
Saturday night was one Tristan Jarry would like back. The Edmonton Oilers saw their winning streak snapped in a 7–3 loss to the Minnesota Wild, undone by a struggling penalty kill and a lack of timely saves when the game was still within reach.
Jarry was pulled after allowing five goals on 20 shots, and he's now sporting an .870 save percentage in nine games with the Oilers.
When asked about his own performance, Jarry seemed ready to shift the focus. "It's tough, I think the chances that we're giving up, some of the shots, they're tough. I think it's a lot of Grade As and a lot of breakdowns, so I think it's tough to think about your game at this point. I think it's a whole team game," he explained.
Doubling down, and when given an out by one of the members of the media who asked if so many shots against were tiring for a goalie, Jarry responded, "No, I think it's the bounces that went in. I think it's the fourth goal, unlucky bounce off our defenseman, off the end wall, and straight back to him. I think it's things like that that kind of went wrong tonight. They were on the better side of it."
Unlucky might not be how most people would describe Quinn Hughes' goal.
Jarry did not have a strong performance against the Wild on Saturday. Photo by:
© Perry Nelson Imagn ImagesIn fairness, Jarry wasn't completely to blame. The Oilers were not great defensively.
"We could get another save.... the quality of the chances is something that has to be addressed...," said head coach Kris Knoblauch. When asked if the backbreaker goal was probably the fifth goal, Knoblauch responded, "We'd like to have a save there, but it's not one that you're thinking about that was awful. I think overall, our team needs to play better defensively."
Jarry pointed some of the fingers at the system the Oilers play. "We want to play fast, we want to play up, we want to play in their end, and when we're taking some of those chances, they come back at us, and it's tough. I think we need to make sure we're just managing the puck a little bit better."
While Jarry wasn't at the top of his game on Saturday, it should be noted that he hasn't been since returning from injury.
The goaltender says he feels good, but Knoblauch doesn't seem to be on the same page as his unofficial starter. "No, I think I've felt good, and obviously, you want some better games here or there, and just kind of learning and adjusting, it will come," said Jarry. Conversely, Knoblauch assessed Jarry's game as a work in progress: "Not nearly the level he was playing at before."
Knoblauch did defend Jarry, in a roundabout way.
"You know it's hard for any player to come back from injury. Very few times do you see a player come back from injury and be at the top of their game... It's going to take a little bit of time, but we're confident he's going to find his game," said the coach.
"There was obviously a lot of goals that went in, and I think that everyone knows, when we play the game that we want, I think that's the game that we want to put on the ice and that's the game that will put us on the better side of things, more so than not. I think to be on that side, we need to tighten up and eliminate some of the chances."
It's clear there's a lot of blame to go around in a game like this. Jarry wasn't completely at fault, but he wasn't good enough. The Oilers' defense wasn't great, and their breakdowns need to be addressed.
They'll have two more games before the Olympic break to work on it.
Leon Draisaitl got the Oilers on the board first. Some excellent forechecking by the team's second line in a couple of series led to Wild turnovers and scoring chances. Draisaitl stole one in the slot and buried it on Jesper Wallstedt.
Eriksson Ek tied it up as Quinn Hughes found him sneaking behind both Evan Bouchard and Mattias Ekholm. He scored on the breakaway. A power play goal made it 1-1.
The Oilers scored again, this time a bit of goofy play where McDavid cut into the slot and tried to pass it to Nugent-Hopkins, who missed the pass and it went in off his skate anyway.
McDavid took a tripping penalty, but the Oilers killed it off with some solid PK work.
The Wild took a penalty with just under 5 minutes left in the first.
The Wild got their second power-play goal of the game. Hyman took a goalie interference penalty, and the Wild's Kaprizov struck on the rebound.
Mats Zuccarello made it 3-2 when he scored right off a faceoff play.
Quinn Hughes scored to make it 4-2. He missed his first shot, put it back on net on the second attempt, and it went through Jarry. That wasn't a good goal let in by Jarry, but it was a smart play by Hughes to push the puck back on goal.
A close call on the Oilers' end led to a Tarasenko goal as he cleanly beat Jarry, who again, probably should have made a stop there. Jarry got the pull, and Connor Ingram came in.
It was then 6-2 for the Wild when Tyler Pitlick scored. Jack Roslovic scored to make it 6-3, and then Brock Faber brought the score to 7-3 when he completely deked out Evan Bouchard to put the nail in the Oilers' coffin.
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