After finishing their six-game homestand on a sour note, the Edmonton Oilers will try to get back on track on the road when they visit the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday.
Edmonton dropped the first game of its homestand before rattling off three straight victories. The Oilers faded in their final two games, though, losing 3-2 to Detroit in a shootout and falling 4-3 to Toronto on Saturday.
The Maple Leafs led 3-0 midway through the second period on Saturday and held on after Edmonton tallied twice in the third period to close within a goal. The Oilers fell short despite outshooting the visitors 48-28.
“It was just one of those nights,” Edmonton forward Corey Perry said. “We might have been overzealous to get playing and it shuts our brains off. Those are just little things. You change those in the course of the game, and it can come back and haunt you.
“A couple turnovers led to penalties against and then their power play went to work. If we eliminate those turnovers, I think we would have had a better start. We played with the puck quite a bit tonight.”
The Oilers’ late rally wasn’t stunning given that their explosive offense averages 3.29 goals per game, which ranked sixth in the league entering Monday.
“Once we started keeping it simple and getting on them, playing five-on-five, we were good, we were all over them,” said defenseman Evan Bouchard, who contributed a goal Saturday along with Perry and Zach Hyman.
The Blues are beginning a stretch of six straight games at home, three of which come before the 4 Nations Face-Off begins on Feb. 12. They have struggled to an 11-13-1 record on their own ice.
Before edging the Utah Hockey Club 2-1 in Salt Lake City Sunday night, St. Louis had lost four straight games by a combined 16-4 score.
Blues coach Jim Montgomery responded to that downturn by reuniting winger Jordan Kyrou with center Robert Thomas and Pavel Buchnevich on the No. 1 forward line against Utah. That trio generated nine shots on goal and Kyrou scored the game-winner.
“All the way from the start, all the way to the end, we played hard, we played aggressive, we played fast, we played with the puck,” Kyrou said. “We weren’t just throwing it away.”
Thomas is the Blues’ top playmaker and Kyrou is the team’s volume shooter, so they were able to get back in sync quickly.
“It’s kind of just old chemistry,” Kyrou said. “I kind of know when he’s looking, where he’s looking, so I just try to jump in those holes.”
The Oilers won the previous meeting between these teams 4-2 on Dec. 7 in Edmonton. Connor McDavid had a goal and an assist and Leon Draisaitl had two assists for the Oilers.
Edmonton’s Stuart Skinner made 29 saves to earn the victory, while Jordan Binnington allowed four goals on 21 shots for St. Louis.
The Oilers’ defensive corps should get a lift Tuesday. After missing Saturday’s game due to illness, Mattias Ekholm returned to the blue line during practice Monday.
–Field Level Media
