With the real potential of an eleventh consecutive loss in their immediate horizon, the Edmonton Oilers came out and played one of their most complete games of their season on Wednesday night against the Winnipeg Jets.
Unfortunately for them, this group is at the stage where they are simply incapable of finding a way to win a hockey game. Despite holding a one goal lead with less than five minutes to play and staring at the very real possibility of earning their first victory of the year against a Western Conference opponent, Dallas Eakins’ crew still found a way to drop yet another one goal decision.
As tough as last night’s 3-2 overtime loss was for this coach and his players to stomach, it was likely “extra special” for one Craig MacTavish to deal with. No one can argue the fact that Oilers GM missed the boat when it came to acquiring another NHL centre heading into the 2014-15 campaign and ironically enough, it was one of the few players he apparently took a run at trying to bring on board in the summer that came back to haunt both him and his club.
When Mathieu Perreault tipped home the OT winner to stretch the Oilers latest losing skid to eleven straight, something tells me MacT had to have been shaking his head in disbelief. The former Washington Capitals pivot has struggled mightily during his first twenty plus games in Winnipeg and yet he is the guy who scores the goal to hand Edmonton yet another loss.
Even the best teams in this league have trouble collecting points when all they can muster up is a pair of goals on a nightly basis and when it comes to the Oilers, that is pretty much all they are capable of doing and they simply do not win any of those games. They are now twenty-six games into their season and Edmonton sits with a 0-15-2 mark in games which they have scored two or fewer goals.
In a league that has been referred to by many as a “3-2 league”, is there any reason to expect this team to win a game anytime in the near future? Their next four games will see them play both the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks in a pair of back-to-back/home and away sets. With that being the case, would anyone really be surprised to see this losing skid get all the way up to fifteen?
It seems almost absurd but considering how much the Oilers have struggled with both teams over the last few years, all signs are pointing to exactly that happening and if that it is how this ultimately plays out, it would set an new all-time low in franchise history for consecutive games without a victory.
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