The Edmonton Oilers early season woes continued Saturday night as they were flattened 6-1 at Rogers Place by the Ottawa Senators.
The Oilers have lost three straight and sink to 1-3 on the year.
“I’m concerned because I think we need to play the game faster,” head coach Todd McLellan said after the game. “I think we need to have much more polish in our game then we are seeing right now. We’re torn between not scoring and giving up too many.
“I believe the scoring part will come eventually, it’s the defensive part that has to get better.”
After a week of hard practices, the Oilers came out flat. It took them over eight minutes to get a shot on goal and they trailed 2-0 before the first period was half over. Mike Hoffman converted a centring pass at 6:09, and then Derick Brassard struck on the power play at 9:31. Hoffman scored again early in the second to make it 3-0.
“We obviously didnt play well tonight. Not anything near what I think our abilities our. A lot of it was fundamentals,” added McLellan.
The hard practices did show in the players’ physical effort, McLellan said.
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“We actually skated and tried to create, but the polish around our play and the fundamentals that go into a game night in and night out were very rusty, if you will.”
“It was flat out not good enough,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said.
“The time for talk is over; we just got to get results.”
Just 1:04 into the third, Zack Smith had a rebound bounce home off his leg to make it 4-0. That was all for Oilers goalie Cam Talbot, who allowed four goals on 23 shots. Laurent Brossoit was beaten on the first shot he faced about three minutes later when Chris Wideman ripped home a power play point shot. Kyle Turris added another with 11:26 left.
LISTEN: Oilers captain Connor McDavid talks the loss
Adam Larsson broke up Mike Condon’s shutout with 8:57 left. McDavid and Kailer Yamamoto had the helpers.
It was Yamamoto’s first career NHL point.
The Oilers will host Carolina on Tuesday.
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