GAME RECAP: Avalanche 9, Oilers 1

EDMONTON, AB – Buried by the Avalanche.

Captain Nathan MacKinnon had two goals and two assists, while defenceman Cale Makar and forwards Jack Drury and Parker Kelly each recorded a pair of goals for the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night in a 9-1 victory over the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place.

"It's just frustrating where I think to a guy, we all owe it to everybody in here to figure out what our role is on the team and do it, because we're not right now," defenceman Jake Walman said. "We're gonna get out of it. We just have to figure out a couple of things between the team, and a couple of words have to be said, and we'll figure it out. But it's not acceptable right now."

Eight different Avalanche players recorded multiple points against the Oilers, who tied their franchise-worst defeat on home ice, while their only tally came from Connor McDavid on the power play midway through the second period to extend the team's streak of scoring with the man advantage to five games.

Goaltender Stuart Skinner was pulled in the second period after conceding four goals on 13 shots, giving way to netminder Calvin Pickard, who didn't fare much better over the final half of the contest by allowing five goals on 21 shots.

"I think we've probably been a little overconfident that things will work out, and this team's had some trying times over the years, and they've always worked it out just because they've found a way to play better and step up," Head Coach Kris Knoblauch said. "I think right now, in the last couple of weeks, we've been just kind of waiting for that moment to happen.

"Tonight, I definitely hope this is rock bottom for us. I hope this wakes up a lot of guys and we understand that we've got a lot of growing to do to become a good hockey team, like our expectations are for ourselves."

The Oilers will look for a better effort on Monday night when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets to close out their two-game homestand before embarking on a season-long seven-game road trip, which begins Wednesday with the first of back-to-back games against the Philadelphia Flyers.

ADVANTAGE AVALANCHE

The Avalanche held the edge in power plays and production during the opening frame on Saturday, where the Oilers started strongly in a back-and-forth special-teams battle in the opening 10 minutes, before being beaten twice by a pair of lethal releases from defenceman Cale Makar 1:09 apart.

The Oilers loaded up their top line with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Jack Roslovic to go head-to-head against Colorado's trio of Artturi Lehkonen, Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas at even strength, but both teams' stars received plenty of ice time in a penalty-filled opening half of the first period.

Starting on their first shift, Edmonton's top line applied early pressure on the Avalanche and drew a tripping penalty through McDavid, who along with Draisaitl stayed out on the ice for a nearly three-minute shift trying to capitalize on their early power-play opportunity.

Coach Knoblauch had a good feeling about tonight following the morning skate and during the first few minutes of the game, but that only lasted for the first quarter of the first period, where things started to really shift in Colorado's favour at even strength despite all the early penalties.

"I was very optimistic going into the game," Knoblauch said. "I liked our energy. I liked where we were at the morning skate. I thought it was one of our better ones. Not that you judge on how they practice in the morning and how they're going to play, but you certainly can evaluate what their energy is like, and I thought we were ready to play. In the first few minutes, I thought it looked like that."

After Evan Bouchard registered their only shot on Edmonton's opening man advantage at the five-minute mark, it would take the Oilers 11:46 of play to record their next shot on goal, and the Avalanche were gaining momentum at even strength.

"It was a lot of penalties, so that plays a factor," Trent Frederic said. "But it seemed like they scored all their goals on even strength. To be honest, I don't really have an answer. If I had one, I would have told everyone a little sooner."

Both sides traded penalties before the game's first sustained stretch of five-on-five came after the midway mark of the opening frame, where the Avalanche struck twice 1:09 apart courtesy of Makar before having another one disallowed for offside.

Makar beat Stuart Skinner cleanly off the far post from the right circle to open the scoring at 6:31 of the first period before he scored again from the identical spot just over a minute later, dispatching another wicked release far side on the Oilers netminder that came quickly off a won faceoff by Nathan MacKinnon.

Both MacKinnon and Toews picked up the helpers on Makar's fifth and sixth goals of the season to help give the Avalanche a 2-0 lead.

"After the first goal, there's a lot of deflation, especially after the second one off the face-off," Knoblauch added. "After that, it was a lot of guys beating themselves up and not playing very well, so we're not looking like a very cohesive team right now. Just not playing very well. That's on the coaching staff, mostly myself, to get that aligned."

Colorado captain Gabriel Landeskog looked like he'd made it a three-goal lead for the visitors with the Oilers killing a penalty to McDavid a few minutes later, but a coach's challenge for offside reversed the decision after it was dragged over the blueline by Jack Drury following his entry into the offensive zone.

Later in the penalty kill, defenceman Jake Walman was called for boarding against forward Gavin Brindley, leaving the Oilers to kill off 36 seconds of five-on-three to finish off the opening period that saw them finish trailing 2-0 to the Avalanche.

THE AVALANCHE RAGES ON

Stuart Skinner made a terrific save in the first 30 seconds of the middle frame to deny Artturi Lehkonen, but two more quick strikes from the Avalanche before five minutes had passed in the period spelled the end of his night between the pipes.

After getting his glove to the Avalanche winger's open chance in front, Skinner couldn't corral the rebound from a shot delivered by Sam Malinski before it was wrapped around him by Gavin Brindley 2:38 after the intermission to give the visitors a 3-0 advantage.

Just 2:07 later, Skinner had no chance on a well-placed deflection on Brett Burns' shot-pass attempt along the ice that was redirected over his shoulder by Jack Drury, giving the Avalanche a four-spot before the five-minute mark of the frame.

That marker ultimately ended Skinner's night after allowing four goals on 13 shots, with the starter being lifted from the game a few minutes later for Calvin Pickard following a TV timeout.

Unfortunately, Pickard didn't fare much better after Parker Kelly took a feed from Brindley below the goal line before rounding him alone in front and putting it away to make it 5-0 just 2:06 after he'd replaced Skinner in the Oilers' crease.

Nor was he put in better spots by his teammates, either, after McDavid got the Oilers on the board with a power-play marker with his fifth goal of the season with 8:30 left in the middle frame, before another man advantage three minutes later backfired to give the Avalanche their goal right back.

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins tried to scrape a pass to Evan Bouchard off the offensive-zone draw, but instead, Parker Kelly was able to pounce on it and chip it past the defenceman for a wide-open shorthanded breakaway that he buried on the backhand to make it 6-1 for the visitors before the end of the period.

"I think there have been games where goaltending has been good," Knoblauch said. "The chances and the number of chances that we've given up have not helped, so I see a lot bigger issues than our goaltending."

NATE MACK ON THE ATTACK

After it was Makar scoring twice early – both assisted by MacKinnon – it was time for the Avalanche captain to take a turn.

Just 24 seconds into the final frame, MacKinnon increased the lead to 7-1 on a two-on-one with Martin Necas, where the elite centre took it himself and snapped it short side past his former teammate in Pickard.

Then, just over four minutes later, after exiting the penalty box, MacKinnon showed his famous speed and renowned accuracy by taking on Jake Walman and shooting across the Oilers' defenceman into the top-left corner to put up an eight-spot on the Oilers with over three-quarters of the final frame to play.

The final tally for the Avalanche arrived with 5:32 remaining in regulation, turning a quick forecheck into a one-timer in the slot for Jack Drury to make it 9-1.

"I think there have been times throughout the season where you could point at maybe a couple of individuals not playing their best and losing games. But tonight, that was a team thing," Knoblauch said.

"With as many guys who didn't play well tonight, that's a team thing, so that starts with the coaching staff making sure everyone's getting ready to play, and we have to make sure our players are playing to their capabilities and their identity. When we have that, we give ourselves a much better opportunity to win hockey games."

Winger Trent Frederic acknowledged that the Oilers are still looking for their identity as a team more than a month into the season, and they need to correct course quickly to get themselves out of this early funk with a 6-6-4 record through 16 games.

"We probably shouldn't be [searching] 16 games in, but I'd like to think over the course of the year, that changes, and unfortunately, we haven't had a great start," he said. "You can keep saying over and over that we have a lot of season left, but we kind of need to get going."

Coach Knoblauch added: "We're starting to get into that time. We're 16 games in, and it's one thing going through a little slump, but we've only played a handful of good games out of those... I think we're getting into that area where we need to really look at ourselves in the mirror and find out what we need to do to play better."