Even though they have made consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final, the Edmonton Oilers began slowly in each of the past two seasons.
In their opening games as two-time defending Western Conference champions, the Oilers are performing better and visit the New York Rangers in the opener of a five-game road trip on Tuesday.
Edmonton has opened a season with points in consecutive games for the first time since winning their first five games of the 2021-22 season en route to a 10-2-0 start. In 2022-23, Edmonton lost three of its first five games and in each of the previous two seasons it started even slower.
Two seasons ago, the Oilers began 1-5-1 and were 2-9-1. Last season, Edmonton was outscored, 15-3, in a season-opening three-game losing streak and were 2-4-1.
The Oilers are coming off a 3-1 win over the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday but felt they could have won by a wider margin if not for opposing goalie Thatcher Demko. Edmonton outshot Vancouver, 36-15, and took nine shots on goal during five power plays after blowing a three-goal lead in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday.
“We’ve got to help ourselves out a little bit more compared to the last two years,” Edmonton star Leon Draisaitl said. “You can build a lot of momentum and you can build a lot of confidence within your group if you get off to a good start.
“You see it with a lot of teams, they get off to a really good start and then they just kind of carry it the rest of the way and they’re a playoff team. So, just give ourselves a better chance at that, and I think we’ll be good enough.”
Noah Philp and Andrew Mangiapane scored in the first period before Draisaitl scored a short-handed empty-netter to beat Vancouver.
The Rangers have split their four games with significantly different results in their two home games and two road games.
While New York scored a total of 10 goals in blowout road wins over the Buffalo Sabres and Pittsburgh Penguins, it has yet to score in two games at Madison Square Garden. The Rangers were lackluster in a 3-0 loss to the Penguins on Tuesday when they had 25 shots, but felt better about their showing in Sunday’s 1-0 loss to the Washington Capitals.
On Sunday, New York had 35 shots on goal and attempted 71 shots overall. Mika Zibanejad had seven shots on goal and has 19 shots after taking just six in his first four games of last season.
“I thought the team played extremely well, and that’s what I said to the guys after the game,” New York coach Mike Sullivan said. “Our coaching staff, we’re most concerned about how we play, how we win and how we lose. And sometimes you can’t control whether the puck goes in the net or not.”
“I think this was the best game we played all year, the most complete game that we’ve played all year, (and it came) against a really good team.”
Edmonton has won the past three meetings by a combined 13-6 margin and is 9-2-1 in the past 12 encounters.
–Field Level Media
