From bad to worse as Edmonton Oilers embarrassed by Montreal ...

It’s not the Forum, but the Bell Centre in Montreal is still a cathedral of hockey.

But instead of making beautiful choir music, the Edmonton Oilers came across more like drunken karaoke singers in Monday’s ill-fated visit.

They didn’t have a prayer against the Canadiens.

In what was supposed to be a rebound game against the 30th place team in the NHL after Saturday’s embarrassing meltdown in Toronto, the Oilers were out of tune all night long in an even more embarrassing 3-0 defeat.

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Once again it was the usual suspects biting Edmonton in the backside. A costly turnover to make it 1-0. A soft goal to make it 2-0 and then an empty netter to add insult to injury as the Oilers fell to 9-8-2 on the season.

At the other end, Edmonton’s pop gun offence wore a path around the outside of Montreal’s zone, rarely venturing into the hard areas in search of something greasy. Thus, they got shut out for the third time this season (it would have been four shutouts in 19 games if they hadn’t kicked one in in the last minute of a 6-1 loss to Columbus last month.

“We had a lot of possession time, but a lot of it was on the perimeter,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch. “Especially in the second period. There was a lot of time in the offensive zone but we really didn’t generate very much.

“I don’t think we had our first five-on-five chance until the second half of the period. As good as it looked we really didn’t have many opportunities to score.”

This was a game between the 20th and 21st ranked offences in the NHL, so it’s no surprise the back of the nets were pretty safe for most of the night, but at least the Oilers were hanging in.

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Despite not having Darnell Nurse in the lineup as he recovers from concussion symptoms after a Ryan Reaves head shot on Saturday, the Oilers held the hosts to 10 shots with a minute and change to play in the second frame.

Then…

Evan Bouchard completed the hat-trick on Monday. After serving up two back-breaking goals to the Maple Leafs last game, one on a D-zone turnover and the other when he quit on the back check, he got Montreal on the board late in the first period on Monday.

Bouchard’s casual turnover in Montreal’s end set up an odd-man rush the other way and moments later it was 1-0 Canadiens on a Brendan Gallagher deflection.

He’s having a slump for the ages, on pace for 40 points after 82 last season, in a contract year with the Oilers in a Stanley Cup window.

“We know we have a lot of really good goal scorers in here but right now for whatever reason it hasn’t gone in for us,” said defenceman Mattias Ekholm. “That’s when you have to be comfortable having a 0-0 game and do the little details.

“I don’t think they necessarily out played us, it’s we weren’t structured enough and we didn’t pay enough attention to the details for the last 22 minutes.”

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Calvin Pickard, whose .890 save percentage makes him the better of Edmonton’s two goalies, got the start for the Oilers and was pretty solid most of the night, right up until Edmonton-born Kaiden Guhle’s short-side wrist shot at 5:52 of the third period put the Oilers down 2-0.

The soft goal at a bad time was a killer. The offence was non-existent, so it didn’t matter, but a save there would have been nice.

This makes four straight games in which no forward other than Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl scored a goal. Of the 38 goals scored by Oilers forwards this year, McDavid and Draisaitl have 20 of them.

“We controlled a lot of the puck, had some time in the offensive zone, but maybe a little bit too much perimeter,” said forward Derek Ryan. “We have to find some ways to get to the interior parts of the ice, win some battles in front of the net, get second and third chances. That’s where you score goals when you’re struggling to score.

“It’s more of a mentality change — you’re not going to score pretty goals all the time. You have to find it out and get a greasy one now and then. The teams that are scoring at a high rate in this league are doing those things.

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“We have some of the most skill in the league but sometimes all of us have to get a little more greasy and score some greasy goals.”

The Oilers did a better job drawing penalties — three in the first 25 minutes — but came up empty. That makes it 3-for-16 over the last seven games.

Monday marked the 900th NHL game for Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. The longest-serving current Oiler had a solid career but he can’t get out of the ditch offensively this season. He has just one goal on the season and hasn’t scored in 11 games. … One game after Reaves sent Nurse to the sidelines for five to 10 days, six-foot-four, 240-pound Canadiens winger Arber Xhekaj absolutely smeared Zach Hyman in the first period with a hit that straddled the fine line between clean and interference, but the Oilers aren’t built to do anything about it so they let it slide.

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