"Just Wasn't Our Night": Frustrated Oilers Try To Take Positives From Loss To Wild

The Edmonton Oilers needed to show they could beat good teams at home. Following what Leon Draisaitl described as two instances where the team "laid a real egg", the Minnesota Wild represented the team's biggest test on paper to start a five-game home stand.

9-0-2 in their last 11, the Wild had a red-hot goalie, a blue line at full health, a top-tier superstar, and some great, defensively aware forwards. If the Oilers weren't ready and didn't come to play, this was another game where they could be thoroughly embarrassed.

The good news is that the Oilers didn't embarrass themselves at all. The bad news is that they walked away frustrated, losing 1-0.

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The Oilers played well through the first 14 minutes of the first, but a faceoff win back to the blue line allowed Jonas Brodin to rip one past Stuart Skinner to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. It was a goal Skinner probably would have liked to have back, but it wasn't a terrible gaffe. Beyond that, Skinner was excellent.

If you go into Tuesday's game knowing that your starter would only allow one goal at home, you take that ten times out of ten. Unfortunately, the Oilers couldn't get a goal past Wallstedt, and there weren't enough Grade A opportunities.

“I thought we played well. Usually, when you give up one (goal), you win. We didn’t. We didn’t generate the most Grade A chances, but we had some looks, passed some of them away, myself more than anybody," said Connor McDavid after the game. McDavid did pass up two slot opportunities while looking for Zach Hyman. One has to expect McDavid to come out firing on Thursday versus Seattle. There was a real sense that McDavid was upset, not only with the result, but with his own play.

The Oilers started the second period well and kept pushing. The 15-6 shot total heavily favored Edmonton, and the ice tilted in the Oilers' favor. They simply couldn't solve Jesper Wallstedt.

The third was all about the Oilers trying to get the one goal they needed to tie the game. It almost appeared things were going to fall their way when they got a 6-4 power play in the final minute of the third period. Edmonton couldn't capitalize.

"I thought overall we played a game where, more often than not, we come up victorious and are feeling good about ourselves. I think we had not enough quality chances. I think we had a lot of possession time shot on net... I have to look back at it, but you know, right now, from what I'm seeing, I'm disappointed that we lost but it was a more of what we need." He added he was feeling pretty glass-half-full about their game.

“If we continue to play that way defensively, we will find our chances,' said Zach Hyman. "Last two games, we've give up one goal. For a team that's struggled to defend, that's pretty good. If you give up one goal in two games, most times you're winning both."

"I thought we had chances, I thought we had looks," added Mattias Ekholm. "It’s a matter of put your head down, keep on working... but I mean if we keep playing like we did tonight, I think more often than not will like the result it was just unfortunately wasn't our night."

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