Ekholm explains what went wrong after another Edmonton Oilers blown lead
The Edmonton Oilers dropped what might have been their most disappointing game of the new NHL season.
With Edmonton coming off an OT victory against the lowly Chicago Blackhawks over the weekend, they couldn’t have asked for a better team to match up to follow it. They kicked off a two-game road trip on Monday night against a struggling St. Louis Blues team that had lost seven in a row coming into the matchup.
Things started as you would expect, with the Oilers opening up a two-goal lead early in the second, but then everything started to spiral downwards. St. Louis scored two quick ones to end the period, and then managed to get the game-winner in the dying minutes of the third period.
Edmonton looked stale on the offence, leaky on defence, and they weren’t getting help from Calvin Pickard between the pipes. So, what went wrong this time? Veteran defender Mattias Ekholm tried to answer that after the game.
“When they got their first one, we got on our heels, then they got another one,” Ekholm said. “I thought we had our looks, but I think we can do a better job imposing our will a little bit more in the third and earning that win more than we did tonight.
“We had our glimpses, but I think we can do more.”
"We can do a better job of imposing our will in the third."
Mattias Ekholm shares his perspective as the #Oilers drop a 3-2 decision in St. Louis. @Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/Kzhvu5nwGJ
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 4, 2025
The game-winning goal drew a lot of criticism from Oilers fans who thought Bouchard didn’t defend Pius Suter hard enough in front of the net. It’s a justified critique and one that has become a pattern for the 26-year-old defender through the first month of the season.
Ekholm gave his thoughts on the play as well.
“We can do a better job,” Ekholm said. “Everybody was waiting for an overtime… just a fluky play, but we gotta bear down in those situations and we’re not doing that as of right now.
“We’ll be better tomorrow.”
The Blues snap their seven-game losing streak with this goal from Pius Suter š pic.twitter.com/q8XTskNyg4
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 4, 2025
Bouchard needs to be a better defender in these situations, especially at important moments like that, but he wasn’t the only culprit. The rebound that led to the goal against was not a great one by Pickard, who had himself another brutal night in the Oilers’ crease.
The journeyman goaltender finished the night with an abysmal .857 SV%, which is not good enough for this team. Pickard has had an awful start to the season, with four of his five starts posting a save percentage at .857 or lower.
It’s only a month into the season, but that is a concerning trend for an Oilers team that already had questions swirling around the goaltending heading into the year. That needs to get better, and it needs to happen quickly, especially if Stuart Skinner isn’t able to find consistency.
There doesn’t appear to be any easy fix coming to save the Oilers, but they won’t have time to dwell on it as they face the Dallas Stars on the second half of a back-to-back on Tuesday night.