If you didn't know that good-natured Atlanta Thrashers head coach Craig Ramsay has soldiered on for many years after losing a good chunk of his stomach in surgery, you might be saying the losses are eating away at him.

Indelicate choice of words. But Ramsay, one of the nicest men in hockey, didn't mince any words on Saturday after his club blew a 3-1 lead in the third period, giving up the next four goals to the Edmonton Oilers, three by Taylor Hall. Ramsay didn't like his club's special teams, one bit, as Hall got three power-play goals, with the Oilers going three for seven overall and the Thrashers' eighth-ranked power play got skunked, 0-for-5.

The Thrashers, 10th in the East, have only won three of their last 17 games.

"(Evander) Kane makes a great play (past Dustin Penner and a hard shot on Devan Dubnyk) to make it 3-1 (72 seconds into the third)," said Ramsay. "Everything's in our favour, then we take three penalties and give them life. We didn't get it done. You can talk about it all day long, but it comes down to special teams."

No surprise there. The Thrashers have the second-worst penalty kill in the league in front of the Oilers. It was only 76.5 efficient coming in and it'll slip even lower now. On the road, they've given up 32 power-play goals in only 30 games (dead last with a 70-per-cent rating).

Hall capitalized on penalties to Tobias Enstrom and Chris Thorburn to tie it, then on an errant high-stick by Nik Antropov on Ryan Jones (four minutes), Hall got the winner. Not a good infraction, at all, by the veteran forward.

"I think that guy (Hall) might play a bit," said Ramsay, laughing softly. "He's a big strong boy with speed. They've got a couple of guys like that . I know Hemsky wound one up in one of our trap situations and we called them off."

Thrashers goalie Chris Mason called himself out after the game, like most netminders who are hard on themselves.

"I gave up a terrible goal (long shot by Magnus Paajarvi between his pads) in the second period to get them back in the game," said Mason. "In the third, they beat us on the power play. Hall? Every time he got the puck, he was making plays or taking it to the net. Good player."

Hall came along the goal-line to beat Mason to make it 3-2.

"Tough play, but those are saves you need to make to keep your team in the game. I'd like that one back," said Mason, who had no chance on Hall's shot from the slot to tie it, off an Ales Hemsky feed, or the winner.

"The puck was in my pads. I thought they'd blow it down. I don't know what more we could do, but they let the play go and he poked away. There you go," said Mason.

Mason knows it's desperation time for the Thrashers, chasing the Carolina Hurricanes for eighth. "We played a good 40 minutes, but that's not good enough."

It was definitely one the Thrashers let slip away. They've only beaten Florida 3-2, the Capitals 1-0 and the Rangers 3-2 in the last five weeks and picked up four other points in overtime or shootout setbacks.

"We've been in a slump and have to get out of it, somehow. It's so tight and we have to start climbing," said Thrashers defenceman Zach Bogosian, who had a strong 22 minutes.