They are tenets of the game. Elements that give you a predictable result, time, after time, after time.

On Tuesday in Queens, N.Y., the Edmonton Oilers surrendered three special teams goals without scoring one themselves. That is a game you’ll win roughly zero percent of the time, and lo and behold, the Oilers were 3-1 losers against the New York Islanders.

That, and spending too much time on the perimeter searching for pretty goals, rather than shooting or taking the puck to the net in search of the kind of goals that might come with a bruise.

It’s a horrid combination.

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“Sometimes we might (be) a little too complicated for ourselves and not shoot enough pucks,” admitted defenceman Mattias Ekholm, who probably shouldn’t lead the Oilers in shots on goal but did on this night, with five.

“Usually, when you shoot pucks, you can break down defences. Pucks seem to go where nobody can really control them, and you catch guys out of position,” he said. “We did shoot some pucks (32 shots on goal, 83 attempts at goal) but I think tonight we would have liked a couple more screens in front of their goaltender. Make it a little harder on him.”

And get a few more through.

On a rare night where Connor McDavid was held off the score sheet and the Oilers powerplay went 0-for-4, New York blocked 22 shots.

In the end the shot attempts read 83 for Edmonton and just 38 for the Isles, but Edmonton’s offence was anything but clinical. The Oilers were playing a white collar game, and the Islanders blue collar game won the day.

“We made a good a lot of good puck decisions, spent a lot of time in the offensive zone,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “So we weren't giving it away. But in this league — or any league for that matter — you have to go that net hard, and I don't think we had enough traffic in front of their goaltender.

“The puck play was good, we have to get more bodies around the blue paint.”

The lesson: Just because you play with McDavid, doesn’t mean you have to play like McDavid.

“We look at how we play. We know if we're playing the right way, if we're getting away from our game,” said Derek Ryan. “So yeah, we've talked about simplifying things, and I think that's something we need to focus on just for a whole game.”

Just 1:23 into the game, Leon Draisaitl changed his shooting angle — a la Connor Bedard — and rifled a wrist shot past Ilya Sorokin from 18 feet to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead. It was a simple, shoot-first mentality that should have set a tone.

[brightcove videoID=6343562000112 playerID=JCdte3tMv height=360 width=640]

Alas, it did not, as Evander Kane, Warren Foegele, Draisaitl, McDavid and even Brett Kulak took turns passing up looks in favour of some fancy pass to someone in a lesser shooting position.

In the end, there were too many passengers, too much perimeter play by the Oilers offence, and too many blocked shots by the Islanders. The end result was a three-game losing streak for the Oilers, who are frittering away the gains of an eight-game win streak that seems weeks in the past.

Edmonton’s powerplay had just two high danger chances in four attempts, in over six minutes of five-on-four time. And it gave up a shorthanded goal, a dagger in New York’s three-goal second period.

“You look at our winning streak, we never got beat in the special teams battle,” Knoblauch said. “Five-on-five we spent a lot of time in the offensive zone, but this was one of those nights where we got beat on special teams — which doesn't usually happen.”

“That's the main culprit,” agreed Ryan. “Obviously special teams were the major difference.”

Oilers too focused on fancy plays as special teams come up blank

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