What Went Wrong for the Oilers Against the Golden Knights?

The Vegas Golden Knights eliminated the Edmonton Oilers after a 5-2 win on Sunday night. Edmonton lacked a well-rounded effort, but it's not time to panic.

Just like that, it'll be three decades since a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup.

Vegas Golden Knights forward William Karlsson's empty-netter sealed a 5-2 victory and a 4-2 series win for Vegas over the Oilers in Sunday’s Game 6. The Golden Knights are now on their fourth trip to the third round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in just their sixth season of existence.

If you wanted offense in this series, you got it. Not a single game of the series had fewer than five goals combined.

It opened with a bang in Game 1, a 6-4 win for the Golden Knights as they held off Leon Draisaitl’s four-goal performance. It looked like Draisaitl would have had to do it all for the Oilers that game, as the Golden Knights outmatched their depth.

From Game 2 to Game 4, either Edmonton or Vegas won in a blowout. They traded 5-1 victories in Games 2 and 3 before Edmonton took Game 4 by a 4-1 score. Vegas then won 4-3 to take Game 5 and then closed out the series in Game 6. It was a guessing game to see which team would show up that night or just string together two consistent games in a row.

Draisaitl had multi-goal performances in Games 1 and 2, but his production slowed down, and it was hard to find consistent production outside of Connor McDavid and Evan Bouchard.

A frustrating post-season continued for the likes of Zach Hyman, Evander Kane, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. While Hyman and Nugent-Hopkins each had a respectable seven points in the series, they only scored one goal each, and they couldn’t produce much at even strength. Evander Kane was also held to just one assist and no goals against Vegas but gathered 38 penalty minutes. Edmonton needed more from their big guns outside of McDavid, Draisaitl, and Bouchard, and they struggled to get it consistently against the Los Angeles Kings and the Golden Knights.

All series long, slowing down the Vegas veterans proved to be a major problem for Edmonton. Jonathan Marchessault, Chandler Stephenson and Reilly Smith caused havoc with Marchessault's second-period hat trick in Game 6 to propel Vegas into the Conference final. 

The Oilers failed to keep Vegas at bay after opening the scoring in too many games. In Games 1, 3 and 5, the Oilers scored first, and inside the first five minutes, the Golden Knights tied it up less than two minutes later. The Knights then flipped the momentum with their forecheck and offensive zone chances. 

The round was one of Stuart Skinner's biggest tests as an NHL netminder. He didn’t produce the all-star performance that we saw during the regular season – he posted a 3.97 goals-against average and .875 save percentage, while Jack Campbell replaced him in three outings. Despite that, the team still didn’t feel comfortable enough to give Campbell the start after he had a season to forget.

At the end of his first complete season, Skinner had tremendous highs, setting franchise wins records for a rookie and earning a trip to the All-Star Game. It didn't end the way he wanted, though, and Skinner was probably his hardest critic after Game 6, saying he had to be better in this series.

"This is obviously part of the book that we're all going to write – this is a chapter where it stings, and it sucks," Skinner said. "Sure, it's your first year for myself, but it was a year where we had a very special group, and I had the chance to help this team do that. I didn't do that, but it's part of the road. It's hard to really think about it right now, but it's apart of my story, anyway."  

Golden Knights netminder Laurent Brossoit, meanwhile, also wasn’t stellar in Games 1 and 2. In Game 3, however, he suffered an injury and left the game and the series. Adin Hill replaced him and posted the stats teams need from their goalies in the playoffs, with a 2.19 goals-against average and .934 save percentage. Considering the Golden Knights have been forced to play five goalies throughout the season, Hill did more than enough in net after being put in a tough situation to help move Vegas forward. 

Despite the second-round loss, it’s still not time for the Oilers to blow this up and rebuild again. The Western Conference is still wide open going into next year, and they just need to make a few tweaks heading into the 2023-24 campaign. The Oilers have four depth UFAs and three RFAs to handle with $5.97 million in projected cap space, according to CapFriendly.

Another right-shot blueliner and improving on the wings should be a priority for Ken Holland. That being said, you can't help but think about what was left on the table once again.

Connor McDavid became the first player in almost 30 seasons to hit the 150-point mark. Leon Draisatil had 128 points and came close to setting a new mark for power-play goals in a season. If Edmonton were able to avoid the second-period meltdowns in Games 5 and 6, we might be talking about the Oilers and not Vegas waiting for their Western Conference final dance partner.

It was clear how hard the ending of this season hit the Oilers once the clock hit 0:00 on this season. The disappointment on how this season came to an end was most clear on the face of Leon Draisaitl.

"It hurts – tough to find words right now," Draisaitl said. "When you start a season, you're in it to win it, and if you don't complete, that it feels like a failure or a wasted year almost."

Coach Jay Woodcroft said how this year ended did not fall at the feet of one person on the roster or staff.

"In the end, we win as a team, and we don't win as a team," he said. "I thought there were different points in tonight's game where we've got to be better, and that is not on one person regardless of the position."

In a post-season in which the Oilers were Stanley Cup favorites for many, the chatter is about the missed opportunities to make a deeper run a reality.

Meanwhile, the Golden Knights will find out their next opponent on Monday night as the Stars and Kraken battle it out in Game 7 for the final place in the Western Conference Final.