Another game, another blown two-goal lead for the Edmonton Oilers.
A night after doing that in St. Louis in a regulation loss, the Oilers entered the third period up a pair against the Dallas Stars and did it again. The silver lining this time was they earned a point in a 4-3 shootout defeat.
“We were in a good spot there, and we let them come at us a little bit too much,” alternate captain Ryan Nugent-Hopkins told reporters in Dallas. “We know we’re capable of closing games out like this, but we’ve got to start showing it.”
“I know we’re capable of closing games out like this, but we have to start showing it.”
After the #Oilers shootout loss to the Stars, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins shares his perspective.@Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/utyNd177l5
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 5, 2025
It would be one thing if the Oilers failed to hold two-goal leads in just these last two games on back-to-back nights, but the issue extends beyond that.
They’ve now done it six times already this season, tops in the NHL. They’re 2-1-3 in those scenarios, which means they’ve relinquished five such points in only 15 games. It’s a big reason why they own a mediocre 6-5-4 record overall.
“It’s too many of these right now,” Nugent-Hopkins said. “It’s something that we need to fix and continue to improve on.”
Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch was particularly displeased by how the Oilers lost their edge on the scoreboard.
“It’s the type of chances where we lose focus, lose responsibilities and letting them in a good position to make a good play,” Knoblauch said. “It’s one thing if the opposition is making good plays and beating your coverage, but we’re just making mistakes where we’re giving them opportunities.”
Mikko Rantanen scored his second goal of the game off a rush to pull the Stars within a goal 8:37 into the third. Miro Heiskanen tied the game less than four minutes later when he collected a carom off the boards and was unguarded for an easy tally.
It wasn’t dissimilar to the way the Oilers allowed the eventual game-winning goal in St. Louis on Monday.
“We have to make big plays at critical times and not make the mistakes at critical times,” Knoblauch said. “We need to play better.”
Facing a friendly foe
Tuesday’s loss came against an opponent Knoblauch has been a fan of through the early going.
It might sound odd for an NHL coach to support a rival team, especially one they’ve fought, and continue to fight, for Western Conference supremacy. But there’s a reason for the allegiance, which Knoblauch said Tuesday has lessened.
That reason is Stars coach Glen Gulutzan.
“I have tremendous respect for Glen,” Knoblauch told The Athletic, noting Gulutzan’s NHL resume. “When I came here (in November 2023), I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know my staff at all. I’d never met any of them. I wasn’t sure how things were going to work. I was overwhelmed. I was taking on a lot of water or drinking water out of a fire hose.
“I relied on Glen quite a bit to settle things down and to get his perspective on what we should be doing. I relied on him right till the end.”
Gulutzan is early in his second tour of duty as Stars coach after seven seasons as an assistant with the Oilers. He got the Dallas job over the summer after helping the Oilers defeat the Stars in back-to-back Western Conference finals.
“Everybody understands the business,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. “Everybody has to look out for their best interests. There probably aren’t many coaches not putting their hands up for that job in Dallas.
“You can’t hold anything against him. It’s nice to see him get that opportunity.”
Glen Gulutzan (left) spent seven years as an assistant with the Oilers before taking the head coaching job with the Stars last summer. (Elsa / Getty Images)
That opportunity came under unusual circumstances.
The Stars fired coach Pete DeBoer eight days after a third consecutive trip to the West finals following some pointed comments concerning star goaltender Jake Oettinger’s play. That left the team looking for a replacement on June 6 with the Stanley Cup Final ongoing, late for a coaching hire.
Gulutzan started hearing his name connected to the Stars during the Cup final but didn’t think much of it. Stars GM Jim Nill quickly sought permission from Oilers hockey operations CEO Jeff Jackson and GM Stan Bowman after the Cup final ended. Gulutzan’s contract was set to expire on July 1, and he got the green light to speak with Nill.
“Not one point when Pete was let go, did I even think I’d be interviewed. When Pete got fired, I said, ‘It’s surprising. That would be a really good job for somebody,’” Gulutzan said, laughing, because he became that somebody. “It happened really fast.”
Knoblauch said he’s glad Gulutzan got the gig but wishes he was still next to him on the bench. Gulutzan joked the Oilers probably needed a new voice.
It’s rare for head coach to last seven years in one job, much less as an assistant. Gulutzan certainly experienced a lot in Edmonton, working under five head coaches. Gulutzan got the last 20 games of Todd McLellan’s tenure and Ken Hitchcock’s interim stint to close out the 2018-19 season before remaining on the staffs of Dave Tippett, Jay Woodcroft and finally Knoblauch.
“He had a great feel for the room,” said Oilers winger Zach Hyman, who’s played under Tippett, Woodcroft and Knoblauch since joining the team as a free agent in July 2021. “He was a great coach. As an assistant, your relationship with the players is different. You can ease the blow of some difficult conversations. I thought he was very, very good at being able to relate and connect with players.”
Gulutzan helped the Oilers evolve from a non-playoff team headed by young superstar McDavid and an emerging Leon Draisaitl to the point where they’ve become a perennial contender on the cusp of winning the Stanley Cup.
“It wasn’t pretty (at first),” he said. “I watched this team and these young players mature into some of the world’s best. It was special to watch that.”
Gulutzan guided Edmonton’s forwards and their high-octane offence. He reinvented their power play, running it through McDavid and Draisaitl rather than a defenceman, and improved it from the worst in the league before his arrival to ninth in his first season. It peaked with a league-record 32.4 percent success rate in 2022-23, and the players presented him with the player-of-the-game biker vest after that season’s finale.
“He means a lot to this group, a guy who feels like he was really, really part of it,” McDavid said. “He was here without his family and sacrificed a lot to be here.
“It was tough to see him go.”
As McDavid notes, the family situation wasn’t ideal for Gulutzan while he was with the Oilers.
Gulutzan was the Calgary Flames’ head coach the season before he was hired in Edmonton. He and his wife, Nicole, have four children who were in school at the time, and they decided it would be best for them to remain in Calgary. Now, they’re empty-nesters and three of their kids have moved out of the city, including his son, Landen, who’s a rookie for the University of Regina Cougars.
The best part: One of his daughters, Grace, is a softball player and accepted a scholarship 10 months ago to be a freshman this year at Hill College in Hillsboro, Texas, roughly 60 miles south of Dallas. Gulutzan has been able to see her play a couple games.
“This was a nice way to spend time with her,” he said. “It all worked out. It’s a bit surreal for me.”
Gulutzan misses Edmonton, but the allure of being a head coach again was too much to pass up.
There’s still a lot of hockey to be played, but Gulutzan can’t resist the thought about the potential of Oilers and Stars facing off in the West final for a third straight season. Only this time, he’d be on the other side.
“It always crosses your mind because I just know how good Edmonton is, and how good of a job everyone’s done — Knobber, Stan and Jeff,” Gulutzan said. “They’re a perennial favourite and you hope to be in that class all the time.
“I have thought about that, and it would be pretty neat and nerve-racking.”