The Edmonton Oilers stumbled Sunday evening in a game against the Buffalo Sabres and Ryan O’Reilly.
O’Reilly scored two goals and added two assists in the Sabres 6-2 thumping of the Oilers in Edmonton.
O’Reilly had the eventual game-winner when he sent the puck on goal from center ice and it took a bounce and eluded Cam Talbot to make the score 3-2 at the time.
“I tried to put a little action on it, I guess,” O’Reilly said. “I practice it all the time, and it’s a tough play for a goalie. You see many times when you do it in practice, you never know what’s going to happen. For me, it was just a lucky bounce and I’ll take it.”
Talbot did not have a good game and was pulled after yielding four goals on 15 shots.
Benoit Pouliot and Milan Lucic were the goal scorers for the Oilers.
Jonas Gustavsson replaced Talbot but left the game with undisclosed injury.
“We looked like the Bad News Bears,” Oilers coach Todd McLellan said. “We had guys falling all over the place. We didn’t execute. Our passing was poor. From the goaltender to the blue line to the forwards, nobody was ready to play.”
Robin Lehner made 31 stops for the Sabres win.
“We were much more consistent tonight. We just supported each other better and made plays,” O’Reilly said. “That’s the hockey we need to establish right away. It’s a big road trip and it’s nice to start off like that.”
In the upside down Pacific Division, the Vancouver Canucks improved to 2-0-0 on the season with a 4-3 overtime win over the Carolina Hurricanes.
Brandon Sutter scored on a rush with 32 seconds gone in the extra session to give the Canucks the win.
“Mr. Clutch finishes it off again,” said Canucks defenseman Ben Hutton.
Hutton had scored late in the third period to force the overtime.
Vancouver has rallied twice this season from deficits entering the final frame to win.
“To come from behind twice like that in our own rink is big, something that we didn’t do very well last year,” Sutter said.
Justin Faulk, Victor Rask and Teuvo Teravainen scored for the Canes to give them a 3-0 lead through two periods.
“We’ve done some good things these two games; obviously, we haven’t finished strong,” forward Jordan Staal said. “We have to find a way to do that.”
Eddie Lack took the loss on 27 saves and could not hold back the Canucks in the third period in facing 13 shots to the Canes five.
“I feel like we had the game under control,” Lack said. “We do play a good team game, and then it’s individual mistakes, we’re giving the puck away, and I should have had the first one.”
Jacob Markstrom made 19 saves for the win.
“They came out fairly strong. Eddie did a great job of keeping the puck out until we got our legs going. We needed to play better in front of him coming down the stretch,” Staal said
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