Have The Oilers Figured Out Their Secondary Scoring Issues?

THE OILERS are goal starved.

At least, they were goal starved coming into Tuesday’s contest against the Penguins.

Through six games, the Oilers had scored just 13 goals, or a notch above 2 goals per game. That’s not a lot. Add the fact that most everything that hit the score sheet was going through Connor McDavid, and it was clear that the Oilers were enjoying some success on the top line. The rest of the lines had a lot of catching up to do.

On Tuesday? Goals came in spurts. And although the Oilers didn’t come out on top at the end, it was nice seeing another line other than the first one do most of the heavy lifting.

Tobias Rieder sets up Alex Chiasson for his second goal of the game.

The Oilers were 2/5 on the power play. The got goals from Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in the third period, but a pair of goals from Alex Chiasson? Another goal from Leon Draisaitl to start the second period? Yeah, I’m here for that all day and all night. Safe to say that Chiasson has probably earned him another half dozen games in the lineup after a couple of goals against Pittsburgh. We’ll find out soon enough.

The Oilers eventually lost to Pittsburgh in overtime by a 6-5 margin when Sidney Crosby danced around Ryan Strome to put it behind Cam Talbot. The Oilers get a point for making it to overtime, and it’s not such a bad deal if the team you lose to in OT is from the other conference. But, a couple of goals from Alex Chiasson and another one from Leon early on in the second period count for three goals that the first line or power play didn’t have before Tuesday.

The Oilers take on the Capitals to close out their four game homestand. They’re currently at 1-1-1 at home, a win gives them 2 before heading to Nashville on Saturday. Can the Oilers get more goals from more places?