The Oilers are blaming themselves again after big mistakes on both sides

EDMONTON — The margin for error is so slim for the Edmonton Oilers right now that just a few mistakes could lead to their downfall.

The Oilers lost 4-2 to the division rival Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday after blowing a one-goal lead early in the third period. Leave out the last of the three late goals, which Vegas captain Mark Stone fired into an empty net with five seconds left. In the previous two cases there was a lot of blame to go around.

However, the Oilers were in this position because they simply can't score enough points.

They could have extended their lead if Connor McDavid – returning from a three-game injury layoff – or Jeff Skinner took advantage of their chances in the second period, or if Viktor Arvidsson wasn't tricked by Vegas goalie Adin Hill early in the third period.

Not to mention that the only two goals they scored were strange. Defenseman Brett Kulak deflected a point shot from partner Darnell Nurse, and Zach Hyman was gifted a loose puck to the side of the net on a strange rebound off the boards.

Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch called their offensive push merely “average.” That's not good enough for a team that is now scoring 2.36 goals per game – 30th in the NHL.

They don't get enough done or get enough done when they do. They have a team shooting percentage of 7.13 percent, better than only the New York Islanders. They also don't give their opponents enough of a chase. The Oilers conceded just one penalty for the third time in their last four games.

The Oilers welcomed Connor McDavid back into the lineup, but it wasn't enough to win. (Leila Devlin/Getty Images)

“Whether it's early in the year, what matters is that when we get those chances, we don't give up – we have to make sure they're good shots and good rebounds and stuff like that,” Defender said Mattias Ekholm. “Another component is that we have to put ourselves in a position to score. We have to work a little harder to get more penalties.

“It's hard to score five-on-five in this league – it really is – so we still have some work to do. I know we got it all together here and I know we will get it together.”

Maybe so, but it's a problem until they do.

The lack of offense put the Oilers in position to blow this game, their second in a row. And shit, they did it because of these three aspects:

The punishment

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins doesn't take many penalties. His career high for penalty minutes in a season is 36. On Wednesday, he completed just his second minor of the 2024-25 season.

But boy, was that ill-timed and unnecessary.

Nugent-Hopkins followed Golden Knights puck-carrying defenseman Shea Theodore as they rounded the Vegas net. He then reached out and grabbed his opponent right in front of the referee when 8:32 minutes had passed in the third period.

“I feel like I’m just trying to make a game out of it,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “From his (referee’s) point of view, it’s a penalty and he decides on it. It’s a hard time to endure.”

The Oilers were poor on the penalty kill, stopping their opponents just 60 percent of the time on Wednesday. They held off Troy Stecher's offensive attack in the second period.

There's a hockey axiom that says bad penalties are harder to kill. The Oilers couldn't win 2-2 after Nugent-Hopkins' violation.

“It’s unfortunate about the penalty — 200 feet away (from the Edmonton net),” Knoblauch said. “It’s hard to take a penalty in the offensive zone – when we were in the lead.”

“As a (penalty) killer, especially the way things have gone for us so far, it's not fun to be in the penalty box at this point,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “We worked so hard the rest of the game. Of course (I) would like to have that back.”

The equalizer

This season there have been many problems in the penalty shootout. In this case, perhaps the moments before Noah Hanifin's equalizer – a shot from the spot – could have been better defended.

“They were able to make a seam pass – it was a very high level pass – we had it defended pretty well, but it got through us,” Knoblauch said. “Once that pass comes through, you’re in scramble mode.

“There were a lot of good things in the penalty shootout – some clearing, some clearing – but just not good enough.”

In fact, the goal was not due to the skaters on the ice.

Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner played a solid game. The windmill save he pulled off Alexander Holtz with a minute left in the second period was divine. However, Hanifin's power play goal just doesn't go in.

The shot went just over the ice. There was some traffic, particularly from Tomas Hertl. But the attempt was unfounded and Skinner seemed to have a good look at it most of the time.

“I thought we did a good job,” Ekholm said of the PK. “I thought we were putting bodies out there trying to get in the lanes… and it seemed to me like it was a little baller on the ice and it ended up in the net.”

Bingo. Ekholm didn't mean to put pressure on his goalkeeper with the last part of this quote. A simple account of what happened tells the story.

According to Natural Stat Trick, Skinner's .758 save percentage while shorthanded ranks 12th in the league. He also allowed 3.13 more goals than expected in the situation. Only three goalkeepers were worse. Skinner's partner Calvin Pickard is in last place with 4.64.

The winning goal

Nugent-Hopkins' penalty wasn't smart, but it was a momentary misjudgment. Skinner let a puck pass him that he didn't want to.

But it was Hanifin's second goal with 48.4 seconds left that sent the Oilers into overdrive. And that's mainly because some players didn't do enough.

Holtz threw the puck into the Oilers zone and ran away with a line change. The puck flew around the boards to the markers, where Ekholm lost a duel with Ivan Barbashev. Not ideal, but there were three other Oilers in the picture – Evan Bouchard, Leon Draisaitl and Vasily Podkolzin.

The problem was that none of them picked up Hanifin, who was racing through the middle when Barbashev hit him with a pass. He hit Skinner against the grain on the side of the glove.

“There should be support in the corner,” Knoblauch said. “There wasn't the support that there should have been. Ekky looks bad, but it's not Ekky. Ekky should have help there. They’re able to make that cross-ice pass, which makes it very difficult for a goalie to keep that east-west pass.”

Ekholm summed up the biggest misstep perfectly.

“We can’t allow anyone to go down when we play four-on-two in the D-zone. Plain and simple,” he said.

No. No, you can't do that.

The two goals conceded ruined a good performance. It also turned two points into one and then zero, dropping the Oilers to 6-7-1 on the season.

“We win battles by doing everything right,” Kulak said. “Every chance they got they put the puck in the net and that was kind of the difference in the end.”

(Top photo: Perry Nelson / Imagn Images)