EDMONTON - Let the cynics label this a loser’s point for the Oilers; their 3-2 loss to the Canucks in overtime was a gutsy effort.

The larger point may be the Oilers — like any team with playoff aspirations — are going to have to find ways to win more of these ones than they lose to qualify for the post-season.

On Monday night, Canucks head coach Alain Vigneault could have tossed a coin to determine the outcome.

Oilers winger Taylor Hall, who was flying much of the game, was stopped on a penalty shot at 2:47 of overtime at one end. Canucks defenceman Chris Tanev, coming late into the Oilers zone, took a pass from Henrik Sedin and beat a screened Devan Dubnyk with 19 seconds left.

Game over; game lost. Point lost? Or important point won? We’ll have to wait until season’s end to determine that.

The Oilers launched the shortened season with promise, going 4-3-1 for nine points. A good start.

Chopping the 48-game schedule up into eight-game bits, the Oilers probably will have to do at least that well in the five remaining chunks to qualify for the post-season tournament.

Averaging 10 points per segment (60 points) might be required to earn a playoff berth, in the end. Easy-peasy for a young, developing team, no?

Maybe, but this is a multifactorial situation and not all the factors favour the gifted, young Oilers.

The Oilers continue to be a team that flails away in the faceoff circle, for starters. That grim reality was glaring on Monday night against the Canucks.

The final tally was 44 faceoffs won (70 per cent) by Vancouver, to 19 won by the Oilers.

With Eric Belanger out with two broken toes and Shawn Horcoff likely out for an extended stretch as he nurses a sore neck and a broken knuckle he suffered Monday night, the likes of Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (six-for-19) and Sam Gagner (three for 15) will have to bear down on the faceoff dot in their absence.

“I take a lot of responsibility in that, it’s something that I take pride in, something I’ve got to be better at,” said Gagner, who extended his points streak to nine game with an assist on Edmonton’s first goal, by Ales Hemsky. “For whatever reason, I’m just not finding ways to help in that area.

“I’m going to do the best I can to fill that void for guys we have out. For myself, as a centreman, when a guy like (Horcoff) goes out, that’s an opportunity to relish that. I didn’t do that. We just have to be better in that area. They had a lot of possession tonight.”

Which led to a lot of shots, as night follows day. The Canucks outshot the Oilers 21-12 through the first two periods, and wound up with a 40-25 advantage in shots by game’s end.

“When you have more shots than the other team, it just gives your team a little bit of a boost,” said Hall. “That’s how a lot of teams think.

“If we’re outshooting a team, the mantra is, ‘Keep going, keep shooting, it’s going to go in eventually.’ When we don’t have shots, it’s deflating. We have to be a team that gets lots of shots. It just puts pressure on their goalie, and hopefully he gets tired by the end of the game.”

The Oilers also continue to need secondary scoring, although Ryan Smyth’s first goal since March 10, 2012 was an encouraging sign, and provoked a standing ovation at Rexall Place in the bargain.

It wasn’t that his first of the season was poetry, far from it. While killing a penalty, Smyth found himself wide open in the low slot and called for a pass from Anton Lander, who delivered it. Luongo partially blocked Smyth’s one-timer, but the puck slid slowly, teasingly toward the empty cage, kissed the left post and trickled over the line.

Something else. As they are for many NHL teams, injuries are starting to take a toll on the Oilers roster. Already without wingers Ben Eager and Ryan Jones, and now centres Belanger and Horcoff, the Oilers had to muddle through most of the Monday night game with just five defenceman after Mark Fistric went out with a back injury.

Good teams manage despite injuries, and the Oilers will have to demonstrate that trait to challenge for the post-season. They gutted it out Monday night. They may have to do it for significant stretches, as things unfold.

“Every team in the league is going to have injuries,” Hall said, noting the Canucks remain without forwards Ryan Kesler and David Booth. “You have to battle through that.

“I’ve never been a defenceman before, but I’m pretty sure it’s hard to play with five guys, especially against a team like that, that really hems you in your own end sometimes.”

It’s not as if the Canucks dominated the Oilers or besieged goalie Devan Dubnyk, who certainly gave his team a chance to win.

In the end, it came down to a coin toss, in effect.

“They had one line (the Sedins) that played well in our end and, you give a guy a Grade A scoring chance in overtime like that, like I had, sometimes it’s going to go in, sometimes it’s not.

(Tonight) it went in for them.”

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