Oilers score early and often in win over Kraken

In Seattle, the visiting Edmonton Oilers scored four times in the first period on Friday, and swamped the Kraken, 7-2.

Connor McDavid hit for a goal and five points on the night.

“I’m always working on my game, I’m always trying to get better,” McDavid said. “Some nights it goes well, some nights it doesn’t. That’s the nature of this league, and I’m just trying to help the team win. That’s what I’m paid to do.”

The Oilers improved to 20-15-2.

“I thought it was a complete team effort,” Edmonton coach Jay Woodcroft said. “We had 20 players pulling on the same rope tonight. We were able to start the game and play the way we wanted to play right off the bat.”

Stuart Skinner made 36 saves in the Oilers win.

Zach Hyman and Klim Kostin  each scored in the first period to give the Oilers a 2-0 lead on their first of two goals each on the night.

Daniel Nurse extended the barrage for a 3-0 lead in the first.

Jesse Puljujarvi added the fourth marker in the period.

“Anytime you score four in the first, it’s always a good start,” McDavid said. “I thought they had a little push in the second, and we did a good job responding.”

Kostin and Hyman scored in the second period after Daniel Sprong  put up a goal for the Kraken.

“Our willingness to check tonight and be above and work without the puck was not close,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We get to this time of year and especially these good teams, teams that can go, you can’t go and score your way to victory. That’s what it looked like to me.”

Seattle dropped to 18-12-4.

“I don’t think it was just one thing tonight,” Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson said. “It was just a lot of things. I mean, every team goes through a structure or a game like this, and obviously we’ll talk about it and kind of see what we did wrong.

“We can do a lot of things better. I think we can be a lot sharper and play a lot faster as a team.”

Seattle’s Brandon Tanev scored in the third to make it 6-2, before McDavid hit on the power play for a 7-2 final.

“Great game by all of us, great effort by the team,” Kostin said. “We started the game simple, by following our plan that the coach said before the game.”

Philipp Grubauer got the start and was given the hook after the Oilers took the 3-0 lead in the first period. He had made two saves.

Martin Jones made 23 saves in a mop up role.