The Edmonton Oilers saw their faint playoff hopes finally extinguished Monday night.
As the Oilers were taking on the Vegas Golden Knights, Colorado lost in a shootout 3-2 to St. Louis. The point for the Avalanche spelled the end for the Oilers, who wound up losing 3-1 to the Knights.
“I found out just now, but it was never really a question at this point, said McDavid after the game. “It’s not good enough, all year. We let streaks drag on.
“You gotta find a way to stop the bleeding quick. It’s a slim margin of error in this league, he said, “It’s been an insane season, coaching change, GM change, good times and bad times.
“Its been a roller-coaster. It’s been emotionally challenging. It’s been hard mentally to keep on going, but we were always kinda right there.”
“We did our best to stay in the fight, it was a little too late.
“We want to play in the play-offs as a team. I personally want to play in the play-offs, he said, “I’m not happy about it. It’s going to be a long summer.”
Cody Eakin scored the only goal of the first period, snapping a shot past Mikko Koskinen’s blocker.
Listen Below: Ken Hitchcock
“At this time of year, you want your team to compete at a high level, and for the most part we did, said Head Coach Ken Hitchcock.
“We had some players that played very well, we still had a couple players that are under the bar… we’ll talk with them tomorrow but overall, can’t default our effort and I thought in a lot of cases we competed at a high level.”
Just 51 seconds into the second frame, Jonathan Marchessault stole the puck from Leon Draisaitl at the Vegas blue line.
He went in on a breakaway and beat Koskinen with a backhand. Connor McDavid came back for the Oilers, bagging his 41st of the season to match a career high.
With 43.9 seconds left in the third, Tomas Nosek took a penalty for interfering with McDavid.
On the power play, Oscar Klefbom’s point shot was deflected and went off the post. The puck trickled out to McDavid at the side of the net, but he couldn’t manage a clean shot away. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored an empty netter in the final ten seconds.
Listen Below: Connor McDavid
The Oilers, 34-36-9, will visit Colorado on Tuesday.
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