November 5, 2022 by Ryan Lotsberg

There’s something about the Edmonton Oilers and home matinées that just don’t jive. They lost another one on Saturday, this time to the Dallas Stars by a score of 6-2.

Jamie Benn led the way for the Stars with a hat trick. The Stars outworked the Oilers and were simply the better team in this one. Their great start is a compliment to their new head coach Peter DeBoer, whose teams always play well in their first season with him at the helm.

To be fair, the Stars did get a few lucky bounces. The puck bounced off of or went through Campbell’s glove on their second goal. Jason Robertson took the rebound from his own shot that went off Campbell’s pad and then off an Oilers defender, and was able to deke around Jack Campbell and play the puck into the crease for Benn to tap the fourth Stars goal home. The puck just bounced straight to Benn off another shot block for the Stars’s fifth goal. 

Call Outs:

The Oilers lost too many battles to be able to compete with the Stars in this game. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse lost a battle for a puck in the left faceoff circle, and the Stars player got a shot on goal. The rebound went to Roope Hintz, who was left alone because Zach Hyman had drifted too far towards his opposite wing and because Ceci wasn’t quick enough to identify him after his man went back to the point. Joe Pavelski beat Nurse to the net after that lost puck battle, and Hintz found him for the tap-in goal.

Ceci was standing shoulder to shoulder with Benn in the crease on the Stars’s second goal, but it was like he wasn’t there at all because he failed to tie up Benn’s stick. It was too easy of a finish for Benn. The Oilers need to be able to match the opponent’s battle level in tough games like this one.

Evan Bouchard collided with the forward (Nugent-Hopkins I believe) at the Stars blue line, which created a two-on-one for the Stars. Benn beat Campbell with a great shot for his third goal of the game. That’s a sloppy mistake at the offensive blue line that can’t happen.

The Stars got some bounces and the defence let him down at times, but Campbell isn’t free of fault here. I don’t know what happened on the Colin Miller goal, but it was a slap shot from just inside the blue line with no screen that went in off his glove. If it went through his glove then it’s a different story; but that’s a save that’s expected to be made.

Standouts:

There weren’t many in this game from an Oilers perspective. Leon Draisaitl scored a powerplay goal and wasn’t involved in any of the goals against, so he’s an easy choice.

Shout Outs:

Darnell Nurse scored a nice goal to get the Oilers within two goals in the third period. He was active in the rush for most of the night, which makes sense because the team was losing. 

Jesse Puljujarvi got the primary assist on Nurse’s goal. He got the puck near the Stars blue line on the left wing, and he made a nice saucer pass to Nurse. Puljujarvi made another almost identical pass that led to a chance earlier in the game.

Derek Ryan narrowly missed scoring in his third straight game. He had a breakaway upon getting out of the penalty box. He made a nice move, but couldn’t beat the post. 

Finally, Zach Hyman came to the aid of Warren Foegele after he was hit from behind by Pavelski. Hyman took a run at Pavelski and knocked him over. It was probably a bit of a charge and it might’ve been a tad late, but Hyman went in with ill intent. He even managed to draw a penalty on the play!

You can see I’m grasping at straws for positive things to say about this game. The best thing I can say about it is that it’s over.

As Bill Belichick would say, on to Washington.