EDMONTON - After spending 15 games on the sidelines waiting to get back into the Edmonton Oilers lineup, the last thing Theo Peckham needed was Thursday’s game against the Montreal Canadiens.
He made three trips to the penalty box and twice the Rexall Place visitors scored on the power play.
“They go down pretty easy, but ultimately it’s my responsibility to not take those penalties. I cost my team tonight,” said Peckham after the 28th-place Canadiens scored a 5-3 victory over the 29th-place Oilers.
Table the 4-3 win Montreal recorded on Nov. 22, 2003 at Commonwealth Stadium in the Heritage Classic, and the Canadiens’ (26-32-10) last win in Rexall Place was back on Nov. 29, 2000. They also limped into Edmonton with just two wins in their previous 11 games.
The Oilers, now 26-35-6, have just one victory in their last eight home games and are just seven points up on the last-place Columbus Blue Jackets, who beat the Los Angeles Kings 3-1 on Thursday night.
“We were flat tonight. A little undisciplined,” said Oilers head coach Tom Renney. “We could have been a smarter team tonight.
“It was one of those games where we were strong over top of our sticks, over top of the puck, over top of our checks. We weren’t particularly strong at either net and we paid the price for it.”
Seven minutes after captain Shawn Horcoff deflected a power-play one-timer from defenceman Corey Potter to give the Oilers a 1-0 lead, Peckham made his first trip to the box. Just as he settled in to serve his interference minor, Canadiens defenceman P.K. Subban put a point shot past Nikolai Khabibulin.
Peckham was sent off again in the second period, for slashing, then at 2:20 of the third he was hit with a hooking penalty. Tomas Kaberle scored 40 seconds later to give Montreal a 3-2 lead — a lead they did not relinquish.
Max Pacioretty scored an even-strength marker and put his 30th goal of the season into an empty net exactly one year after he was slammed into a stanchion by Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins, a hit that left him with a fractured vertebra.
Lars Eller rounded out the Canadiens scoring.
The Oilers also got goals from Taylor Hall — his 24th of the season — and Linus Omark, who was playing alongside Sam Gagner and Ales Hemsky.
The Oilers even escaped a momentum shift before the second intermission when a late goal by Rene Bourque was overturned after a video review.
But they will now drag a 5-9-1 stretch of games into Denver for a Saturday afternoon game against the Colorado Avalanche.
“Hopefully, I get a chance to redeem myself in Colorado,” said Peckham. “But if I don’t, I have to maintain a positive attitude and the next time I get in really work to stay in the lineup.”
On a team carrying eight defenceman, Peckham, found himself on the outside looking in long after he recovered from a blow to the nose with a puck. He played on Jan. 31, then didn’t see the starting lineup again until Tuesday when he played 18:30 against the Sharks in San Jose. He was minus-2 in a 3-2 shootout victory.
Against the Canadiens, Peckham played 13:30, but just 2:22 in the final period.
“It’s not easy. Any time you take a month off it’s tough to get back into it, but ultimately it’s my responsibility as a professional to be ready, and tonight I wasn’t,” Peckham said. “I thought I played all right, aside from those penalties, but those penalties ended up being a vital part of the game.”
Renney said he couldn’t even suggest his defenceman was trying too hard or that it was a timing issue, but he did say they had talked about Montreal’s power play before the game.
“There power play has been red hot lately and we did talk about it before the game, ” said Renney. “Ultimately, it cost us.”
SHORT SHIFTS: The Oilers had four opportunities with the man advantage, the most they’ve had since Feb. 17. They had just three in their last four games ... Winger Darcy Hordichuk drew into the lineup with Ben Eager out with the flu.
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