Great game. Great game. Bad game. Worse game. Wild, all-over-the-map game.
Three goals against in 37 seconds. Two shots against in 20 minutes.
Two shutouts in a row. Eleven goals against on 60 shots.
Best power play in history. Two-for-14 on the man advantage in five home games.
Good, bad and ugly all in the same week.
The Edmonton Oilers proved once again that their biggest rivalry this season is an ongoing struggle with anything resembling consistency.
Saturday’s sloppily-played 6-5 overtime victory over the Washington Capitals, which they pulled from the jaws of defeat thanks to a last-second equalizer with the goalie pulled and a six-point night from Evan Bouchard, is a prime example.
“Not the prettiest of wins,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who played 28:43 against the Capitals. “But one that we needed.”
It wasn’t pretty at all, right up until it was spectacular. That’s the Oilers in a nutshell — you never know what you’re going to get with this team, only that it’s rare that you get the same thing twice.
Game to game, period to period, it’s always a mystery.
They looked like a complete powerhouse in routing Vancouver 6-0 and St. Louis 5-0 in back-to-back games, then they showed up for just 20 minutes in a 2-1 loss to New Jersey and were dead and buried by the three-minute mark of a 6-2 loss to Pittsburgh.
Edmonton Oilers Connor McDavid (97) skates past Washington Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren (79) with Matt Roy (3) beside him during first period NHL play on Saturday, January 24, 2026 in Edmonton. Greg Southam-Postmedia
Season in one game
And Saturday against the Capitals was like the whole season rolled into one game. The Oilers held Washington to zero shots for 19 minutes and 34 seconds, then gave up an easy goal to waste a good first period. Every time Edmonton gained any ground with sustained pressure, they immediately gave an easy one back, with Washington scoring 22 seconds, 2:37 and 2:10 after each of Bouchard’s hat-trick goals.
“The only thing I didn’t like was how Washington was able to respond after pretty much every goal we scored,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Look at the first period: we didn’t give up a shot (for over 19 minutes) and we finally pushed and got the first goal. We should be ecstatic, but they responded right way. That was pretty deflating. I thought we had a pretty good game but how we let them score after we got our goals, I didn’t like.”
That’s the inconsistency they’ve been wrestling with all year.
What they’re doing is enough to keep them afloat. Edmonton is second in the Pacific Division, but the teams hot on their tail have games in hand, and with 26 wins in 53 games, the Oilers are losing more than they’re winning. Since New Year’s Eve they are just 3-5-1 on home ice.
So a club that hasn’t won three games in a row all season isn’t kidding itself — it needs to put down a foundation, a repeatable formula it can rely on every night.
They’ve shown time and again that their best is good enough to compete with almost anyone, but Edmonton’s best game hasn’t been on display nearly enough this year. And there is still another level they have to reach if they are to be mentioned in the same sentence as Colorado, Dallas, and Minnesota, who’ve beaten Edmonton by a combined score of 23-6 in the last four meetings.
Time to dig in
With just 29 games left in the regular season, it’s time to dig in.
“You need to build that throughout the regular season so you can do it in the playoffs,” said Leon Draisaitl. “It’s certainly something that we need to shift our focus to and be more consistent.”
And not just from game to game. Consistency throughout the lineup has been lacking all year, which is why McDavid played almost 30 minutes against Washington, while Draisaitl played 26:16, Hyman 24:06 and seven other forwards played fewer than 12.
Of Edmonton’s 40 shots on goal against the Caps, McDavid (9), Bouchard (8), Hyman (6), Draisaitl (4), Vasily Podkolzin (3) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (2) had 32.
Edmonton Oilers Leon Draisaitl (29) waits for the puck to drop against the New York Islanders during first period NHL action on Thursday, January 15, 2026 in Edmonton. Greg Southam-Postmedia
Give the Oilers credit, they scraped and clawed, got heroic performances from some of the best players on the planet and willed themselves to a victory. What we saw against the Capitals was pure electrifying magic, but it’s not sustainable.
They know that. With five new forwards, two new defencemen and two new goalies, the Oilers are not the same team that went to two-straight Stanley Cup Finals.
They know that, too. And, with just 10 games to go before the trade deadline, management is working on it.
‘Get that equalizer’
But, as Mattias Ekholm pointed out post game, winning teams can’t dwell on the negative. The way he sees it, the fight and resilience they showed Saturday is a good sign that that team is still in there somewhere.
“When you look back at that game, the way it turned out was almost a perfect game for this group right now,” he explained. “We’re taking punches but we come right back, we take another punch and we come right back.
“And another punch with four minutes to go is a tough blow for us but we still find a way to get that equalizer and win the game. That’s exactly what we needed.
“Obviously, hopefully, we don’t have to do it that way every night, but as far as how things have gone lately, that game can build some confidence.”
Edmonton Oilers Mattias Ekholm (14) handles the puck against the Philadelphia Flyers during first period NHL action on Saturday, January 3, 2026 in Edmonton. Greg Southam-Postmedia
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E-mail: rtychkowski@postmedia.com
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