In Edmonton, the mojo has seriously evaporated on the Oilers.
On Wednesday night, the Oilers lost to the Chicago Blackhawks, 4-1, Marc-Andre Fleury made 40 saves to get the win for the Hawks.
Leon Draisaitl was the lone striker for the Oilers.
“That was a very, very bad start. [Smith] held us in and to be only down two after one, I think we felt very fortunate,” the Oilers’ Connor McDavid said. “But that being said, I liked our second period. I thought we did a pretty good job getting ourselves back into it and maybe could have tied the game in the second, but that’s not how it went.”
The Blackhawks improved to 17-23-7.
Alex DeBrincat had a goal and three points for Chicago, his goal was off the first shot of the game for Chicago and came off the power play.
“I think we came ready to play; we played simple right off the bat, got it in deep and went to work,” DeBrincat said. “We draw a penalty early and scored on that, got the momentum and went from there. We had a good start, but the second period was a little slow, so we can still improve there.”
Dylan Strome also scored with the man advantage for the Blackhawks.
“I was so close to changing the lines,” Blackhawks head coach Derek King said. “But I decided to just leave it and I think it was a good decision and let these guys battle through that like we talked about earlier. And they did, they brought it back in the third.
“They played a great first period, they played a great third period and the second period was a little sloppy at times.”
Chicago was 2-for-4 on the power play, Edmonton went 1-for-4.
“We knew they were going to have a push, but we were up 2-1 and in a good spot heading into the third,” Strome said. “Anytime you are leading on the road after two periods, you have to take the positives and try to play like the first period and try to forget the second period and move on. I thought we did a good job at limiting their chances in the third. It felt like we outchanced them in the third, at least.”
Brandon Hagel and Kirby Dach also scored for Chicago.
The Oilers fell to 23-18-3.
The Edmonton offense has gone cold again. They were shutout by the Vegas Gold Knights on Tuesday, and now have one goal in two games.
Mike Smith made 26 saves in the Edmonton loss.
“I don’t like the result, but on a personal level, it was way better tonight than last game,” Smith said. “The start [Tuesday] everything seemed like it was going 1,000 miles an hour out there, but as the game wore on, I felt better and better, and in the third, I felt more comfortable. I felt like I finished last night and felt good right from the start.
“Saying that, you’re still letting in too many goals, and obviously that’s frustrating. You want to do anything you can to help, and the last two games wasn’t good enough.”
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