The Edmonton Oilers suddenly find themselves chasing in their first-round series. After a wild 7-4 loss to the Anaheim Ducks in Game 3 on Friday, Edmonton now trails the series 2-1, with questions surfacing about defensive breakdowns, goaltending, and how the Oilers respond in a pivotal Game 4.
But Zach Hyman made one thing clear after the loss: he isn’t putting this on the goalie.
Zach Hyman Sends Clear Message to Oilers
Game 3 had no shortage of offense. Vasily Podkolzin opened the scoring late in the first, but Anaheim answered with goals from Mason McTavish and Mikael Granlund to take a 2-1 lead into intermission.
Edmonton pushed back in the second. Kasperi Kapanen tied it early, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins gave the Oilers the lead, and it looked like momentum might be shifting before Alex Killorn evened things at 3-3.
Then the third period unraveled. Beckett Sennecke and Leo Carlsson struck just 42 seconds apart early in the frame to put Anaheim in control. Connor McDavid brought Edmonton within one on the Oilers’ first power-play goal of the series, but Jeffrey Viel added insurance before Jackson LaCombe iced it with an empty-netter.
Connor Ingram finished with 32 saves but allowed six goals on 38 shots, and naturally, some attention turned toward Edmonton’s netminding.
Hyman pushed back on that idea. “Obviously, anytime you let in seven and it’s not a a goalie problem, it’s just defending better. So, we didn’t give ourselves a chance with the amount of goals we gave up,” Hyman said.
Just as importantly, Hyman suggested the response isn’t about overcomplicating things. His solution was simple hockey. “Just simplify it. Play boring, right? I mean, we’ve had success putting it behind them, getting it to the top, shooting it, getting it back. Just, yeah, play simple.”
Head coach Kris Knoblauch echoed much of the same. “You look at the goals against and just some stuff that you know shouldn’t happen especially this time of the year. There’s lost coverage in front of the net or couple times… I don’t know, a little careless with the puck, stuff like that,” he said.
What frustrated him most, though, was that the Oilers appeared to be building toward a potential tying push in the third before an odd-man rush flipped the game again.
The Oilers entered the series as favorites, but Anaheim has seized both momentum and home-ice control. Now, Edmonton heads into Sunday’s Game 4 needing a response. And if Hyman’s message is any indication, it starts with defending better.
