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You don’t have to be around the NHL for very long to realize that the scenery changes quickly.
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One day it’s all sunshine, rainbows and cotton candy clouds and then, without warning, it feels like you will never find your way out of a dark and threatening forest.
One day you’re winning five games in a row, chasing down first place in the division and the next you’ve suffered two crushing defeats on home ice as you embark on a brutal road trip with the potential to make that forest even darker.
So sit the Edmonton Oilers after giving up three third-period goals, two of them seven seconds apart late in the game, to blow a 3-1 lead against the New Jersey Devils and suffering a 6-2 beatdown by the Dallas Stars.
They were very different losses, but when you get kicked in the groin a couple of times it doesn’t really matter what brand of shoe was on the foot.
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As the Oilers catch their breath in advance of a four-game, six-day minefield through Washington, Tampa Bay, Carolina and Florida, everyone is anxiously awaiting their response.
This is a stretch that will either reaffirm everything we thought about this team when it was 7-3 and finding ways to win or it will add fuel to the smouldering embers of concern after those two losses.
This is where it gets interesting.
It’s not do or die. Nothing in November is ever do or die. The Oilers could lose all four games, extend the losing streak to six and it wouldn’t be the end of the world. They had two six-game losing streaks last year and still made it to the Western Conference Final.
But the next six days are going to be fun.
There is a fine line between “finding a way to win,” and simply getting away with lulls and mistakes against Chicago and St. Louis that you wouldn’t against New Jersey and Dallas. We are about to see which side of that line the Oilers are on right now.
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It starts with a compete level that hasn’t been good enough in the last two starts. Nine times out of 10, when coaches are poring over game film after a loss, one of the biggest culprits is lost puck battles along the wall and position battles around the net.
The Oilers were just on the wrong side of those twice, because New Jersey was faster and more tenacious and because Dallas was harder and more determined.
Effort level is easy enough to remedy and shouldn’t be a problem, you’d think, Monday against the Capitals.
“That’s what it’s going to be like when we play against top teams,” said forward Derek Ryan. “It’s a good wake-up call for us.”
The goaltending situation is a little more complicated. First off, it’s not a controversy. There is nothing controversial about starting whichever goalie is playing better.
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Right now it’s Stuart skinner, who has the third-best save percentage in the NHL (.944) among goalies who’ve played five or more games. He’s getting peppered — 37.2 shots against per game is the fourth-highest average in the league — but he’s playing well above his $750,000 price tag.
As for Jack Campbell, this was the concern when the Oilers signed him. While he posted all-star numbers in the first half of last season, he fell off badly in the final 17 games (.894 save percentage), which is pretty close to where he is right now (.874).
So it begs the question, is this who he is? Campbell’s history as a starter is short — the only time he’s played more than 31 games in a season was last year in Toronto — so it’s not like you can point to his overall body of work and dismiss this as a temporary slump.
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Time will tell. Campbell is a hard-working guy who holds himself accountable. If there is a way to fix this, you’d think he’s going to find it.
“Tomorrow’s a new day and I’m gonna get back to work,” he said after giving up six against Dallas. “I expect to play at a certain standard, and I haven’t done that yet. So I’m gonna do that.”
He’s also only been here a short time and when things go sideways early on a new team it can be hard to relax and get back on track — especially on a team that’s getting pounded with shots (27th in the league in shots allowed per game), takes too many penalties and doesn’t protect the area around its net as well as it should.
Did someone mention penalties?
That’s been the soft underbelly of this team all year, even when it was winning. Edmonton’s penalty killing is currently 27th in the NHL and has allowed a goal against in 10 of the first 12 games. It’s given up two goals in a game four times.
It’s a concern. When your team is lost in the forest, there is never a shortage of concerns.
“We know how to win, we know how to play against good teams,” said defenceman Darnell Nurse. “No excuses. Our team knows that we’re better and we will be.”
rtychkowski@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/rob_tychkowski
Edmonton Oilers: From sunshine to darkness, sky changes fast after humbling defeats - The Post
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