Oilers believe they lacked intensity against Blackhawks in Cup Qualifiers

The Edmonton Oilers season ended with a 3-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, the 12th seed in the Western Conference, in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers at Rogers Arena in Edmonton on Friday.

"We never really got our A-game going," Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said. "Without that, this league's too good to beat anyone. That's obviously very frustrating."

Edmonton was the No. 5 seed in the West.

"I think a big focus of ours was to bring that type of intensity, and the most intensity we had was in the exhibition game when we played [the] Calgary [Flames] (on July 28)," defenseman Darnell Nurse said. "It shouldn't matter who you're playing against this time of the year, because we had the opportunity to play for a Stanley Cup. We definitely lacked that. It's disappointing for everybody."

Connor McDavid led the Oilers with nine points (five goals, four assists) in the series, played in Edmonton, the Western Conference hub city. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored eight points (two goals, six assists), and Draisaitl had six (three goals, three assists), but no one else had more than three.

"I thought we had our (intense) moments in this series," McDavid said. "Yeah, our game against Calgary was intense, I guess. But we can't play Calgary every night to bring it, so we've got to figure it out."

Coach Dave Tippett disagreed with Nurse but said the Oilers need to learn a lesson from the loss.

"Our team competed hard," Tippett said. "We have a lot of growing to do. What we think is competing hard isn't hard enough to win in the playoffs yet."

In Game 4, Draisaitl had three shots on goal, and McDavid had two. The Oilers power play, 5-for-12 in the first three games, was 0-for-5.

Dominik Kubalik scored to make it 3-2 at 8:30 of the third period after Edmonton defenseman Ethan Bear lost a puck battle against Chicago captain Jonathan Toews. The Oilers were called for too many men on the ice with 2:03 remaining in the third period, denying themselves the opportunity to pull goalie Mikko Koskinen for an extra attacker.

"It's little mistakes that we had way too many of," Draisaitl said. "Just too many little mistakes that can't happen this time of the year."

The Blackhawks were 12th in the Western Conference standings and 23rd in the NHL standings this season. Prior to this postseason, no team had ever lost an NHL series against a team finishing that low. The Pittsburgh Penguins were eliminated by the Montreal Canadiens (12th in the Eastern Conference, 24th in the NHL) earlier Friday.

Chicago will play the winner of the round-robin game Saturday between the Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche in the Western Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Edmonton will have a 12.5 percent chance at the No. 1 pick in the 2020 NHL Draft in the Second Phase of the NHL Draft Lottery, to be held Monday.

"I mean, it's been a weird year, everyone can say that," McDavid said. "Coming back from the pause, you never know what it's going to be like. I thought we had a good training camp, everyone was good to go, you lose three of four and you don't get in. That's the way it goes."