Ducks game ‘one we had to win’ — Hall
Oilers dejected by losing skid, playoff hopes fading
ANAHEIM, CALIF. — Scattered around the Edmonton Oilers locker-room were remnants of an NHL season that has been all but lost.
Sam Gagner sat in his stall in the visitors’ room at the Honda Center with his head buried in his hands.
Ditto for goaltender Devan Dubnyk after a 36-save performance in the Oilers’ 2-1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks on Monday night.
A sullen Taylor Hall, still in his skates, was staring off into space.
“This was a huge game for our team. It’s really going to be hard from here on in,” Hall said. “Three games ago, we were right there. Now, we’re a ways back. We’re just going to have to stay motivated.
“You never know what can happen, but this was one we had to win.”
The Oilers, who have lost their last three games, play the Phoenix Coyotes on Wednesday at Rexall Place. Edmonton has only nine games remaining, which means the club has to virtually run the table to even have a chance to make the playoffs.
That’s why Monday’s game had been circled a must-win by the Oilers players.
“We know where we are in the standings and that one was there for the taking,” forward Jordan Eberle said.
“All we can do right now is go home and have an unbelievable homestand and try and scratch our way back into it,” head coach Ralph Krueger said.
The Oilers, who play seven of their last nine games on home ice, are four points back of the eighth-place Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference.
However, they are only 8-5-4 at Rexall Place, and in recent losses to the Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings and the Ducks, they haven’t been good enough. They got into penalty trouble and scored just two goals in the last three games. They have no wiggle room.
A week ago, the Oilers were putting the finishing touches on a five-game winning streak to climb briefly into eighth place.
“We’ll regroup and finish it out. We’re going to finish hard,” said captain Shawn Horcoff. “We’re not mathematically eliminated, so you never know ... (and) we’re not in a situation where we can just mail it in.
“We need to continue to develop and move forward as a group and as an organization.”
Dubnyk said what made the loss to Anaheim particularly disappointing was that the Oilers pulled themselves back into the game with a thirdperiod goal after generating just three shots on net in the second stanza.But they couldn’t respond after the Ducks’ Radek Dvorak scored his second goal of the game.
The Coyotes, who have one more point than the Oilers in the standings, haven’t beaten Edmonton this season and are 4-9-5 on the road. They have also been shut out in seven of their 18 road games.
But Phoenix is just one hurdle for the Oilers, who still have to play six games against teams which have either clinched a playoff berth or are currently in the top eight in the Western Conference. Edmonton has two games against both Anaheim and the Minnesota Wild, as well as contests with the Chicago Blackhawks and Vancouver Canucks.
The Oilers’ other games are against the Colorado Avalanche and Calgary Flames.
“We’re not out of it, but going into that game, we had treated it as a must-win and we just didn’t do enough to come out with the points,” said Gagner. “It was a frustrating loss for us, and, now, we have to try to regroup and be better in the next game. We know what we have to do now. We realized it before the (Anaheim) game, too, and that’s what makes it such a frustrating loss. When the season is on the line like that, we have to be better when it comes to executing and competing. We just weren’t able to do that.
“We just have to approach each game now like it’s our last.”