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Revisiting the ghost of last season is a waste of energy when a brand new ghost turns this season into a horror movie, but you know the Oiler’s spine is walking into the Amerant Bank Arena.
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Going out is worse.
The Oilers put four straight into the place where they had their worst nights, and the Oilers knew they could do nothing about the Stanley Cup Scar, but at least they wanted to stop the bleeding.
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No. Just another crush, a single ball failure.
The good news is that the 4-3 loss is just the second worst inning ever since the Oilers lost the game in Florida, but it’s now and now it’s starting to look very grim.
This brought 26 goals to more than five hits and 0-4 goals in the first four stops of road trips late in the season.
The Oilers are now the longest failure in the NHL, leaving the wrong way.
To their credit, they are better in this regard than Philadelphia (6-3), Washington (7-3) or Tampa Bay (4-1).
They spent the night with the Panthers neck and neck, showing no vulnerability they showed when they let the flyers, capital and Panthers pull away when they were tough.
After giving up a 1-0 goal in the first phase, Brett Kulak tied it after 2:13. Leon Draisaitl tied it up after two minutes when they were 2-1 behind 15:30 in the second phase. It was a seven-game winning streak, which scored a goal for Draisaitl.
But the best Edmonton can do when Florida scored 11:08 and 13:51 in the third phase is to pull the goalkeeper to 4-3.
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“They ended up finding out that there was more back of the net than we were, but I think we played a great game,” Culak said. “The guys were doing their best, doing second and third efforts, doing small things. I thought we were trying to compete. There were a lot of positives.”
They are close, but the Oilers aren’t enough to solve the Panthers, who won two games this year.
“I think these guys compete very hard and we’re doing very well,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch, who wasn’t excited about the entire team.
“To get rid of funk like this, when things aren’t going well and people are really squeezing their sticks, we need everyone.”
And, as far as coaches are concerned, they don’t bring a complete gang to the fight.
“I feel like there are a few passengers, some of them just don’t give the effort we need,” Nobrach said. “Most people do everything they can. Many guys play well, play hard, do everything they can, but the couple doesn’t have that many.”
Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky saves better than Edmonton’s Stuart Skinner.
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Skinner often does this, trying to fight back after giving up nine goals in a pair of losses to Philadelphia and Tampa Bay. He left Edmonton in the game in 40 minutes, but Florida’s third and fourth goals were nothing special.
“I think Stu played a game and he made some big savings,” Knoblauch said. “Their first goal fell on the back of Kulak and then skated. The fourth, we defended it well, it just bounced to the position (Carter Verhaeghe). Now, we have to take a break.”
Now the Oilers are losing ground on the Golden Knights in Vegas and are now being caught (sensible points), but third place is La Kings, who scored two points and scored three games.
“It sucks, we put a lot of internal pressure on ourselves,” Kulak said. “However, there is a lot of things to build tonight. I think we’re taking a step in the right direction, even if it’s not the result we want.”
The teams that lose usually have a game or two at the end of their game, they perform well and lose. The Oilers hope this is that game, but with the Carolina Hurricanes coming, there is nothing to be taken for granted.
It could get worse before things get better.
“You can’t start pointing your fingers at the room,” Culak said. “We’ve been through a lot together. You don’t start blaming guys, hoping this guy does more, or that guy does more.
“You just look in the mirror and look at past successes with a team yourself and then find something that works again, find your place, everyone scores goals and does their best.”
Email: rtychkowski@postmedia.com
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