Dallas Stars Ilya Lyubushkin (46) holds onto Edmonton Oilers Max Jones (46) as Sam Steel (18) skates with the puck during first period NHL action NHL action on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 in Edmonton. Photo by Greg Southam /Postmedia
It was almost epic.
Down 4-0 with just over 10 minutes to play and without their two best players, the Edmonton Oilers could have looked for a soft spot on the canvas and called it a night.
Instead, they almost pulled it off.
But they didn’t.
As encouraging as things looked in the wake of Edmonton’s first game without Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl — a rousing 5-4 decision over the Seattle Kraken last Saturday — we all understood the difference between edging the 13th-place team in the conference and proving you’re OK without the two best players in the world.
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That difference reared its ugly head in a 4-3 loss to one of the best teams in the league.
The Oilers gave it a valiant effort, throwing everything they had at a Dallas team that spent much of the first 30 minutes and the last 10 minutes on its heels, but the Stars’ skill beat the Oilers’ will on this night.
The Oilers swarmed Dallas out of the gate, drawing two penalties in the first 10 minutes by being tenacious on the puck, outshot the visitors 14-5 in the first period and were up 23-13 on the shot clock midway through the second.
But it was 3-0 Dallas.
While the likes of Connor Brown, Mattias Janmark, Kasperi Kapanen and Viktor Arvidsson gave it their best, they didn’t have the hands to cash in on all that zone time and all these chances. Edmonton was aiming the gun all night but nobody could pull the trigger until it was too late.
And when the Stars got their chances, and there weren’t many, their skill players finished. And that was it.
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A first-period breakaway from Wyatt Johnston and a natural hat trick from Jason Robertson (30th, 31st and 32nd) made it 4-0 after 40.
It should have been over at that point, but a pair of third-period power play markers from Corey Perry at 9:30 and Adam Henrique at 13:54, and a goal from Zach Hyman at 18:35 closed the gap to 4-3 and almost turned a rout into one of the best Oilers comebacks of all time.
But it didn’t happen.
Edmonton’s superstars will be back in a week or so, but in the meantime they are losing ground in the race for home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. They are now two points back of the Los Angeles Kings, who have a game in hand and are 26-3-4 on home ice.
And, just to cap a tough night all around, Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner got pulled late in the game for the second time in three tilts — this time after Mike Rantanen clipped him on the head with his knee as he was driving past the net. The concussion spotter pulled him from the Winnipeg Jets game with five minutes to play.
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