are, when you take look at this team’s upcoming schedule for the month of December…it may actually not be that far fetched.