Oilers cap daunting road trip at .500 after taking a point in Chicago

The Edmonton Oilers may have deserved a little bit of luck, but they surely did not deserve both of the points Thursday night in Chicago. Of that there is no doubt.

Sloppy? Yeah, this one was sloppy — and far more entertaining than a tightly played, 3-0 win two nights earlier in Philadelphia.

And so goes the reshaping of a hockey team that has always been one of the NHL’s most compelling teams to watch, even while it hasn’t won anything for a long, long time. At the tail end of a lengthy trip, the Oilers simply didn’t have the jam to maintain the structure they’ve come to know, and though a fortunate goal with 50 seconds to play gave Edmonton a point, the Blackhawks won it 4-3 with a power-play goal in OT.

“You know, I think we need a little bit more drive in our game,” assessed two-goal man Evander Kane. “I think we know how we can play. We need to continue to add that drive and that grit to our game, and simplify a little bit. Because when we do that we have success. So I thought we got away from that a little bit tonight. But we'll have to find it come Saturday.”

This was a turnover-fest against a Blackhawks team with little to play for — other than to win one for former defenceman Niklas Hjalmarsson, the tough-as-nails Swede being honoured on this night. Or to defeat ex-teammate Duncan Keith, making his return to the Windy City for the first time as a Blackhawks opponent.

But you can’t discount where the game fell on Edmonton’s schedule, at the end of a trip that went Tampa, Florida, Carolina, Philly, Chicago. The Oilers took three of four points from the two weak sisters at the end, and just two of six from the Murderers Row at the beginning.

With their goalie pulled, Kane ramped a pass off of Seth Jones’s stick and into the het behind Marc-Andre Fleury with 50 seconds left and Mikko Koskinen on the bench. It was the first six-on-five goal Edmonton has scored all season, and salvaged a .500 road trip.

Kane was asked how he would grade Edmonton’s Eastern journey.

“I'd say average,” deadpanned the winger, whose 7-6-13 in 16 games gives him as many goals as the injured Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has in 45 starts. “You look at the trip, at the beginning we (ran) a gauntlet. So to of come out of it. 500, I guess it could have been worse.”

“It’s funny,” added Darnell Nurse. “The two games we probably played the best (in Tampa and Carolina), we didn’t get points. So there’s a lot to build off of this road trip. A lot of good hockey was played, but with that said we didn’t get the amount of points or the amount of wins that we wanted to.”

After changing out most of a coaching staff — again — Edmonton is a step behind much of the league, still trying to build an identity with only 26 games left in the season. The fact they’re collecting points along the way speaks to where their game is at and shows promise for the pedigree of the team they might be 15, 20 games from now.

The Oilers have a red-hot Montreal team waiting for them in Edmonton on Saturday night, a game in Calgary on Monday, and then visits from Washington and Tampa as the Oilers now return for six of seven at home. This was a temporary step back but not one to get all bent out of shape about, with the Oilers right in the mix for second playoff spot in the Pacific coming off likely their toughest road trip of the season.

“I didn't love our board work today,” said head coach Jay Woodcroft. “We made a lot of plays along the wall that either directly or indirectly led to a lot of chances against — and (two) goals against early in the game. But we found a way to stay in the game and grind out one point. We didn’t give up.”

Kane was a bright spot, cashing off a two-on-one with Leon Draisaitl (1-1-2), and then catching the break on the goal that forced OT. He has only played in 16 games while some Oilers have played in all 55. It’s the rare player who can jump on the moving train and produce like Kane has, the reason the Sharks made him a $7-million player not too long ago.

“I think we’re just scratching the surface of what he’ll be able to bring to our team long term,” Woodcroft said. “Two goals for him? He’s got to feel good about his game.”

And so should an Oilers team that, once again, is breaking in a new coach, a new system, and taking yet another run at being a club that is worthy of housing the current top two scorers in the NHL scoring race: Connor McDavid (79 points), and Draisaitl (78).

Their ‘B’ game brought home a point on Thursday, so the discussion turns to whether fans are more worried about the level of play versus Chicago, or happy that you can play like that and still get a point?

“We’re not going to overcook it, overthink it,” Woodcroft said. “We’re going to try and get as much rest as we can. The schedule is unrelenting, so we’re going to get on that plane, rest up, and be ready for Saturday.”