The Edmonton Oilers’ misery continued Tuesday night as they were edged 2-1 by the Predators in Nashville.
“It’s frustrating. I thought we played a really solid game, I actually think we carried the play for a good chunk of the game,” Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said after the game. “Obviously we didn’t get the bounce or the call there at the end.”
The Predators opened the scoring on a power play after Milan Lucic took a silly penalty for cross-checking. Craig Smith poked a rebound past Cam Talbot for his 15th of the season. Later in the first, Roman Josi’s long shot was stopped by Talbot. The airborne rebound hit Adam Larsson on the face and dropped in the crease. Viktor Arvidsson tapped it home to make it 2-0 Nashville.
Connor McDavid broke in alone late in the first but his backhand deke was stopped by Pekka Rinne’s glove. Early in the second, McDavid cut in down the right wing and fired a shot through Rinne’s five-hole. It was McDavid’s 15th of the year, tying him with Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for the Oilers’ team lead.
“If we play like that, we’ll have opportunities to win games,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said. “It’s a step in the right direction. I know it’s about wins and losses and we can’t paint the loss up, but the guys competed hard.
“It’s a tough one, the guys gave us what they had.”
Talbot made two big saves, 20 seconds apart, halfway through the second. He denied a Scott Hartnell one-timer with his pad and later snatched Ryan Johansen’s wrister out of the air.
The Oilers thought they tied it with 5:04 left in the third, but the Predators challenged for offside. Replay showed Jujhar Khaira was just offside on the zone entry.
“We battled hard and found a way to tie up the game and then the guy’s an armhair offside and they call it back. It’s obviously hard to not agree with the rule and the video challenge because it didn’t go our way. If we were on the other side, we’d love the rule, so it’s tough to comment on,” McDavid said. “Ultimately, I feel they should just take the rule out. The number of calls that are a millimetre offside, or 45 seconds before the play — it doesn’t have much effect on the goal itself.”
With Talbot on the bench for an extra attacker, Rinne stopped Letestu from the slot with one minute to go. The Oilers narrowly missed two tap-ins on cross-crease passes with time expiring.
The Oilers, now 1-6-1 in their last eight, will visit Arizona on Friday.
-With files from Kerry McAthey
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