It had to happen eventually.
The Edmonton Oilers have had Vegas's number for two years running. They've been collecting wins off the Golden Knights for fun, and they walked into this one on a five-game win streak, the longest they'd put together all year. At some point, Vegas was going to get one back. That's just hockey, and that's just how it works.
They got one back 5-1.
You can debate how the game got away from Edmonton, or you could talk about how they handled losing it. Not quietly, that much is certain. If you're going to get beaten by that margin, you apparently owe it to yourself to at least make things uncomfortable.
There was some fighting. Not a ton, but enough. And when the final buzzer went, both benches found each other and had plenty to say.
"It's just bickering back and forth, everyone telling everyone they make too much money, stuff like that, which is all true," added Trent Frederic for clarity.
Accurate on all counts. These are two teams near the top of a tight Pacific Division race, and neither one has much patience for the other right now. A little post-game chirping in the direction of a team full of max contracts is probably the most honest thing to come out of a 5-1 loss.
But the physicality during the game itself is worth talking about, because the Oilers don't always get credit for that side of things. They're not built to be an intimidating team.
They're built to score, to move the puck, to outskate you. Vasili Podkolzin is really the only guy on the roster who consistently brings that edge and makes teams think twice about laying a hit on Connor McDavid. Beyond him, it hasn't exactly been a calling card.
So watching them respond to getting blown out by leaning into the physical stuff and not backing down, not going quiet, was a different look.
"It's hard to score goals. The details, the physicality, all that, it's mandatory," began Curtis Lazar. "I'm liking our response, being able to turn momentums in the games and not backing down from the fight. We're more than willing to play that way."
There were no excuses in the post-game media from any players who were interviewed (Lazar, Frederic, and Jake Walman). No finger-pointing, or blaming the refs, or ignorance towards the way they played, just saying: we're not going anywhere, and we're not going to make it easy on you even when things aren't going our way.
"We're a real team, we all have each other's back, so we know we'll bounce back, and it's just a little bump in the road," said Jake Walman. "We'll be good, and we'll learn from it."
Which is exactly what you'd expect an Oiler to say at this point in the season. They've been saying versions of that since October, and honestly, they've earned the right to keep saying it. This group went to the Stanley Cup Final. They know what a bad game looks like, and they know it doesn't have to define anything.
Vegas is a decent team in a crowded Pacific race, but they're not the powerhouse they were a couple of years ago. Edmonton dropping a game to them, even a bad one, isn't a crisis. It's a reminder that the division isn't locked up, that every team left on the schedule is going to bring something, and that the Oilers can't afford to sleepwalk through any of it.
They didn't sleepwalk. They got beat, stood their ground, chirped about salaries, and went home.
Honestly, not the worst way to handle a 5-1 loss.