The Edmonton Oilers’ vaunted power play went 0 for 7 Monday night in a 3-1 loss to the Montreal Canadiens.
“You look at the two games, I think we had 10 power plays and we came out minus two,” Oilers coach Dave Tippett said.
“That’s an area that should be one of our strengths and it wasn’t the last two games.”
Habs goaltender Jake Allen made 25 saves for the win. The Oilers scored just twice in losing two games to the Habs.
The Canadiens opened the scoring halfway through the first period. Alexander Romanov’s point shot eluded Edmonton netminder Mikko Koskinen after a clean faceoff win by Montreal’s Paul Byron.
“This is not what we wanted, but we can’t get frustrated,” Koskinen said. “It’s only four games and we have to keep the work ethic up and find a way to win the games.
“It’s going to be a long push and we need to be ready when we face the Leafs in a few days.”
Montreal peppered Koskinen with 18 shots in the second. He made his best save on Nick Suzuki’s power-play shot from the slot. But with 10.5 ticks to go, Canadiens defenceman Shea Weber banked a shot in off Koskinen from behind the net. The goal was initially waved off for goalie interference as Koskinen had been bumped on the play. The Canadiens challenged and it was ruled a goal after video review.
Montreal’s Arturi Lehkonen put it away with a shorthanded goal in the third. The Canadiens scored shorthanded on Saturday as well.
“We’ve got to shoot the puck more. We had some chances, but you’ve got to bury some of those chances,” Tippett said. “Montreal does a good job in front of their net and you’ve got to pay the price to score.
“We didn’t bury the chances and didn’t shoot the puck enough.”
Oilers forward Kyle Turris said they’ll have to make improvements to the power play without the luxury of much practice time.
“We just talk about it. It’s not things you necessarily have to be on the ice to improve on,” Turris said. “Getting out of our zone quickly and allowing us to get through the neutral zone a bit more smooth and allowing us the time to be able to put pucks behind them in deep, instead of being in the neutral zone and turning things over.
“It’s not stuff you have to work on in practice. Just communication to get pucks in deep and get after it.”
Devin Shore put the Oilers on the board with a late shorthanded marker.
“Offensively, we’ve got to find a way to break these goalies,” Oilers forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “He played well but we’re going to face that all year. Every team has good goalies right now and we’ve got to find a way to break them down and pepper them — get bodies to the net.
“It just comes down to finding a way to put one in.”
Koskinen finished with 31 saves.
The Oilers open a four-game road trip in Toronto on Wednesday.
“We were more competitive, but I’d still like to see our puck game improve,” Tippett said. “Competitive is what we’re looking for.”
–With files from 630 CHED’s Brenden Escott
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