Oilers know defence still not good enough despite win

EDMONTON — They say you should never critique a win. But “they” likely haven’t been around the Edmonton Oilers of late, the worst defensive team in the National Hockey League over the past six weeks.

So despite the euphoria of an Evan Bouchard bomb that beat the Ottawa Senators 5-4 in overtime — after the Oilers had trailed 4-2 after 40 minutes — Edmonton’s dressing room was more static than ecstatic after just their second win in seven games.

“You don’t see me with a huge smile on my face. We’re not coming off this game patting ourselves on the back,” said Zach Hyman, who scored the tying goal with the goalie pulled and 1:25 to play. “We’ve been to the Final two years in a row, we know what it takes. We know what type of hockey you have to play.

“We know we can come back in high-scoring games, and there’s going to be some of those. But if you want to be successful, you’ve got to keep the puck out of your net.”

This quick, two-game homestand was framed Monday by general manager Stan Bowman, who spoke to the media ahead of Friday’s trade deadline. He made it clear: no trade was going to fix what truly ailed his club, and that was a defensive game that simply is not worthy of being called a contender.

“There has to be a bigger commitment from our players, all of our players, to play smarter hockey and not try to make plays every shift,” Bowman began. “Maybe it’s having more respect for the game — the simplicity of the game. We want to put on a show, we want to score goals. But there’s two sides to it, and I think we haven’t managed that very well as a team.

“The way to fix that, it’s not going to be magical new players. It’s going to be the approach that we take as a team. Understanding that going through a whole period without getting a lot of scoring chances is okay if you don’t give up a lot.”

Like everyone, Bowman has seen his team hunker down and find a defensive game eventually in each of the last several seasons. But we’re 61 games in, and the search is beginning to hit critical mass.

“Our team has shown the maturity to play that way when the games matter the most,” Bowman said. “Right now, we haven’t been dialled in enough and committed enough to play that way, and that’s what’s causing us a problem.”

Edmonton skated out against Ottawa and allowed a goal just 3:34 into the game on an egregious defensive play by defenceman Jake Walman. The Senators scored three minutes later on the power play and added two more in the opening 5:11 of Period 2.

So, with the defensive turnaround pushed back until Friday against Carolina, the Oilers’ offence took over the game.

Leon Draisaitl ended up with two goals and five points as Edmonton outshot the passive Senators 12-3 after the second intermission, winning on a power play in OT.

“We did a good job in the third of putting them on their heels and keeping it fairly simple. We just needed two plays,” said Draisaitl, who enjoyed his best game since returning from the Olympic break.

“It’s certainly something that we can do, and we will do it again, I know that. That’s what we do,” he said of the comeback. “But long-term, if you want to go deep, if you want to be there at the end, that’s not a recipe that you want every other night in a playoff series. We have to clean some things up.”

Head coach Kris Knoblauch and assistant Paul Coffey re-jigged their defensive pairings for this game, an exercise that lasted about 25 minutes. By the third, Walman wasn’t playing (he’s said to have a minor injury), and the Oilers went with a five-man D-corps, as the newest addition — Connor Murphy — watched his first Oilers game from the stands after being acquired in a trade with Chicago on Monday.

Curtis Lazar also left after the first period and did not return. He was seen postgame with his arm in a sling.

“He had a hit and unfortunately he’s going to be out for a while,” Knoblauch said.

The Oilers needed this one badly, on a night where Pacific brethren Vegas and Anaheim both lost. The Oilers’ next four opponents are Carolina, Vegas, Colorado and Dallas, as the rubber meets the road for a team trying to find its mojo.

“Sometimes those games against big teams bring out the best in you,” Hyman said. “You know that if you’re not ready for those games, it’s going to be embarrassing. For us, we like to play in those types of games against really good teams. We have guys who rise to the occasion.”

They did on this night, to be sure.

More from Sportsnet

Oilers trade deadline preview: Cup contenders must address defensive woes

NHL Rumour Roundup: Blues’ Robert Thomas looking increasingly like trade candidate