BOSTON, MA --- The Edmonton Oilers played their first North American game Thursday at TD Garden after starting the season in Sweden, and despite another loss, the team sees improvement, and knows where they have to go from here.
While the Oilers are happy to be back from their trip to Europe, returning to a normal rhythm, that rhythm is clearly not all there quite yet. Penalties were the Achilles heel in a 4-1 loss to the Boston Bruins, but head coach Todd McLellan says that’s not all the team has to work on going forward.
“The true grade A chances are only coming from three or four different individual players and it has to get a lot deeper than that for us to have offensive success," noted the coach.
Contributions from players other than their captain and star Connor McDavid will be a key to creating a well-rounded team that can go out and win consistently.
The Oilers have three goals on the season, so far, and McDavid has had his hand in each one. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins believes in time other players will step up and take on bigger roles offensively to take some of the load off McDavid's shoulders.
When asked if players other than McDavid need to start producing, Nugent-Hopkins quickly said, “It’s also game two. We have a long way to go, we have 80 games left, so guys will produce. We have the confidence in this room to do that.”
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After the game, Oilers forward Drake Caggiula added he wants to be one of those players to make more of a statement on offense, and hopes to contribute more as the season progresses.
One improvement that did seem to be addressed was the need for an aggressive and effective start.
“I thought we had the start that we wanted to have, that’s been a concern for a while with our team,” McLellan.
McDavid and company did not wait long to put themselves on the board against the B’s, with number 97 scoring the first goal in highlight-reel fashion within the first 4 minutes of the game. That early goal, though, would do it for the Oilers and the team would struggle for the remainder of the game, notably surrendering three first period goals to the Bruins.
Caggiula noted the changes, like the better start, made from game one to game two are noticeable, but the team still has a long way to go.
“We just gotta make sure we’re playing the right way and doing the right things and we did a better job of that (Thursday) night, but it still wasn’t good enough.”
He also added, “I think as a whole we played better, but there’s still things that we can improve on, it’s still early in the season and we’ve had a long break here in between games, but without making any excuses we just have to find ways to do more offensively.”
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Caggiula said one improvement that can be made is better defending, adding that it will in turn create more offensive opportunities for the team. The Oilers have allowed nine goals in the opening two contests and sit at a minus-six goal differential already.
Edmonton missed the playoffs last year after a slow start and look to avoid a repeat of that this season. The team believes they have the talent and confidence to turn the 0-2 start into something to build off of.
“Any team that can get off to a good start puts themselves in a good position and we’re 0-2 right now, both losses on the road," explained McClellan. "We’re not happy about that, but we’ve got to keep pushing.”
The Oilers will play their first game at Rogers Place, a rematch against the Bruins, on Thursday, Oct. 18, though have two more road games before then.