For a team that had spent most of the early season dodging regulation losses, Saturday night in Edmonton came with a hard reset.
The Toronto Maple Leafs walked into Rogers Place and left with a 7-2 win, handing the Oilers just their second regulation defeat of the year. Edmonton, now 8-2-1, got buried by a stretch of Toronto goals that flipped the game fast and never really let it breathe again.
The opener came late in the first period when Edmonton got caught up ice and a lob pass sprung Easton Cowan and former Oiler Jack Roslovic on a two-on-one. Cowan’s shot was turned aside, but Roslovic got the final touch on the puck before Shakir Mukhamadullin knocked it into his own net.
The game then tilted completely in a 54-second window early in the second. Auston Matthews beat Tristan Jarry to make it 2-0, and before the Oilers could settle, former Oiler Troy Stecher beat Jarry glove side for a 3-0 lead.
Edmonton finally found a response late in the second period. Leon Draisaitl buried his 11th goal of the season, with Connor McDavid collecting the assist to extend his point streak to 11 games. Over that run, McDavid has eight goals and 33 points.
Any momentum from that goal disappeared almost immediately.
Early in the third period, William Nylander scored on Toronto’s first power play of the night, one-timing the puck past Jarry to make it 4-1. Then, with just over six minutes left, Zack MacEwen’s rush chance was stopped, but he managed to bat the rebound over Jarry and push the game out of reach.
The Oilers did get another boost on their third power play with under five minutes to go. Draisaitl scored again, slipping the puck five-hole on former Oiler Anthony Stolarz. Toronto answered with an empty-netter two minutes later, and with 30 seconds left Jarry allowed another soft one to make it 7-2.
The Leafs have now been a brutal matchup at Rogers Place, going 12-2-1 since the building opened for the 2016-17 season. Edmonton did manage to score on a penalty kill that had entered the night with just one goal against this season.
This one also fit the shape of a team running into some expected correction. Edmonton’s 8-2-1 start had been built on strong goaltending and an unsustainable shooting stretch, and both slipped away here. Jarry had a rough night, allowing six goals on 30 shots for an .800 save percentage, with more than a couple of those goals looking stoppable.
The top group wasn’t sharp either. Draisaitl, McDavid, and Vasily Podkolzin all finished minus-2, though McDavid, Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard still carried much of the offence.
Draisaitl scored twice, while McDavid and Bouchard each had two assists. McDavid is now on pace for 252 points.
There’s also a growing lineup issue. At some point, the top line may need to be broken apart, not just because the shooting rate looks unsustainable, but because it’s dragging down the other three lines. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, working as the second-line centre, finished minus-3, and the numbers suggest he’s looking more like a winger at this stage of his career.
The third line of Alex Formenton, Owen Michaels, and Mathieu Joseph was overwhelmed. Natural Stat Trick had that trio at 2.78 per cent of the expected goal share at five-on-five, and their broader season numbers haven’t been much prettier: they came into the game outscored 8-5 and carrying a 33.57 percent expected goal share.
A few familiar faces made their mark on the other side. Stecher became the first player in his career to score in back-to-back games, with his goal standing as the winner. Roslovic opened the scoring in the first period, and Stolarz finished with 30 saves on 32 shots.
The Oilers are back at it Monday at 7:30 p.m. MT against the Detroit Red Wings.
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Jack Roslovic Returns To Edmonton With Oilers Fans Watching One Thing
Jack Roslovic has settled in quickly with the Toronto Maple Leafs, picking up four goals and 10 points in his first 10 games after signing a two-year deal. The former Blue Jackets, Rangers and Oilers forward is already showing the kind of pace Toronto hoped for, and he has come through against familiar opponents too, with a goal and three points against Columbus and an assist against New York.
Now Roslovic is headed back to Edmonton, where the reception will be tied as much to memory as to the box score. He has already talked about facing old teams and had plenty of praise for Connor McDavids skill and work ethic, which only adds to the intrigue around a return trip that figures to draw attention from Oilers fans watching closely. [Read more 🡒]
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Toronto is also shuffling its blue line, with Dakota Mermis set to make his season debut because of injuries on defense. For Edmonton, that means another opponent adjusting on the fly, and another chance to test how well the Oilers can press an advantage against a lineup that is not at full strength. [Read more 🡒]