Oilers finish arduous road trip with reasons for optimism despite OT loss

The time is coming when it will be fair to ask, “How long are we supposed to wait? “

Maybe the 10-game point is when it becomes fair to wonder if this collection of players in Edmonton Oilers jerseys will ever start to look like an actual team — for something resembling a full 60 minutes? You know, 18 skaters with the same idea, the same goals, the same intention to execute the same gameplan the same way?

But on the final stop on an eight-city, eight-game, three timezone mega-journey, where the Oilers summoned the fortitude to erase a 3-1 third period lead before losing 4-3 in overtime, this simply canâ€t be the night.

If youâ€ve ever lugged your carcass through two weeks of a new-town-every-second-night sojourn that lasts three full weeks — sleeping in until 8:30 in the East, waking up at 6 on the West Coast — you would understand.

It doesnâ€t matter what your paycheck says, or how young and fit you are. At this point in the odyssey youâ€re done, and that makes a third-period comeback like the one the Oilers pulled off Sunday an impressive piece of work — in these books, anyhow.

“In some ways, it can bring a group together,†said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, who watched Leon Draisaitl score twice before Kiefer Sherwoodâ€s deflection (his second) ended the game in OT. “You spend so much time together, youâ€ve got to try to take the positives out of it.

“On the other side of things, we know that the two teams that we just played (Seattle and Vancouver) were in the same boat. They’ve had long travel too — it’s the way the schedule is this year. There’s no excuse.â€

Watching the Oilers scrabble though the opening 40 minutes, in search of an identity, thereâ€s no denying the first 10 games of the schedule have been as disconnected this fall as they were in each of the last two. But you canâ€t dismiss the way they played in the final period of both a back-to-back in Seattle and Vancouver, and the final period of the toughest stretch of their 2025-26 regular season, either.

Itâ€s only one good period — we get it.

But the timing of a dominant 20 minutes against a Canucks team thatâ€s also been all over the map — but was playing its second straight game on home ice — is at worst a reminder that when the Oilers bring it, theyâ€re a handful for any opponent.

The loser point leaves Edmonton with a 4-4-2 record in their opening 10 games, a .500 points percentage that speaks to the wishy-washy calibre of their game through the opening one-eighth of the season.

“You don’t want to go through these tough stretches. It can get frustrating, regardless of whether it’s happened in the past,†Nugent-Hopkins said. “It’s not easy just to say, ‘Okay, well, now it’s time to turn it on,†and here we come. Youâ€ve got to start building your game.

“We’ve been talking about it. We’re obviously trying. I mean, we’re working.â€

Disconnected. Sloppy. Scrambly.

Choose your descriptor, the Oilers game for at least half of the night Sunday was deplorable.

“To come back from down two in the third period is difficult anytime, and we were able to get to and put it in overtime,†said head coach Kris Knoblauch, who has reverted to a popcorn popper to choose his lines through the opening 10 games of the season. “It would have been nicer not trailing by two (goals) going into that third period, and making it (a) less difficult job for us.â€

The killer goal against in this one came at 19:19 of Period 2, just three minutes after Draisaitl had made it a 2-1 game. Sherwood walked Mattias Ekholm and scored on Pickard to make it 3-1, a moment where you wanted your veteran defenceman to not play the puck, and your goalie to do what Thatcher Demko had been doing at the other end all night long.

It was Ekholmâ€s first game on a separate pairing from Evan Bouchard, and weâ€re not sure who the break-up was most designed to benefit. Neither of the Oilers†top-pairing defencemen have been anywhere near the top of their game through 10 games, and surely, getting schooled by Sherwood was one that nobody could blame on Ekholmâ€s partner.

In his 800th game, Draisaitl scored goals No. 6 and 7 on the season, and now has points in 16 straight games at Rogers Arena in Vancouver — a feat only one Canucks opponent, the great Jari Kurri, has ever accomplished.

Draisaitl has points in 26 in his last 27 games against Vancouver, and today celebrates his 30th birthday while firmly en route to another 50-goal season (his fifth), and very likely his seventh 100-point campaign.

McDavid struggled before feeding Draisaitl wonderfully for the game-tying power-play goal with 5:03 to play, and Jack Roslovic checked in with his first goal of the season, and as an Oiler.

“At certain times we’ve had lines going, and certain players as well,†Knoblauch said. “We just need to get more guys involved and contributing a little bit more. Going home, playing some home games, we usually play our best there in front of our fans.â€

Edmonton now settles into stretch of five home games in their next seven, beginning with Utah (Tuesday), the New York Rangers (Thursday) and Chicago on Hockey Night in Canada next Saturday.

The hardest trip on the schedule is in the rear-view mirror, and traditionally, their worst 10-game segment has also passed.

That third period in Vancouver could point the arrows up.

If it doesnâ€t, it will be more than fair to wonder why?

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