The Edmonton Oilers saw their two-game win streak come to an end with an ugly 7-2 loss to the Dallas Stars at American Airlines Center on Thursday (March 12).
Defenceman Evan Bouchard and forward Jason Dickinson accounted for Edmonton’s scoring. Jamie Benn and Jason Robertson each tallied twice for the Stars, who also got one goal apiece from Matt Duchene, Wyatt Johnston and Sam Steel.
Oilers netminder Tristan Jarry allowed seven goals on 27 shots, while Jake Oettinger made 30 saves in the Dallas net.
The loss drops the Oilers’ record to 32-26-8. Edmonton now sits third place in the Pacific Division standings with 72 points.
Oilers Come Out Flat
This game was literally over in the first period: Robertson scored what would prove to be the winner at 15:11, capping off a three-goal opening frame for Dallas.
But figuratively speaking, this game was over before it even started. That’s because the Oilers didn’t show up to play, and Dallas made them pay.
Just a couple shifts into the game, Benn outmuscled Bouchard at Edmonton’s net to score the opening goal at 1:23. Later in the first period, Oilers forward Kasperi Kapanen got knocked off the puck in the offensive zone, leading to a Stars break that Steel finished off with a goal at 13:09. Finally, Robetson got on the board, scoring on a two-on-one after he stole the puck off Bouchard’s stick inside the Dallas blue line.
The first period ended with Dallas leading 3-0 after outshooting the visitors 10-4. But did the Oilers use the intermission to do some soul-searching and come back out playing with a bit of fire? Nope. Johnston put the puck past Jarry at 5:43 of the middle frame, just 32 seconds before Robertson scored to put Dallas ahead 5-0 before the game was even halfway home.
Oilers Show Some Fight
It wasn’t until they were behind by five goals that the Oilers woke up. Bouchard and Dickinson scored less than four minutes apart in the second period to give Edmonton a bit of hope, trailing 5-2.
While that hope would prove fleeting, the Oilers at least showed some fight, mixing it up with their opponents. Edmonton forward Trent Frederic was in the middle of things on more than one occasion in the third period.
But the most notable example came at the end of the second period, when Oilers captain Connor McDavid went after Justin Hryckowian of the Stars. Hryckowian had fired the puck off Edmonton forward Leon Draisaitl just as the horn sounded, and McDavid wasn’t having it.
While McDavid and Hryckowian didn’t quite come to blows (each was assessed a two-minute roughing minor), it was arguably the closest thing McDavid’s had to a scrap in his 11-season NHL career. The superstar centre is no shrinking violet, but he’s also not a fighter, so to see him in such a state spoke volumes.
Oilers Dominated By Top Teams
You can understand why McDavid is on a short fuse. This team that is supposed to be challenging for the Stanley Cup hasn’t been able to string wins together all season, and after a couple of encouraging road victories earlier this week — 4-2 over the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday (March 8) and 4-3 against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday (March 10) – gave cause for optimism, the Oilers absolutely laid an egg against the Stars.
Related: 3 Takeaways From Oilers’ 4-3 Victory Over Avalanche
Edmonton is now 2-8-3 this season against the six teams with the most points in the NHL (Colorado, Dallas, Carolina Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild, Buffalo Sabres, Tampa Bay Lightning) and has been outscored a whopping 60-33 over those 13 games. Those are not the numbers of a championship contender.
Jarry Continues to Struggle
Shoddy defending and egregious turnovers are big reasons why the Oilers gave up a converted touchdown in Dallas on Thursday, but Jarry wasn’t exactly a wall between the pipes, either. The veteran netminder had another poor outing, continuing a dreadful stretch of play that has reached red alert status.
Since being acquired from the Pittsburgh Penguins on Dec. 13, Jarry has a 4.17 goals-against average (GAA) and an .855 save percentage (SV%) in 15 appearances with the Oilers. His SV% is the worst by any NHL goaltender over their first 15 games with a team since 1993-94.
As hideous as those stats are, Jarry’s numbers are even worse of late: Over his last nine appearances, he has a 5.51 GAA and .822 SV%, and he’s now won just one of his last eight starts.
Connor Ingram is expected to get the start in goal when Edmonton wraps up its road trip on Friday (March 13) with a stop at Enterprise Center to take on the St. Louis Blues.
