This felt like one the Edmonton Oilers should’ve had. Not easily, not comfortably, but had. You’re up late in the third, you’ve scored five, you’ve gotten contributions from guys who don’t always show up on the scoresheet, and you still walk away with a 6–5 overtime loss to the Utah Mammoth.
Because let’s be honest, this is probably a team you want to beat.
Utah isn’t some team that was just hanging around the Oilers' schedule. They're a team that could sneak into a wild-card spot, and if they do, it could mean an early first-round exit in Edmonton.
They’re structured, they've got decent goaltending, and they don’t need a ton to beat you. Honestly, if they were in the Pacific instead of the Central, they’d be right there with Edmonton at the top, maybe even ahead with games in hand.
Which is why it’s hard not to look at the standings and take them with a grain of salt. First place in the Pacific sounds great, but drop this same Oilers team into the East, and it’s a different story. They're middle-of-the-pack in the Metro, worse in the Atlantic.
That doesn’t mean Edmonton isn’t good; it just means the standings aren't what they look like.
And games like this highlight it.
Offensively, there’s not a lot to complain about. Scoring five without Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman in the lineup is impressive. You got depth scoring from Colton Dach and Curtis Lazar, exactly what you want this time of year. That part of the night actually looks like progress.
But then there are six goals against.
A lead in the third that doesn’t hold. It starts to feel familiar in a bad way, like the Oilers from a couple weeks ago, where they could fill the net but couldn’t quite keep it out of their own.
“We wanted two points, especially when we had the lead late in the third period," said head coach Kris Knoblauch. "(Colton) Dach coming back, getting a goal, that was tremendous. I thought he had a great game, among others, but anytime you don't get the full two points, you're disappointed.”
Yes, there were positives, but that’s not really the point right now. Not with so few games left.
“The two points," said Darnell Nurse, on the most disappointing part of the game. "We had the lead and weren't able to maintain it, but showed some good composure in the third to find our way to get that one point, but you wanted two.”
That’s kind of it. You wanted two. You had two.
And this is where it starts to feel like a bigger conversation again. Not panic, not anything dramatic, but a reminder. This team can still slip into that old habit where no lead feels safe, where even a five-goal night doesn’t guarantee anything.
The frustrating part is that we’ve seen the better version of the Oilers. The one that defends well enough, that doesn’t need to win 6–5, that can close out a game without making it chaotic. That version looks like a contender. This version from last night looks like a team hoping its offence can cover for just enough mistakes.
And maybe, in the Pacific, that’s enough to stay where they are.
But against teams like Utah, especially if you see them again in a playoff series, it probably won’t be.