ROAD WOES CONTINUE
Oilers come close but fall to Predators
It could have been NASHVILLE worse.
In fact, it’s been nothing but worse for the Edmonton Oilers since the road trip started.
But instead of having their heads served to them on a platter again, the Oilers turned in one of their most competitive efforts in weeks in a 2-1 loss to the Nashville Predators on Tuesday.
Baby steps, even if they’re still headed in the wrong direction.
This wasn’t the place where many expected the Oilers to pull out of their slump, not with Nashville having won 10 in a row against Edmonton dating back to 2014. They’ve struggled to get anything going here, scoring two or fewer goals nine times and being shut out four times.
But it almost happened.
In fact, the Oilers fought back from 2-0 down and thought they’d tied when Mark Letestu scored with 5:04 left in the third period. But officials rewound the tape and wiped out the goal on one of those razor thin offside calls where the player is really on side but his skate blade is a fraction of a centimetre off the ice.
That’s the kind of week it’s been. That’s the kind of season it’s been.
Once again, most of the damage came in the opening 20 minutes.
The first period continues to be a graveyard where games go to die, and it was the case again Tuesday night as the Predators took a 2-0 lead on goals from Craig Smith and Viktor Arvidsson.
The Oilers haven’t won a first period in nine games, since before the Christmas break.
They haven’t scored a first-period goal in six games.
The 2-0 first period deficit extended their streak of zero evenstrength goals from a forward to 16 periods.
McDavid pulled Edmonton back into the fight with his goal 45 seconds into the second period, in which the Oilers fought back hard.
The Oilers fell to 1-6-1 in their last eight and have been outscored 22-4 in the last six losses.