Predators Embarrassed By the Oilers 5-1

The Nashville Predators traveled to Edmonton to take on an Oilers team that has bedeviled them recently. The Predators have struggled to score and contain the explosive offense of the Oilers in recent contests.

That did not change in this game.

The Predators were going to be challenged due to some injuries. Viktor Stalberg and Matt Cullen were both out of the lineup. This meant that lines were going to be juggled and chemistry would be affected.

It was in a big way.

After Edmonton opened the scoring just two minutes into the game off a goal by Justin Schultz, the Predators would answer with a goal of their own off a 2 on 1 rush. David Legwand fired a shot past Oilers netminder Ben Scrivens to tie the game at 1 at 15:29.

It went downhill for the Predators from there.

The Oilers scored with just 12 seconds remaining in the first period as Jordan Eberle scored his 18th goal of the year past Carter Hutton.

The second period saw Taylor Beck drive to the net and score, but the goal was waved off as the officials said that Beck had interfered with Scrivens.

Ryan Smyth tallied on the power play and Mail Yakupov scored at 16:46 to make it 4-1.

The Predators had not done much offensively after their first tally. Now it remained to be seen if they would have any fight in them in the third period.

Taylor Beck scored again, but again the goal was disallowed as the officials said there was incidental contact with Scrivens.

The Oilers, who owned the 21st ranked power play, scored again with Rich Clune in the box to make it 5-1 as Ryan Nugent Hopkins found the net.

And that was the final margin of this game.

Some observations:

• Not taking away from the Oilers, who played a solid game, but they are the 29th ranked team in the NHL. Going back to last season, the Predators have been dominated by the Oilers. They are currently 0-2 this season against the Oil, and frankly this is unacceptable and inexcusable. The Predators came out flat and were run out of the building. Even with the disallowed goals, the Predators were not in this contest. This team is not good enough to play this way against any team, and these are games that this team has to win.

• Carter Hutton didn't look sharp, but he didn't have a lot of help in front of him. Hopefully he can bounce back and get back to his game.

• Taylor Beck had a strong game, and was one of the few Predators that had any jump on the ice. He went hard to the net and should have had a goal on the second that was disallowed. Beck needs to make a strong case to stay in the line up, and with a couple of players dinged up, he will have that opportunity.

• Goodness gracious- Colin Wilson has turned invisible. For a player that has as much talent as he does, the production is woefully lacking.

Not much you can say about this game. This was an absolute stinker.

Hopefully this team can regroup.

My three stars:

1. Jordan Eberle

2. Ryan Nugent Hopkins

3. Ryan Smyth