The Edmonton Oilers saw their win streak halted at two games with a 2-1 loss to the New Jersey Devils at Rogers Place on Tuesday (Jan. 20) night.
All the scoring came in the second period, when Devils forwards Cody Glass and Arseny Gritsyuk sandwiched goals around a tally from Edmonton centre Matthew Savoie.
Oilers goalie Tristan Jarry made 15 saves, while New Jersey netminder Jake Allen netminder stopped 22 shots in a winning effort.
With the loss, Edmonton’s record is now 25-18-8. They have 58 points, two behind the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights.
Oilers Can’t Win 3 Straight
In what has gone from a curious stat to a baffling phenomenon, the 2025-26 Oilers are simply unable to win three consecutive games.
Tuesday was the ninth occasion this season that the Oilers have entered a game riding a two-game win streak, and they’ve lost every single time. Edmonton is one of only two teams in the NHL this season that has not yet won three straight games, with the other being the lowly St. Louis Blues.
Matt Savoie, Edmonton Oilers (Perry Nelson-Imagn Images)
Edmonton’s inability to put together any winning streak of consequence is the reason they are only in the middle of the pack in the NHL standings.
“We want to obviously get some momentum and win some games in a row, that’s how you climb up the standings,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said during his post-game media availability. “I like the fact that we respond well after losses, we’ve got a good record after losses, but if we’re going to be a really good team and move up the standings, we need to win consecutive games, more than two.”
Devils Put Edmonton to Sleep
This was a sleepy affair, which is on brand for New Jersey: Games involving the Devils average a shade under 5.7 total goals per game, which ranks as the lowest among Eastern Conference teams.
Fans are used to seeing more action from the Oilers, however: Edmonton has scored the second most goals in the league and has the fifth most shots in the NHL. So, it was quite notable that the Oilers didn’t even register their eighth shot on goal until barely over five minutes remained in the second period and had only 10 shots through 40 minutes.
Edmonton finally woke up in the third period, when they fired 13 shots on Allen as they pressed for the game-tying goal, but the New Jersey goaltender was equal to the task, making some challenging saves.
Oilers Dress Seven D-Men
With forward Kasperi Kapanen sidelined from an injury suffered during Edmonton’s victory over St. Louis on Sunday (Jan. 18), the Oilers elected to dress just 11 forwards and seven blueliners. That meant defenceman Alec Regula drew back into the lineup after sitting out the previous four games.
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Regula played only three shifts for a total of 2:35 of ice time. He was a non-factor, which unfortunately is probably one of the best things that can be said about any of his games in 2025-26. The 25-year-old has struggled mightily this season, registering a plus/minus of -16 in only 29 appearances.
The Oilers have now won just one of the five games this season in which they’ve rolled with a lineup of 11 forwards and 7 defencemen, going 1-2-2.
Devils Shut Down McDavid
The key to beating Edmonton continues to be containing Connor McDavid, who was kept out of the scoring summary on Tuesday. The Oilers are now winless in eight games this season in which their captain goes without a point.
Tuesday marked the first time in McDavid’s 18 career games versus New Jersey that he failed to register at least one point. He had racked up 31 points over his first 17 games against the Devils, dating back nearly 10 years.
Since reeling off a career-best single-season streak of 20 games with at least one point, McDavid has been held pointless in two of the last four games.
Oilers Miss Draisaitl
Tuesday’s game was the third straight that Edmonton has played without star centre Leon Draisaitl, who has taken a leave from the team to attend to a family illness in his hometown of Cologne, Germany.
Edmonton didn’t appear to miss Draisaitl the prior two games, as they totalled 11 goals over a pair of victories against the Vancouver Canucks and St. Louis. But his absence was certainly felt against the Devils, as the Oilers struggled to score and ultimately came up just one goal short.
Good news came for the Oilers earlier on Tuesday, when Knoblauch told media that he expects Draisaitl to return to the team later this week. Edmonton’s next game is Thursday (Jan. 22) when they host the Pittsburgh Penguins.
