What’s an Edmonton Oilers game without total chaos?

It’s hard to tell because 12 games into the season there really haven’t been any.

This October isn’t exactly playing out the way the Edmonton Oilers hoped or planned, but it’s making for some fantastic theatre. First-period collapses. Furious third-period rallies. Comebacks, Blown leads. Mayhem with the goalie pulled. Mind-blowing giveaways. It’s had it all.

The coaches hate it and the fans are pulling their hair out, but it’s a wild ride. An overtime loss to Calgary. Three straight losses that weren’t sealed until last-second empty-net goals. An overtime win over Ottawa. The chaos and controversy of that 6-5 win over Montreal. A one-goal loss to the Kraken. And an overtime loss to Vancouver.

Even in their last game, a convincing 6-3 win over the Utah Mammoth, the Oilers had to climb out of a 2-0 hole (for the fifth time in their last seven games).

And Thursday night against the New York Rangers was more of the same as Edmonton’s seemingly comfortable 3-1 third-period lead deteriorated into a 3-3 tie before evaporating completely in a 4-3 overtime defeat.

Another game, another night spent wondering when this team is going to shake off the glitches and start playing like a two-time Western Conference champion.

“Those turnovers, by Game 12, it’s not OK,” said Oilers defenceman Evan Bouchard, who was responsible for two of them in a minus-three evening of costly mistakes. “We’re going to have to clean that up.”

That the Oilers are 12 games into the season and Bouchard has been dash-3 three different times, and minus two on two other occasions, tells you how things are going on his front.

Thursday was the playoff superstar at his regular-season worst. He turned the puck over at the Rangers blue line, handing Jonny Brodzinski a 140-foot breakaway and the Rangers a 1-0 lead. Then he made another costly giveaway to set up their trying goal in the third period.

Sandwiched in between was Jake Walman getting beat at the offensive blue line to set up an odd-man rush that made it 3-2.

This, one game after Darnell Nurse spotted Utah two goals with ghastly turnovers of his own. It’s a pattern and it’s a problem, but nobody is feeling the sharp end of it more than Bouchard.

“Obviously it’s happening a little more,” said Bouchard. “That second turnover that led to a goal, I didn’t really try to make a play, it’s off a stick and in the back of our net. That’s definitely got to get cleaned up. Playing harder is going to have to be something that I do.”

He’s a confident player who’s done a lot on the NHL’s biggest stage, but he admits that part of his game has been a little shaken, obviously. You can’t be responsible for that many goals against in a month without getting a little rattled.

“Obviously your confidence is up and down, I think it is for every player. You’ve just got to find a way to battle through it.”

And so, too, must the Oilers, who are 12 games into the season and have only won back-to-back games twice.

“Self-inflicted mistakes, that’s all it is,” sighed Leon Draisaitl. “It’s nothing magical that the other teams are doing. We’re just beating ourselves right now. It’s something we have to clean up.”

Edmonton should have had this one in the bank after going up 3-1 on two goals from Nurse and one from Matt Savoie. These are the Rangers, after all, who’d been held to one or zero goals in five of their previous eight games (including a 2-0 loss to Edmonton two weeks ago). They are about as threatening as a guy using a rubber chicken to rob a bank.

But they put up four on the Oilers on Edmonton’s home ice, which isn’t a good look all around. It’s not just Bouchard and the defence. You’ve got top six forwards who are contributing, you’ve got leaders coasting on the back check. You’ve got a lot of things happening that shouldn’t be happening right now.

“You always have success when your best players are your best players,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “You need your depth and other players contributing but when things are going well it’s usually your best players who contributing night in and night out.

“Some guys could be better, top guys and bottom guys, collectively. We’re a little disappointed. We feel like we take a step forward and two steps back. Just because we talk about something and do something well for a short time doesn’t mean we’ve got it solved.

“We have to make sure it’s ingrained that we’re doing this all the time, this is our identity and this is who we’re going to play.”

E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com