EDMONTON — When you toe-pick on your own blue line to give up a short-handed goal just 2:42 into the evening, that’s one way to start a hockey game.
When it turns out to be one of your better shifts of the evening, well, that’s a whole different story.
“You try that move 100 times, and it will happen once or twice,” said a disappointed Evan Bouchard.
Asked what he’d like to work on in his game, he was blunt: “A lot of everything. Not acceptable tonight.”
Has their defensive game got away from the Edmonton Oilers a bit?
“I wouldn't say it got away from everyone,” said Bouchard, fully hoisted now on his own petard. “Myself, maybe yes. So there's definitely work to be done there.”
Hey, sometimes you get the Bouch Bomb, and sometimes, well, the Bouch Bombs. Give him credit for facing the press after a tough night — and he wasn’t the only one in a 6-5 loss to the Florida Panthers.
Bouchard, 25, is an uber-talented No. 1 defenceman who has the puck so much that on a night where he’s playing hurt and it’s not going his way, he’s going to be dangerous at both ends, as they say.
The Oilers and Panthers entertained us mightily on a Monday night Stanley Cup rematch, with the Panthers scoring last to win 6-5.
Like his assistant coach Paul Coffey used to be, there are no small mistakes in Bouchard’s game. He never shies away from the puck or an offensive chance, and he wires more pucks at 90 mph than almost any D-man in the league.
Just ask Zach Hyman’s nose.
“I’ve definitely seen Evan play a lot better than that,” his head coach, Kris Knoblauch, said. “We had some other guys who didn’t play their best either. I’m not putting this on Evan.
“He’s obviously one of our best players, and you count on those players. When you’re winning games, they’re usually your best players, but they can’t be your best players every night. It was a tough night for Evan, but he doesn’t have those very often.”
His partner, the always steady Mattias Ekholm, wasn’t a whole lot better. His mistakes were just a tad more subtle.
Darnell Nurse went out of character and took an unsportsmanlike conduct minor for yapping at referee Kelly Sutherland. Florida scored on that one, and Nurse later laid out Matthew Tkachuk with a blatant elbow that reminded us just how well Tkachuk wears the black hat in these parts.
He is roundly hated here. But now that he’s no longer a Calgary Flame, Tkachuk wins more than his share against Edmonton.
“Disappointing, obviously,” said Connor McDavid, whose team blew a 4-2 second-period lead. “It felt like we had it in control. We have to find a way to win that one.”
Three goals in 3:04 for Edmonton in the second period, two in 30 seconds for the Panthers in the third… This one was a ton of fun and everything that their 2-1 Game 7 in the Stanley Cup Final was not, to be honest.
“Fiercely fought but frightfully flawed” was how Sportsnet's Jack Michaels so perfectly described it. However, this may also be a sign that an Oilers team that had won five straight is getting away from the game that righted their ship.
In a 6-3 win over Vegas on Saturday, the cracks in Edmonton’s structure began to show. On Monday, that structure collapsed like a game of Jenga.
“Some really bad mistakes,” lamented Knoblauch. “Whether it was the defence not getting the puck out or line changes, just costly mistakes that shouldn’t happen.”
With the Boston Bruins visiting Thursday to end a five-game stretch for Edmonton against superior teams — Edmonton is 3-1 after beating Tampa, Minnesota and Vegas — it’s likely time to take care of the game that got the Oilers as far as they went last season.
“Maybe you’re on to something there,” began Connor Brown, who has goals in three straight games. “Success for our group over the last few years has been our defensive play — our ability to defend. That makes you a consistent team.
“You can go cold for a night and still be in a game. You don’t want to have to rely on filling the net to win a hockey game. I think that we can take another step forward defensively, and I’m sure we will.”
Hey, we’ll take 6-5 any day. It’s a nice break to see 11 goals in one game.
But it won’t make a winner out of you, in the long run.
That lesson has been learned and re-learned here in Edmonton. You don’t have to tell anyone in Edmonton’s room.
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