Stars out of reach in 5-2 Oilers’ loss.
Oilers unable to overcome slow start
DALLAS — So Mr. Eakins, what were you thinking coming into the game with the Stars on Tuesday night?
“Well, I know Dallas is going to be desperate,” Oilers coach Dallas Eakins said.
Double-meaning there, folks.
The 29th place Oilers, trying to keep the Buffalo Sabres in their rear-view mirror, only had one win on the road in the past nine games over the last six weeks. The Stars, after flirting with a playoff position to start the New Year, had lost six straight.
Something had to give and it was Eakins’ hockey team, after he challenged them before the game.
“The main thing is to inflict some of the pain we usually get when we got a number of games without a win,” he said.
Instead, the Stars bloodied the Oilers in the first 21 minutes, scoring four times on Ilya Bryzgalov, who frankly needed to be much sharper to bail out his team which is drowning in defensive mediocrity. But he couldn’t throw them a life-jacket in a 5-2 loss.
Erik Cole scored 14 seconds in and Ryan Garbutt and Jamie Benn added two more on the game’s first eight shots. Seventy seconds into the middle period, Cody Eakin had an unmolested 10-footer, after some weak checking by Justin Schultz and no awareness by an Oilers forward as to where Eakin was camped out. Trevor Daley finished it into an empty Oilers net with 39 seconds left after Bryzgalov was pulled with three minutes to go. It was the 10th empty-net goal the Oilers have surrendered this season.
Schultz and Sam Gagner on a power play — their first in the last 10 road games — had the goals for the Oilers, with both set up by Taylor Hall, who now has 45 points in 42 games. They did come back with some offensive juice against Finnish Olympic goalie Kari Lehtonen after their awful start when they were outshot 8-2 and outscored 3-1 by the 10:35 mark of the game. But Lehtonen held the fort, making 30 stops.
“I thought we were smart late ... just not early,” said Gagner.
That’s a sea change. The Oilers have been battered in second periods this season, outscored 61-40 after starting games well. This time they were chasing the game for the last 50 minutes.
“I mean we spent an awful lot of time in their end and battled hard to get to the areas to score goals,” said Gagner.
Instead, they were beaten by at least three goals for the 15th time. But they lost for the 29th time and also lost winger Ales Hemsky when he was drilled by a shot late in the second period, just after Lehtonen stopped him on a 2-on-1 break, getting a piece of his mitt on the shot.
“Hemmer took a heater right on the ankle and it swelled up quite quickly,” said Eakins. “The Xray didn’t show anything (broken), but I think they’ll have to delve more closely.”
The pictures were a lot clearer on how the Stars scored on the Oilers in the first 10 minutes, and again very early in the second.
Easy goals, and where have we heard that before?
“I don’t think it was a case of us not being ready to play ... I thought we were,” said Eakins.
“Replaying the game in my head, we made three mistakes and they all ended up in our net.”
Maybe, but that’s a tired storyline, too.
Off the first faceoff, Justin Schultz pinched and suddenly it was a 2-on-1 on Andrew Ference, then Ryan NugentHopkins blew a tire, and Cole, after much scrambling by the Oilers, scored a softie.
“Broken play on the first goal. Puck hits the linesmen, we recover and Nuge ends up falling down,” said Eakins. “Not a great way to start a game against a team struggling, but we get one back (Schultz’s goal) and I honestly thought we played a good road game with Dallas making mistakes, but ...” said Eakins.
On Garbutt’s goal, Bryzgalov was slow to move across the crease on a wraparound by Ray Whitney in his 1,300th career NHL game. Whitney shovelled it to Garbutt for a cheapie from the blue paint.
“You don’t usually see goals go in like that on a goalie of his calibre,” said Eakins.
Benn beat the goalie on the power play ripper short side off a Tyler Seguin feed — Benn’s first point in six games. Then the Oilers fell asleep 70 seconds into the second, with Antoine Roussel beating Schultz on the boards and sending it to Eakin.
“We got moved off the puck quite easily. I didn’t like the battle in the corner and Andrew was a little overzealous to close on the second guy rather than stand in front of the net, but that’s a read,” said Eakins. “Our next forward down has to come and stop in front of the net.
“We’re within feet of everything and there lies the goal that kills you.” ON THE BENCH: Oilers fourthline winger Ryan Jones dropped the mitts with the 6-3, 225-pound Brenden Dillon and held his own. That’s two scraps this season for Jones, who also tackled a tough light-heavy, Kyle Clifford, back in late October in a loss in Los Angeles. “I know some people don’t like that sort of thing, but I like guys standing up for themselves,” said Eakins. “I thought Jonesy did a great job and it showed on our bench.” ... Mark Messier, who turns 53 on Saturday, dropped by in his role as an Oilers team adviser on the way to Calgary for the NHL Prospects game ... The Oilers sat Jesse Joensuu and Corey Potter.