California Dreaming Becomes a West Coast Weekend Nightmare for the Oilers

Edmonton Oilers v Montreal Canadiens

The Edmonton Oilers proved to be road warriors in 2024, particularly during the playoffs. Among other results, there was the 3-2 win in Vancouver against the Canucks in a deciding Game 7, and a dramatic double overtime victory to open the Dallas Stars series in the Western Conference Final.

However, this road resilience was nowhere to be seen this past weekend, during a two-game trip California when the Oilers were the antithesis of what propelled to a successful year on their travels. First, there was the 4-3 overtime loss on Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, as Warren Foegele came back to haunt his former team with a goal and two assist.

Then, just 24 hours later the Oilers really embarrassed themselves, as they lost 5-3 to an Anaheim Ducks team with one of the poorest home records in the NHL this season. The Ducks had entered the game on Sunday afternoon, tied for the second-fewest wins in 2024-25 on home ice.

Oilers unable to hold onto a solid lead

Making it even worse, the Oilers twice gave up two-goal leads which, combined with the Kings result, brought back to the surface concerns about the defensive effort generally, and the goaltending specifically. Calvin Pickard in particular struggled between the pipes, with him being at least partly at fault for three of the Ducks’ five goals.

Make no mistake though, that the 5-3 loss was a collective, team-wide failure by the Oilers. In addition, the Ducks just seemed to want it more, as evidenced by a 32-23 advantage in shots on goal, a significant 26-13 edge in hits, and by winning 60 percent of the face-offs.

Draisaitl leads the way

The only real bright spot for the Oilers was Leon Draisaitl scoring two goals, both on the power play. This extended his points streak to 11 games, and he now has 26 goals on the season to put him three ahead of his nearest challengers as of Monday morning.

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