After only two games, both losses to the Vancouver Canucks, the pressure is rising for the Edmonton Oilers.
However, as they open a two-game road trip with Tuesday’s clash at the Nashville Predators, the Oilers are taking the early-season woes in stride.
“We’re dead last in the league – 32. The sky is falling,” forward Evander Kane joked in mock exasperation.
“We understand the expectations, the excitement, the desire to win in this city. We all feel the exact same way, if not more, and want to put our best foot forward.”
Edmonton opened the season with an 8-1 road loss before dropping its home opener 4-3 on Saturday night.
The slow start is hardly disastrous, but the Oilers know the struggles must be contained. With that in mind, the coaches put their two best offensive players in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl together on a line in Monday’s practice – a frequently used plan when the club is struggling.
“We do a good job getting the puck to each other,” McDavid said. “He’s one of the best passers in the world, if not the best, so you’ve got to just get open and trust that he’s gonna find you, and he usually does.”
The game marks the return to Nashville for defenseman Mattias Ekholm, who was traded to the Oilers last season after almost 10 full seasons with the Predators. He knows it will be a special night.
“It’s been a big part of my life. It’s been a big part of my family’s life, two of the three (children) are born there,” Ekholm said. “A lot of great memories, success, failures, all that stuff.”
The Predators have had an up-and-down start to the young season, opening with a 5-3 road loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning before beating the Seattle Kraken 3-0 at home and then losing 3-2 on the road against the Boston Bruins on Saturday.
That said, both losses were games in which the rebuilding Predators were in the fight. They held a lead and were tied in the third period of those games only to fall short.
“I think there’s a lot of good to take out of the game,” forward Colton Sissons said of the Boston clash, in which he scored twice. “At five-on-five, we definitely had some spurts of playing really good hockey and generating chances and playing fast, so I think there was a lot of good to take out of it.”
Hurting Nashville is the club’s special teams performances. The Predators are 1-for-14 on the power play, having been blanked with seven opportunities in Boston, while the Bruins scored twice with a man advantage.
“When you lose a special team battle, it’s hard to win in this league, and we lost,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said.
“I thought we were a little slow all over the power play, so it wasn’t wasn’t crisp and clean,” he added. “And it’s one of those nights where, unfortunately, you get off the wrong foot a little bit, and you get six or seven (power plays) and they aren’t going well.
“I’ve been part of that as a player. It’s frustrating. I think we had some looks there near the end of the second (period) and just didn’t finish.”
– Field Level Media
