TAMPA — Leading 3-2 after 40 minutes, there were two ways the Edmonton Oilers could have stretched their winning streak to four games and kicked off this road trip with a resilient win here in Tampa.
They could have shut ‘er down defensively and brought this one home like the veteran, battle-tested team they aspire to be. Or conversely, the big boys — the pointless pair of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl — could have gone mano a mano with Lightning superstars Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov in a race to seven.
Alas, neither came to fruition, as Tampa poured in three plus an empty netter to win 6-4.
Two nights after Edmonton had snatched two points from the jaws of defeat against Seattle, they gave them right back here in Tampa in a game that was there for the taking.
“We've been a team in the past that's been able to win those six and seven-goal games. Obviously, this year that's not happening,” said Zach Hyman, part of an 0-for-5 power play unit that could have put this game away early, but for a pair of missed nets by Draisaitl.
“So we have to win the tighter games. That’s where we’re at,” he said. “Scoring four goals should be enough for us. We’ve got to tighten up on the defensive side of things.”
The old coach, Jay Woodcroft, would employ the word “mature” in describing a game that the Oilers had won in a solid, professional manner.
This was not that.
“Definitely one that we should have had. I definitely agree with that,” said two-goal man Derek Ryan. “Going into the third period (up 3-2), we’ve got to be able to lock that down and win that game.”
Stuart Skinner let in five, and only the fifth one could you say he might have had. The rest were no-doubters, one-timers and close-in deflections.
Tampa’s top guys were better than Edmonton’s top guys, as Draisaitl missed the net on two powerplay sitters, and for the first time in his NHL career, McDavid left an NHL rink with a four-game pointless streak on the road.
Meanwhile, Stamkos and Kucherov combined for three goals and five points.
“I thought we outplayed them for the most part, it just wasn't there on the score sheet,” said Hyman. “We have to recognize who we play against too. They’ve got some really talented players over there (who) don't need 40 shots. If you give them seven or eight Grade A looks, you're probably gonna lose the game.”
Edmonton got four goals from Ryan (two) Evan Bouchard and James Hamblin. Any kind of production from the big boys and the one-goal lead they nursed for most of the game would have been two or three.
The loss put a damper on Hamblin’s first career NHL goal, a longshot from Edmonton who drilled a puck top-corner, then pointed to the sky and said, “That’s for you Mom.”
Cancer took his mother Gina back in 2017. She was just 52, and James was a 19-year-old playing for the Medicine Hat Tigers.
“I just pointed to the sky,” Hamblin said after the game. “My initial thoughts are straight to my mom. I think I've had that celebration in the bank for a few years now.
“She's in my heart, she's on my back and, you know, it's hard to not get emotional about it.”
That this part of the tale falls down to the bottom of the story, and is not being told in the lede, is just another thing squandered on a Saturday night at Amalie Arena. Everyone would have been talking about Hamblin’s big goal, but instead, it’s a footnote.
“In the third period, I didn't like how we handled having the lead,” lamented head coach Kris Knobklauch, after his first loss behind an NHL bench. “Their forwards getting behind our defencemen, and our forwards not protecting them as well as we should have.
“It could have been a different game,” he continued. “The first period was the strongest I've seen since I've been behind the bench. I thought the power play did everything but score those first two opportunities.”
So which would Knoblauch prefer?
A better defensive effort? Or more goals from this once-lethal power play?
“I'd like to see both those happen,” he said. “I’d like to see our powerplay contribute, defensively we shut things down a little bit tighter.”
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