Edmonton Oilers look like Stanley Cup pretenders after brutal 9

On a night when the Edmonton Oilers were humiliated, exposed and slapped silly on national television, the most humbling moment of the night came, ironically, on their only goal. Article content

It revealed a bitter, hard-to-swallow truth: After giving up five-straight even-strength goals to Colorado, the only way Edmonton can compete with the Avalanche is one the power play. Article content Article content

So what does Colorado do? On Edmonton’s very next power play, one of their fourth liners walked around Evan Bouchard at the blue line and scored a short-handed breakaway to make it 6-1.

Then it was 7-1, Then 8-1. Then 9-1. It was a savage beating straight out of the Decade of Darkness. The goaltending the bad, the defencemen were worse and the forwards were all but invisible.