In Edmonton, James Neal scored twice in a 6-5 Oilers win over the visiting Los Angeles Kings.
His second broke a 5-5 tie to send the Oilers to the win.
“I felt like I had a great summer, felt like this was a fresh start,” said Neal, who was acquired by the Oilers in a trade from the Calgary Flames on July 19. “I was confident in my game and knew that I would get a chance to play with some great players. (General manager) Ken Holland and (coach) Dave Tippett gave me a great chance to be the player I know I can be.”
Mike Smith made 26 saves to get the win.
Connor McDavid had a goal and four points on the night.
“Right from the start of camp, he’s been good. It’s good to see him get a couple of goals,” Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said. “I like the way he roots around down there on the power play and finds stuff. It was a good game by him, and it’s too bad he couldn’t get the third one. We’ll take the win, but Neal was good.”
Anze Kopitar had a goal and three points in the loss.
“You can’t give up six goals and expect to win the game, that’s not going to happen very often,” Kopitar said. “Obviously, scoring five goals, that’s encouraging, but at the same time, we have to clean up on the defensive side of things and make sure that six was just a case of first game of the season.”
Zack Kassian tJoakim Nygard and Darnell Nurse added goals for the Oilers.
“It shows the character in here. We said before the season we’re going to be relentless, we won’t stop, and we showed that tonight, so it was a good job by everyone,” Leon Draisaitl said of the Oilers third period rally.
Dustin Brown, Trevor Lewis, Michael Amadio, and Drew Doughty also scored for the Kings.
“There was some really good stuff, and then there was, obviously, some stuff we need to work on,” Kings head coach Todd McLellan said. “The five goals for our team is something that we’re happy with; this team has struggled to score in the past. But the six isn’t going to cut it. If you look at some of the miscues we had, whether it was off a face-off or shooting it into our own net, that has to get cleaned up.”
[WATCH: All Kings at Oilers highlights]
Jonathan Quick made 25 saves in the loss.
“Some people say he’s the best player in the League, some people say other guys are, but the difference for me with him, I love playing against other guys who have great vision and they compete hard, but if they don’t have that speed, they’re not as intimidating as a Connor McDavid is with that speed, because he has all those tools with that speed,” Doughty said. “
You must be logged in to post a comment.