Kukla's Korner Hockey

Kukla's Korner Hockey

Just When You Thought The Edmonton Oilers May Have Turned The Corner

02/08/2016 at 5:48am EST

from Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Journal,

They’ve been outscored 13-2 in their last two games after an equally miserable 5-1 stink bomb Saturday in Montreal, and any illusion they had of playing a meaningful game between now and the end of the season on April 9 is over....

The two-game run over Columbus and Ottawa that generated so much positive energy in Edmonton? It can safely be dismissed now as a fluke. And a bandwagon that had accelerated from zero to 60 in a matter of two games is now abandoned on the street corner, up on blocks, leaking oil and not even worth stealing and stripping down for parts.

“We have to be better than that, that’s all,” said Connor McDavid, who has a better understanding today of why the Oilers win so many lotteries. “That’s not how you want to respond after two good wins like that, with two big losses.

“We came in feeling pretty good about ourselves and I think we maybe let the high go a little too high, got a little complacent, a little cocky maybe. And that’s what you get for doing that. Two not very good games. We have to respond.”

They responded to looking distracted in Montreal by looking entirely disinterested in New York. In towns where focus is key, the Oilers had little.

“In my opinion, we weren’t focused, we weren’t ready,” said veteran Matt Hendricks. “The structure in our game went out the window. That’s about it, not a lot of excuses.”

read on

Extended game highlights are below...

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Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.

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