Despite ending their five-game win streak on Saturday with a 5-1 defeat to the Golden Knights, the Oilers are looking to carry forward their collective effort into a final push to win the Pacific Division title, having relied on the entire lineup to elevate their games to make up for the absences of Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman down the stretch.
“We’ve definitely taken steps in the right direction and playing more as a team,” Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “Everybody has the same mindset and the same kind of attitude about things out there. So obviously, we got some work to do here in the next five to really solidify where we’re at, but I think it’s really coming together.”
Limiting the Mammoth’s rush chance and playing with speed on the forecheck to break up loose pucks will be key for the Oilers in containing their red-hot offence, while also finding a way to reinvigorate their power play that’s 1-for-19 in the nine games without Draisaitl available.
“If you look at the chances that we’ve had pretty much every night, we’ve had so many good looks, but the pucks aren’t going in right now,” Nugent-Hopkins said of the power play. “Obviously that’s where Leon really changes things for us. He always finds ways to score and create those really high chance plays. But we’ve had a lot of good looks.
“We’ve got to find ways to bear down and maybe get some more second opportunities and can play off that. But we’re not going to get frustrated. We’re just going to stick with it and keep shooting pucks, and eventually they’ll start going in.”
