The Edmonton Oilers Young Guns have lost nine games in a row. They have lost seven of those nine games by one goal. On this recent three game road trip they went 0-1-2 with the last two losses coming in overtime.

The Oilers lost to the Dallas Stars 3-2 after giving up an early goal as it was shot from outside the blue line. The top line of Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberly and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins combined to score the second goal of the night. Nugent-Hopkins hustled to get the puck on the right half boards and shot it down low around the boards. Eberly picked up the puck behind the net and flicked a pass between his legs to the slot. Hall was there to wrist a shot to the far left corner for his 100th goal of his NHL career. While Nugent-Hopkins tallied his 100th assist of his NHL career. Although the Oil pressed to tie in the third they fell short.

The Oilers then lost in overtime to the Nashville Predators 1-0. The goalies both played well as Oilers Viktor Fasth made a bid for a shut out keeping the Preds scoreless going into overtime. In OT a Preds defenseman put his hand on the puck in the crease leading to a penalty shot. Jordan Eberly was called upon to take the shot. He moved the puck back and forth only to be stoned by a sprawling leg save by Pekka Rinne on the goal line. The Predators then scored with less than two minutes to win in OT.

The Oilers lost a second overtime game in a row on back to back games as they fell to the St. Louis Blues 4-3. The Blues scored in the first period to make it 1-0. But the Oil played their best in the second period. Leon Draisaitl made a saucer pass to David Perron who scored on his former team to tie the game1-1. Later in the period Ryan Nugent-Hopkins pushed the puck behind the Blues net as Taylor Hall gathered it and moved up the right side, he then saucered a pass to Nikita Nikitin breaking in on the left hand side and snapped the shot in to make it 2-1. The Blues tied it early in the third. But once again Taylor Hall had the puck on the right hand side of the Blues net and saucered a pass to Mark Arcobello who shot the puck in to make it 3-2. But the Blues kept up immense pressure to tie it 3-3. In overtime the Blues finally put it away when they scored with 40 seconds left to play. Oilers goalie Ben Scrivens played well enough to give the Oil a chance as they were outshot 41-16 but it was not to be.

The Edmonton Oilers Young Guns were demoralized by their sixth straight loss. They lost to the Nashville Predators 3-2 after spotting them three goals in the first period before coming back only to fall short. In the next game they lost to the Ottawa Senators 4-3 once again spotting another team three goals in the first period before coming back to tie it only to lose it in over time. Their third loss in a row came against the Arizona Coyotes 2-1.

Against their bitter rivals the Vancouver Canucks they lost 5-4. Once again they were down 2-0, then 3-1 before tying it 3-3. Vancouver moved up 4-3 before the Oil tied it up 4-4. But once again Vancouver pulled out a squeaker 5-4. The Oil then plodded along against the New Jersey Devils to be pitch forked 2-0. But the final outing was a horrific blowout as they lost 7-1 to the elite Chicago Blackhawks. They spotted the Hawks 3-0 in the first period once again before giving up three more in the second to go down 6-0. Mercifully, the Oilers finally scored a goal to avoid being shutout two games in a row. But the Hawks dropped one more on them to give the Oilers their fifth straight loss at home. As one Oiler commentator lamented, there are no words for this.

The Oilers Young Guns now go on a three game road trip and hope to post a win soon to stop the downward spiral and avoid a complete oil drain.

The Oilers Young Guns defeated the New York Rangers 3-1 at Madison Square Garden for their best show of the year so far. This gave the Oil a two game winning streak with one more game on this road trip.

The Oilers controlled much of the first period and appeared fresher than the Rangers who played the night before. At 3:19 the Oilers gained the Rangers zone and Captain Andrew Ference had the puck on the left hand blue line and passed it over to Justin Schultz on the right hand blue line. Schultz shot the puck around the boards and it circled around the net to the far left hand corner. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins gathered the puck and passed it back to Benoit Pouliot behind the net who quickly relaid it to Jordan Eberly. Eberly brought the puck above the goal line and passed it to RNH who was breaking to the top of the crease from the left hand side and wristed the shot into the left hand side of the goal to make it 1-0. Later in the first period the Rangers responded to make it a 1-1 tie.

In the second period at 8:29 Ryan Nugent-Hopkins brought the puck out of his zone. At center ice he attempted to pass it up but it was stopped by a Rangers defender. RNH retreived the puck and continued skating into the Rangers zone. He moved up the right hand boards with two defenders on him. He then made a quick stop and made a short pass to Benoit Pouliot. Pouliot took the pass and sped toward the Rangers goal and snapped a shot from the dot of the right hand circle that went through the five hole of the goalie to put the Oil up 2-1.

Half way through the second period the Oilers kept the puck in the Rangers zone and Pouliot got the puck and streaked toward the goal on the left hand side. Justin Shultz activated from the right hand side and was wide open to receive the pass. Pouliot made the pass on a seeming wide open net when Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist slid over and robbed Shultz of a sure goal with a glove save on the doorstep.

In the third period the Oilers did not allow the Rangers any shots on net until half way through the period and continued to put on pressure. At 18:33 the Oilers got the puck out of their zone with the New York goal empty. Matt Hendricks brought the puck up the right hand side and passed it over to Teddy Purcell down the middle who wristed a shot into the empty net to make it 3-1 and secure the lead. The Oilers Young Guns out shot the Rangers 33-21 with Oilers goalie Viktor Fasth notching his second victory in a row.

The Oilers Young Guns defeated the Buffalo Sabers 3-2 in a hotly contested match to snap a four game loosing streak. The streak started when they were defeated 4-1 by a retooled and aggressive Nashville Predator team. Then they lost their third straight to their new bitter rivals the Vancouver Canucks 3-2, in the process losing Taylor Hall to injury two to four weeks and Captain Andrew Ference suspended three games for a well deserved, helmet flying, check to the head of a Canuck forward. Their next loss came against the Philadelphia Flyers 4-1 where Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored a spectacular goal breaking in from the right side, driving by the front of the crease and snapping a shot assertively into the net. The Oilers fourth loss in a row was to the Boston Bruins 5-2 after holding a 2-1 lead against the Beaners then collapsing in the third period with four unanswered goals.

The Oil started the game against Buffalo on an even keel but then out shot the Sabers 19-12 in the first period as it ended in a scoreless draw.

In the second period The Sabers scored in the first minute of play to go up 1-0. The Oil quickly responded at 1:20 when Teddy Purcell was in the Buffalo zone and skated up to the blue line on the right hand side and to the middle of the ice. He dropped a pass off to Mark Fayne who came up the right side and blasted a slap shot from the top of the circle. There was a huge rebound to the left when Iiro Pakarinen came speeding off the bench and into the left slot and fired a slap shot into the side of the net past the stick hand side of the Sabers goal tender for Pakarinen’s first NHL goal of his career and to tie the score 1-1.

In the third period the Sabers were the first to draw blood scoring six minutes in to make it 2-1. But the Oilers continued to press the play vastly out shooting the Sabers. Then at 11:42 the Oilers shot the puck deep into the Buffalo zone behind the net. Nail Yakupov drove in to retrieve the puck and battled a Buffalo defenseman to knock it loose. David Perron was there to pick up the loose puck on the left hand side. He brought the puck toward the front and spun around to make a backhand. The goalie stopped it with his stick and the puck deflected to the front.  Mark Arcobello was in front of the net above the crease with a Buffalo defender trying to tie him up. But the puck was in Arcobello reach and he quickly shot the puck high to the right corner of the net over the goalies glove to knot the game once again 2-2.

At 15:45 Purcell gathered the puck in the Oilers zone and flipped it high to the Sabers zone. A Buffalo defender attempted to clear it out but Matt Hendricks intercepted it at the blue line to keep it on side. Hendricks then centered it to Teddy Purcell who ragged the puck to the right hand side and appeared to shoot it toward Buffalo goalie Michal Neuvirth. But it was a cross ice pass to a driving Boyd Gordon on the left hand side. Gordan twisted himself to receive the puck and shot it into the empty left hand side as he flipped onto the ice and crashed into the boards in celebration and the Oilers Young Guns had a 3-2 lead. The Oilers secured the win peppering the Buffalo goalie with 52 shots. While Oiler goal tender Viktor Fasth stopped 29 shots to post his first win of the season.