It would not take much for the Edmonton Oilers to be higher up the ladder in the Pacific Division.
The Oilers sit in the fifth spot in the playoff race in the west with 49 points, two points back of the second wild card.
Petr Mrazek picked up the win in Edmonton Sunday night – file photo courtesy of Lewis Bleiman
Yet, for all that closeness to the post season, the Oilers play with the energy of a team already with a fork in their tenderloin.
On Sunday, the visiting Carolina Hurricanes broke out to a 6-1 lad in the second period before the Oilers mounted any kind of a push to cut the deficit to 6-4.
The Canes won, 7-4.
Newcomer, Nino Niederreiter struck twice for the Canes.
“It’s always nice if you get a chance to score, but more importantly, we got the win we needed,” Niederreiter said. “They played last night, so we knew we had to take advantage of that. They’re a really good team, they have a lot of speed, and that’s exactly what we did, we came out flying and had a good first period.”
Petr Mrazek made 17 saves to get the win as the Canes have won eight of 11.
“Anytime you come to a new team, you want to contribute and you want to show everybody that you’re a player,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “After he (Niederreiter) got his couple, then he got a couple of penalties and he didn’t feel that great about it. But we need him to contribute that way.”
Leon Draisaitl struck twice and Brandon Manning and Zack Kassian added single markers in the loss.
“We just didn’t have much,” Draisaitl said. “We just weren’t good enough. They beat us to loose pucks, and you are not going to win that way. They were on their toes, and we weren’t.”
Jordan Martinook, Brock McGinn and Andrei Svechnikov scored for the Hurricanes and Lucas Wallmark added two of his own in the win.
“When you’re up 6-1, the other team, they have nothing to lose,” Niederreiter said. “They are going to change their game, they’re going to try to cheat and go for offense, and that way they sometimes create opportunities for themselves. They capitalized on it, and I think that’s what happened.”
The Oilers dropped to 23-23-3.
“Our 5-on-5 play wasn’t good enough,” Oilers head coach Ken Hitchcock said. “It’s not close to the elements that you need in your 5-on-5 game to be successful in the National Hockey League. We’re not good enough. We give up too many quality chances, too many pucks come back at us.”
[WATCH: All Hurricanes vs. Oilers highlights]
Cam Talbot got the start for the Oilers but once again abandoned by his defense; he surrendered three goals and made 12 saves.
“They were ready to play, and we weren’t. We gave up way too many Grade A chances and left our goalie out to dry. It’s really unfortunate that was the way we came out to play after a loss last night (5-2 to the Flames),” Milan Lucic said.
Mikko Koskinen entered the game midway through the opening frame; he made 15 saves.
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