EDMONTON — I’ll take Floridian Russian goalies for $500, Alex.
Two nights after Andrei Vasilevskiy made 53 stops to give Tampa Bay a 7-4 win at Edmonton, the Oilers were beaten by Sergei Bobrovsky and the Florida Panthers, this time by a 5-1 score.
Edmonton is done with the two Florida teams and their fine Russian netminders for the 2023-24 season, and the Oilers are happy to say “do svidaniya.”
The Oilers lost all four games, and after an eight-game winning streak had pulled them to one game over .500, a two-game losing streak now has them back in the red at 13-14-1.
“I don’t think we defended well enough,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “I don’t think there was enough urgency to protect the slots. We made some mistakes — they forced us into doing that, and that’s part of hockey — but I just didn’t like how we reacted to those.
“I don’t think there was more turnovers than our typical game. But when there was a mistake or they had pucks, we were just not protecting the dangerous ice.”
Evander Kane put it more succinctly:
“We were soft in our own end,” Kane said. “I don’t know where it came from, hopefully it is a one-off. We can be better in that area and clean that up.”
Both Vasilevskiy, and to a lesser extent Bobrovsky, had to be sharp to win at Rogers Place. That is testimony to an Oilers team that saw everything they shot going in for eight games, and now the tap is predictably running a bit dry.
But whether it’s Stuart Sinner or Saturday’s starter Calvin Pickard, it’s pretty clear that Edmonton can not claim the pedigree of starter that either the Panthers or Lightning have.
So, if you know going in that the other team has better goaltending, then the obvious recourse is to play airtight defence, right?
Well, you’d think so. Then the game started, and Panthers found themselves left open in good scoring position, one after another.
Florida built a 3-0 first period lead on goals by Carter Verhaeghe, Brandon Montour and Aleksander Barkov. Those goals were aided by defensive misreads by Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Warren Foegele.
The Oilers, who at one point during their eight-game skein had allowed just a single goal in four of five games, returned to being that team that perhaps did not give up a ton of chances — but the ones they did were massive mistakes.
“Pick had absolutely no chance on those. Guys coming right down the slot, guys crowding him…” Knoblauch said. “I don’t put any blame on him in the first period. We’re down 3-0, no issues with him on those plays.”
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Zach Hyman scored the only Oilers goal, his 18th. His career high is 36 goals, and Hyman is halfway there in just 28 games.
Edmonton went 4-2 on their now-concluded six-game homestand, and now they head east for games against the Islanders, Devils and Rangers prior to the Christmas break.
Good teams don’t lose three in a row, and the Oilers fancy themselves a pretty good team.
“Tonight, we weren’t happy with it,” said defenceman Brett Kulak. “We came out, and we weren’t good right from the start. We’ve got to get our game back.”
They are likely to see two more Russian goalies on this trip, facing Ilya Sorokin and the Islanders on Tuesday, and after a game in New Jersey, Igor Shesterkin’s New Rangers next Friday.
