The Edmonton Oilers lost to the Buffalo Sabres Monday night, and it wasn’t particularily close. Buffalo opened the scoring, Jack Roslovic scored a sick goal to tie it, and Buffalo proceeded to score two goals in sixty seconds shortly thereafter. The defensive breakdown rattled the Oilers and they couldn’t recover.

The first roadblock was Colton Ellis, an AHL callup with a total of four (yes, four) NHL games played under his belt. The Oilers couldn’t figure out how to put the puck past the rookie netminder who made 32 saves for a save percentage of 0.970 to juxtapose Stuart Skinner’s 0.852.

But that isn’t to say Skinner was the problem. There’s only so much you can do when the entire team in front of you is playing scared, hesitant, and reactive defence. The biggest loss of the offseason is looking to be Paul Coffey. Edmonton has shifted from an aggressive man-to-man defense structure, which benefited them greatly over the last two years, to a more static and shrinking play style in an attempt to limit rushes against, but the end result is that the Oilers are staying hemmed in their own zone for most of the game.

It’s hard to generate offence when you’re stuck in your own end for your entire shift.

Kris Knoblauch resorted to blending his lines as soon as Buffalo scored a couple quick goals. Jack Roslociv and Leon Draisaitl had amazing chemistry to start the night (and got the only goal), but the Oilers head coach got scared and pressed the nuclear button as fast as he could. The worst part is, Roslovic’s line continued to be the best looking line on the ice. Savoie and Roslovic nearly got Edmonton back onto the scoresheet in their two shifts after the line blender. Meanwhile, McDavid and Draisaitl spent most of their shifts getting hounded.

And the Sabres were able to hound them with ease, much like every other team this year, because it turns out that if you load up all your forwards on one line most teams are able to simply play shut down hockey in response.

The clocks ticking, and its time to shape up the defense system. Edmonton made it to back-to-back finals with this defensive corp. After falling to the Panthers twice, the Oilers have opted for a change.

Well this change aint it. There’s 61 games left in the regular season; spend it working on a system that complements this group instead of desperately trying to protect the goalies from the occasional rush chance.

Edmonton continues their road trip through Washington D.C. on Wednesday.