In Edmonton Sunday, Petr Mrazek made 36 saves for the Detroit Red Wings in a 4-0 win over the Oilers.
Four skaters struck for goals for Detroit including Martin Frk, Anthony Mantha, Frans Nielsen, and Gustav Nyquist.
“From the start, I thought that’s the way we want to play hockey,” Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill said. “I thought we got a little sloppy in the second turning some pucks over, so we’ve got to make sure we manage the puck. In the third, I thought we did a pretty good job.”
The Oilers are unable ti find any consistency in their game and ended a homestand with a 2-3-0 record.
“We just weren’t good enough,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. “We didn’t have a terrible start, but they got a lucky one and the second goal could have been avoided. We just couldn’t get ourselves back in the game from there.”
Edmonton had no response to any of the Wings’ goals, especially the first.
“I think things got away from us a little bit,” Oilers center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “Definitely not the way we wanted to play after that first goal. For whatever reason, we just kind of stopped defending a little bit and kind of went for it. It wasn’t our best night for sure. We just have to regroup now.”
Detroit improved to 7-7-1 with the win.
“I think [this was] one of the better games since I’ve been here,” Nielsen said. “It was 60 minutes, it was very few mistakes, we got pucks deep, [we] were good on the forecheck. It was a very solid, simple road game. Hopefully, we’ve learned something from it.”
[WATCH: All Red Wings vs. Oilers highlights]
Cam Talbot made 31 saves in taking the loss as the Oilers dropped to 4-8-1 suggesting now that last season was the anomaly.
“We’re not playing fast enough. When you describe fast you think about Connor flying down the wing and beating somebody 1-on-1, that’s fast, but the group has to be fast as a whole,” Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said after the loss. “We’re not quick enough to loose pucks, we don’t keep enough plays alive in the offensive zone. Some of that is actual skating pace, a lot of that is just reading and reacting.”
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