Defensively fragile Oilers need to find solutions in a hurry

EDMONTON — “Expletive!!!!”

The frustrated voice rang out from the catacombs surrounding the Edmonton Oilers dressing room, breaking the post-game silence and summing up the Edmonton Oilers collective head space better than any interview ever could.

The Oilers had just blown a 2-1 third-period lead to division rivals Vegas, sloppily giving up the game-winning goal at 19:11 of the third when Noah Hanifin was left alone to walk in and score — despite the Vegas Golden Knights being outnumbered four to two in the Oilers zone.

In the game’s final minute, a defensive breakdown for the ages.

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“We can’t have somebody walk down when we are four-on-two in the D-zone,” explained Mattias Ekholm, who was on the ice for the goal. “Plain and simple.”

Ekholm was beaten cleanly in a puck battle by Ivan Barbashev. Evan Bouchard, as is his wont these days, found the precise spot on the ice where he was exactly zero help to his partner. Two forwards failed to realize that Hanifin was the only threat until it was too late, and goalie Stuart Sinner couldn’t come up with the circus save.

“Plain and simple,” as Ekholm said.

The Oilers are extremely plain these days, and the solutions are clearly not simple.

How did these Edmonton Oilers end up with a subterranean 59.5 per cent penalty kill (worst in the NHL)? How is a talented team like this tied for dead last in shooting percentage (7.1 per cent)? What’s with a powerplay that is ranked 27th?

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What the hell is going on here?

“If I knew that,” Ekholm promised, standing at his dressing room stall, “I’d stand up right in here and tell them what’s wrong and we’ll fix it, and there we go. But hockey is not that easy.”

It’s not that they’re so bad. It’s that the Oilers are soooo far from being any good.

Defensively, they’re fragile. A mess, really.

The goalie lets a softy in most nights, and certainly did that on the 2-2 goal, a crippler for a penalty-killing unit that is begging for saves and just not getting enough of them.

When the opponent raises their level, as Vegas did in Period 3, the Oilers don’t match it. Right now, they can’t match it.

The other night in Calgary the Flames pulled their goalie while shorthanded and trailing by one. It was a fire drill in Edmonton’s end, despite the fact it was de facto five-on-five hockey, a testament to how fragile this team is.

“It’s just some details that we’re missing and right now, obviously, we need all the details possible,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “When the pucks aren’t going in for you, you’ve got to be able to play good defensive hockey. I thought we started off playing pretty good … but as the game went on, that’s when I thought our details dropped.”

Connor McDavid returned from injury only to go pointless, on a night where the Oilers scored twice on two of the rarest tallies you’ll see: Brett Kulak’s first-ever deflection goal on a shot by his defensive partner Darnell Nurse, and a Zach Hyman goal after the strangest bounce of the year off the end boards.

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A unicorn and a fluke. Two goals is all you get — in eight of 14 games they’ve scored two or less.

“Tonight. we just work, work, work. It takes a lot to put them in. right now,” said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who is as ice cold with one goal in 14 games as the rest of this crew. “I’m feeling like I’m still creating stuff and getting my looks. It’s not going in. I know I’m going to keep my head down and keep working, and I expect the same from this group.”

The power play might win them some games, but alas, it seldom gets out of the holster. In eight of 14 games, they’ve drawn two penalties or less, which tells you they’re not even particularly dangerous at even strength.

“We are going to have to work a little harder to get some more (power plays),” Ekholm said.

They’ll have to work harder at a lot of things, because the statute of limitations on a Stanley Cup hangover is surely soon to expire.

Fourteen games in and the Oilers are 6-7-1, with the worst home record in the National Hockey League, at 2-5-1.

Wakey, wakey, gents.

The season started a month ago.

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