Oilers seeking answers after rough start in Sweden
Edmonton Oilers coach BOSTON Todd McLellan certainly wasn’t high-fiving anybody over his team’s 7-1 exhibition record and he’s not pulling his grey hair out in clumps even though his club got taken to the woodshed in Gothenburg, Sweden, Saturday by the New Jersey Devils.
“There were a lot of tough stretches and while the result was one thing, we’re looking at how we got there,” said McLellan. “We were pretty good in the first period even though they scored early (59 seconds), but we gave a lot of that back in the second, then got desperate in the last 10 minutes, but the game was out of control by then.
“We didn’t play with the tenacity or the pace the other team did and I’m not sure what comes first. Does tenacity lead to a faster game or the other way around?”
The players, who got into Boston Sunday afternoon after an eighthour flight and seven days in Europe, certainly didn’t look like they were dragging a hay baler around the Bruins’ practice facility with lots of forechecking and battle drills.
They don’t play their second NHL game until Thursday, when some teams will have played four, but this may be a case where they need time to readjust.
Even Swedish defenceman Oscar Klefbom, used to flying back and forth from his homeland to Edmonton twice a season, admitted to jet lag when he first got to Cologne, Germany, last week for an exhibition and then into Gothenburg to play the Devils.
“It’s tough and very individual. I remember Anton Lander could go back home and it took him one day (to get acclimatized). In my case, I feel a lot better coming back to North America than I did going over. I can sleep 10 hours now,” said Klefbom.
NO NEED FOR PRE-SEASON
Who needs training camp? Patrice Bergeron got his fourth career hat trick against the Ottawa Senators Monday afternoon and an assist on one of David Pastrnak’s two in the game and has six points in three games after not playing in the pre-season because of rehab from groin surgery and back spasms.
The Bergeron-centred line with wingers Brad Marchand and Pastrnak had 11 points in their 6-3 win over the Senators.
Marchand has a league-leading seven assists on the season.
But four-time Selke Trophy winner Bergeron makes it go for Boston.
“He’s always in the right spot, always in front of guys, he’s never drifting, never cheating for offence,” said his former Boston teammate Milan Lucic.
NUGENT-HOPKINS OFF
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was the only Oiler who didn’t skate at the Bruins’ practice rink Monday.
“Maintenance day for Nuge, he is a little dinged up from the game in (Gothenburg ) and with the long flight back we didn’t feel it was a good idea for him to skate,” said McLellan.
Connor McDavid’s left-winger apparently blocked a shot against the Devils and was limping Monday with Drake Caggiula taking his spot with McDavid. The Oilers have a CBA-mandated day off Tuesday and won’t skate again until Wednesday, so we’ll see then how Nugent-Hopkins is.
“He should be fine by then,” said McLellan.
Nugent-Hopkins played 21 minutes against New Jersey, including almost six in the third, so he didn’t seem hobbled during the game.
ABERG BACK ON WAIVERS
Pontus Aberg lasted one game
with the Anaheim Ducks after they claimed him on waivers when the Oilers were trying to send him down 10 days ago. Aberg played with Sam Steel and Andrew Cogliano in Anaheim’s opener, but was scratched for Game 2 against Arizona. They like kids Isac Lundestrom, Kiefer Sherwood and Troy Terry better, so Aberg is off to the San Diego Gulls. It might be the best American Hockey League destination and he’ll get his $650,000 there.
THIS ’N’ THAT
The Oilers shuffled things around at practice, moving Tobias Rieder from fourth- to third-line left-winger with Ryan Strome, who didn’t get much accomplished in 14:43 against the Devils, and Jujhar Khaira slipped onto the fourth line in Rieder’s spot ... Oilers assistant coach Glen Gulutzan loved his time in Scandinavia. “I saw some people I hadn’t seen in 20 years from my time over there,” said Gulutzan, who played one season in Vaasa, Finland, after a good junior career in Moose Jaw, then time at University of Saskatchewan ... The Oilers were in the hunt for Leon Draisaitl’s childhood buddy Dominik Kahun last spring, but he signed with Chicago and got his first two NHL points in Sunday’s loss to Toronto ... With Shane Starrett returning to the minors after his gig as third goalie on the Oilers’ European trip, you can expect he’ll join Al Montoya as goalies in Bakersfield and Dylan Wells will be going to Wichita in the ECHL with Stuart Skinner ... Ethan Bear and Starrett flew out of Boston Monday morning after flying on the Oilers charter from Sweden.