If you’re going to lose, and it became apparent fairly early on Thursday that the Edmonton Oilers would do just that, then you might as well go down fighting.
Yes, Connor McDavid. That means you, even.
McDavid came to the defence of teammate and buddy Leon Draisaitl late in a lost cause in Dallas, tussling with Stars centre Justin Hryckowian at the end of the second period. He didn’t like that a puck had been shot at Draisaitl, inadvertently or not, and McDavid did what a good teammate does: He went in there, ripped a helmet off, and landed a shot or two.
We’ve see McDavid and Draisaitl next to each other at awards ceremonies, Stanley Cup festivities and weddings. But seldom have they shared an NHL penalty box, the way they did when the third period opened on a fruitless night for Edmonton in The Big D.
“He's the last guy that should be doing that, to be honest,” said Zach Hyman, after a 7-2 shellacking by the Stars. “As a group, when things are going like that there are ways to be engaged. You saw him trying to pull our group back into the fight. Leon as well.”
Somehow Dallas owns the Oilers in the regular season. But when it counts, the Oilers beat the Stars come playoff time, knocking them off in consecutive Western Conference Finals.
You can figure out how that works — how the Stars can be on a 6-1 regular season run against Edmonton, but the Oilers can win eight of 11 games in their last two playoff series — while we figure out what happened to an Oilers team that won games in Vegas and Colorado, but fell behind 5-0 before notching a goal in Dallas Thursday night.
For the second straight game Edmonton allowed a goal on the opponent’s first shot on net. The Oilers simply stood around watching as Jamie Benn and Sam Steel scored, before Evan Bouchard coughed up a two-on-one for the 3-0 goal.
Dallas scored two more in the opening 6:15 of Period 2 before a Bouchard goal stemmed the tide. But Edmonton was never close to being in this one, with a flat, sloppy performance that came after a pair of diligent efforts against the Golden Knights and Avalanche.
“In the first period, we didn't have any opportunities play in the offensive zone,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “We want to stickhandle through a very defensively structured team. It's tough to get through there, and even when we did (dump it in), we didn't have much speed to go get those pucks.”
Somehow, this team saves its worst defensive games for when Tristan Jarry starts in goal. In return, Jarry has not shown the ability to keep his team in a game while they find their footing. It’s a lousy combination, to be sure.
It would have taken a couple of miracle saves to get out of the first period only trailing 1-0 or 2-0, buy Jarry simply does not seem to find those timely saves. Meanwhile, his team just keeps hanging him out to dry.
It’s a rough combination, but not as rough as Jarry’s numbers after his 13th start as an Oiler: a 4.17 goals-against average and an .855 saves percentage.
Any confidence he may have stockpiled during that gutsy relief performance in Denver had disintegrated by the midway point of Thursday’s messy tilt. Jarry went the distance, allowing seven goals on 27 Stars shots.
Yeccch.
Next Men Up
Two days after losing three players in a stunning 4-3 win at Colorado Tuesday, Knoblauch was just happy to fill a 20-man roster in Dallas without having to summon anyone from Bakersfield. Just in case, the AHL Condors were relatively nearby, playing the Texas Stars in Austin.
The most encouraging news centred around goalie Connor Ingram, who was concussed by a crease-crashing Nathan MacKinnon.
“Ingram is good, he is healthy,” Knoblauch said before the Dallas game. “He’s not starting tonight but he is able to play if we need him.”
As it turned out, with a game at St. Louis on Friday, Knoblauch was likely going to leave Jarry in there for the full 60 no matter how many he let in — barring injury. And after watching Jarry play no better than the team on front of him Thursday, Ingram is likely to get the start on the road trip finale against the Blues Friday.
As for Colton Dach and Ty Emberson, neither or whom emerged from the dressing room after the first period in Denver, they both went home to Edmonton to get looked at. “They’re getting checked out. Hopefully it’s nothing too long-term,” Knoblauch said.
OIL SPILLS — Hyman played career game No. 700 … Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is two points shy of 800 career points. He went pointless Thursday, as did Edmonton’s entire top line (combined minus-8). That goose egg snaps a 19-game road points streak for McDavid as well.
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