Edmonton Oilers needed Rocky Marciano, but got Rocky Balboa instead

Paging Rocky Marciano.

The Edmonton Oilers needed you last night.

After they got down two goals in the first period Monday, they came back halfway through the second and tied the game with two of their own in 40 seconds.

Right then, at that moment, it seemed all the Oilers needed was a knockout punch.

The Jets had to be reeling, right? Two goals in 40 seconds, suddenly a tie score.

All it would take was onehaymaker, one more solid head-shot, to put the Jets down and out.

Turned out that was an illusion. The Jets weren't reeling.

And Rocky Marciano was on their side.

That Rocky is fictional, like Bullwinkle

Because onthis night, the Oilers looked more like that other Rocky, the pretend pug with no structure in his game, the guy out to prove he could take what? 40 or50 punches and stay on his feet.

Problem is, that Rocky is fictional. Just likeBullwinkle.

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In real life, in the NHL, when two teams with potent offences are so evenly matched, neither one can take that many punches and hope to stay upright

Instead of a knockout punch, the Oilers kept their gloves down and left themselves open to more blows; instead of scoring again, the comeback died and Jets star NikolajEhlersscored two quick goals late in the period to put the visitors back on top 4-2.

If you believed the stat sheet after the first period, you might have been persuaded that the Oilers outplayed the Jets for 20 minutes, and somehow came away on the wrong side of 2-0 score.

After all, the Oilers had 21 shots on goal. The Jets, 11.

Easy, then, to dismiss the first period as bad luck, or bad bounces.

But the stat sheet lied.

The Jets were outshot in the first half of the game, but the Oilers were the ones outplayed, all night long.

The scoreboard, by the end of the night, told the truth, as it always does.

Jets 5, Oilers 2.

Season off to Rocky start for Oilers

And with that, the Oilers season, one in which they were touted to be the powerhouse of the Pacific Division, was off to a Rocky start, two straight loses stacked on a single win.

The reason on Monday, once again, was too many mistakes. The team just took many punches.

A quick recap shows things appeared to start well for the home team.

Seven minutes into the game, the shots were 10-2 Oilers. To 18,000 fans at Rogers Place, everything likely seemed fine.

But mistakes are mistakes, and good teams capitalize.

Almost nine minutes in, backchecking in his own zone, Oilers forward Patrick Maroontried to clear the puck up the boards. The puck hit linemate Leon Draisaitland ricocheted into the high slot, where the Jets pounced and Mark Sheifele fired it home. Jets 1, Oiler zilch.

Less thaneight minutes later, the Jets went up 2-0 on Dmitry Kulikov's first goal of the season.

By halfway through the second period, the shot margin had narrowed to 24-20 for the Oilers.

Then the visiting team made a mistake, and it was the Oilers turn to took advantage. Captain Connor McDavid scooped up a loose puck behind the Jets net, fed a perfect pass to Draisaitl out front and the score was 2-1.

Cue the comeback.

Forty seconds later, like it was scripted, Darnell Nurse made a beauty head-man pass that sent Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in alone. Score tied 2-2.

Then Rocky Balboa showed up, got punched silly, and everyone knows the rest.

'We've got to fix it soon'

In the dressing room later, Mark Letestu was asked about that second period, that mirage that, briefly, looked like a comeback.

"Even though we got the two goals," the Oilers centre said, "we weren't playing a strong period. It was nice to get the two goals, but I think eventually, the way we were playing, the structure [or lack thereof] caught up with us.

"I have no doubt we'll fix it," Letestu said. "But we've got to fix it soon. These are important points. It's a tough league. We have to have our best every night. We haven't in the last two, and we paid for it."

Milan Lucic also stepped in front of the microphones, as he often does, and offered a similar assessment.

The team gave up too many breakaways and odd-man rushes, he said.

"And when you do that you're going to end up on the losing side more nights than not. In the last two games, with the chances that we've been giving up, it's definitely unacceptable from a team standpoint."

Coach Todd McLellan said his team hasn't been competitive enough or come close to outworking its opponent over the last two games.

"Structurally, we're about as loose as we can be," he said. "We're missing assignments."

Then he issued a clarion call to his best players.

"It starts with your star players," the coach said. "Your stars have to be superstars every night, on both sides of the puck. And one line did a really good job of that, and they wore white."

He meant the Jets.

The Oilers have a scheduled day offTuesday, then three days to practise before taking on the Ottawa Senators.

Though it's only week two of the season, that one is beginning to feel like a must-win.

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