Edmonton Oilers' Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid speak about the future of the Oilers after the loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in the playoffs, in Edmonton, on May 16.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press
It is easy enough to look at the Edmonton Oilers and see where they failed in the playoffs.
Defence and goaltending cost them dearly, same as a year ago.
Against Vegas, they couldn’t outscore their mistakes and Stuart Skinner, their rookie netminder, proved to be susceptible under pressure.
Edmonton bowed out of the second round on Sunday night in six games following a regular season where it looked like a Stanley Cup contender.
Fifty wins, including 14 in the final 15 games. Sixty-four goals and 153 points by Connor McDavid. A third 50-goal season for Leon Draisaitl.
Now all footnotes after a frustrating end.
Just as Maple Leafs players had a day before, the Oilers convened for the last time on Tuesday before summer. Two by two players filed into the Hall of Fame Room at Rogers Place to face journalists.
There were no cruel questions. To a man each felt lousy enough to begin with.
McDavid and Draisaitl, the straws that stir the drink in Edmonton, spoke quietly as per the situation. There are no two better players in hockey but there they were again for a painful postmortem.
“I don’t think anybody is going to go home and think about their personal success or stats,” Draisaitl said. “All of us are going to go home and think, ‘Wow, I wish we were still playing.’
“We want to win here. It is kind of an empty feeling we are left with. We don’t want to feel this way any more.”
There is always next year, of course. But as in Toronto there are only so many viable chances.
A year ago, the Oilers reached the Western Conference final before they were swept by the Avalanche, which went on to win the Stanley Cup. It seemed like a seminal moment in a team’s development. You know, losing breeds winning, that sort of thing.
This was a step back in the process. It might still bear fruit in the future but that remains to be seen.
McDavid believes the Oilers were better this year. Small details got away from them in the series against the Golden Knights.
“We have to find a way to not beat ourselves,” he said.
Perhaps Jay Woodcroft, who has done well after he took over as head coach midway through last season, leaned too heavily on Skinner.
Among goalies who played in at least four postseason games this year, Skinner’s .883 save percentage was the third worst.
As Skinner faltered, Woodcroft could have gone to Jack Campbell, who had a .961 save percentage in four relief appearances. Campbell did play on Sunday but by the time he was beckoned onto the ice the outcome was decided.
Mattias Ekholm turns 33 next week. He joined the team at the trade deadline after 11 seasons in Nashville and immediately made a huge impact. He is the top defenceman the Oilers have lacked for many years.
He had some thoughts, born in experience, about what went wrong.
“I think we are really close,” Ekholm said about winning a Stanley Cup. “The assets this team has you can’t just go around the corner and find.
“At times you have to win games 2-1 and 1-0. We need to make it harder on the opposition to earn their goals. You don’t want to be in a position where you have to constantly outscore them.”
Ekholm has another three years on his contract.
“Even though we lost in the second round and nobody is happy about that, to come here is an opportunity I cherish,” he said. “I would not want to go to any other team in the league.”
All but four teams now have had a day of reckoning like this, or are about to. In the end only one wins. The rest start over. There is a summer of training. Then camp. Then 82 games to get back to where you were the year before.
It’s not lost on anyone, but it still hurts.
“We had a really good team this year,” Zach Hyman, the Edmonton forward, said. “We are returning a majority of our core and with that, there is a massive opportunity to get better and to win.
“Going into next year everyone’s mindset should be that we are going to win the Stanley Cup or it is a failure of a season.
“There is no consolation prize.”
The Oilers have some things to sort out. Not so many as the Maple Leafs, but they both ended up in the same place.
“I think everybody on the team feels we should have gotten the job done this year,” Evander Kane said. “We have a window of opportunity to do something special.
“The hunger and drive for next year starts now.”