WE’RE LOSING A LOT OF GAMES, EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE BETTER.

This is the public face of McLellan. Behind closed doors, his already-turned-grey hair is getting greyer by the minute because it can’t always be McDavid or Maroon or the others, with Lucic the most prominent player struggling with a 4.3 shooting percentage.

When asked for an analysis of Lucic’s play, McLellan talked plural and singular.

“We need more from a lot of players. To single out individuals is a tough thing but if you’re asking about him specifically, yes we need more,” he said. “He knows it. His physicality and tenacity around the net are important to our team and we see it on the power play where he gets opportunities with shots in tight and on scrambles, but five-on-five, it has to happen more.

“But collectively we have to get more consistent, one through 60 minutes.”

For sure, there’s other reasons why the Oilers have three wins in 11 games; bad penalty-killing, bad power play, struggles from their top defence pairing of Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson — who are now broken up — and average goaltending numbers from Cam Talbot, who saved them night after night last season.

But you can’t win if nine of your forwards are shooting blanks.

Kassian may be the poster boy for what ails the bottom six. When he’s on his game. he’s skating, banging, getting in people’s faces, making players mad at him. Last year he had two goals and four points. He has one assist in 11 games this season, but maybe more importantly, his hard-charging style hasn’t been there, at least after the first week, like he showed in the league-opener when he was all over the ice.

The Oilers, who’ve definitely lost their way, badly need his energy.

“Zack is a very important player for our team, his speed, his pace, his ability to have tenacity on the forecheck, to play rugged when needed,” said McLellan. “When he’s doing those on any given night, he can be effective. On some nights those (qualities) haven’t shown up. On others, they have.”

Kassian knows he’s not part of the solution right now.

“When your team is, I don’t even know what our record is, just that we’re losing a lot of games, everyone needs to be better, including myself,” said Kassian. “The only way we’ll start winning is if everyone gets better. I’m no different.”

Kassian had a short-handed breakaway Wednesday which might have kick-started his season, but was stoned by Pittsburgh’s Matt Murray.

“We all wish we could be 50-goal scorers,” he said. “But we need more secondary scoring in order to get out of the slump we’re in.”