Oilers' inconsistent play not up to task against Cup contenders

EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers have been playing OK. No better, no worse.

Pretty well one night, pretty poorly two nights later, then a subsequent effort that’s good enough to beat the ‘meh’ teams, but not close to the level required to beat a contender like the Minnesota Wild.

Why the ups and downs?

“I wish I had answers,” said veteran Corey Perry. “I have no idea.”

The Oilers overall game is just not up to what Minnesota is laying down right now, a fact that was evident Thursday evening as the Wild rolled through town and won handily by a 5-3 score — a final tally that made this game look far closer than it really was.

Edmonton had two of its goals deflect in off Wild players and scored another from their own side of centre, a gaffe by Marc-Andre Fleury that you’ve no doubt seen on the highlight shows by now.

The Wild could have had eight. Other than that, this one went right down to the wire.

“I don’t think we are far off,” Perry figured. “It is just the compete level. Competing, night-in, night-out. Some nights we look great when we do it, and when we don’t it’s ugly. They definitely out-competed us tonight.

“Our goalie is seeing too many shots and we are trying to be too cute with our perimeter game. It just doesn’t work.”

The result was never in question. The only thing left to wonder is, can this Edmonton roster find a level by the end of the season that the Wild have secured at the end of the opening quarter?

Because Minnesota has a vastly better defence — both the D corps and team defence — better goaltending, and superior depth scoring. Yes, Edmonton has some injuries, but this was not close to being close.

The Wild poured it on against an Oilers club that isn’t navigating its defensive zone so well without Darnell Nurse in the lineup, and with a goalie in Stuart Skinner who makes most of the expected saves, but not enough unexpected ones to win a game like this one.

Minny owned the front of both nets on this night — a bigger, stronger roster that wanted it more.

“Losing battles around the net. The most important area,” lamented Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch. “All the (Wild) goals are five, ten feet away from the blue paint. I don't think we did enough to get there, and defensively, we didn't do a good enough job boxing out.”

And his goalie?

“Yeah, he's not playing the level he was last year,” Knoblauch admitted of Skinner.

Edmonton is leaning on its analytics department these days, as it points to all the metrics that list them as a top-five team in chances, slot shots, puck possession and expected goals. None of those equations added up in real life Thursday, even though all three Oilers goals reeked of “reverting to the mean,” each one crossing the line after a considerably lucky break that went the Oilers’ way.

Toss in a disallowed Wild goal (offside challenge), another one that was pushed into the net after the whistle (a call you don’t always get), and this was really a 6-1 beatdown disguised as a 5-3 final.

“I thought right off the bat that we didn’t really have the same jump that they did. I think they had a little more juice,” Mattias Ekholm said. “It is up to us to basically be better and come better prepared.

“I don’t think we have played close to our potential many nights, but before the game tonight we were two points out of the (Pacific) division lead. We know we played a lot better hockey in stretches last year, but in order to get there it starts with the work. It starts with the defensive side of the game.”

The New York Rangers come to town on Saturday, fresh off a 3-2 loss at Calgary.

They are a good team. A true contender.

At some point, the Oilers are going to have to be able to hang with teams like that.