More of that to come? Kris Knoblauch hopes so. ‘That’ being two periods of what the Edmonton Oilers head coach star on Wednesday called “a simpler game” and his superstar captain termed “good hockey” in the team’s 6-3 win over the Utah Mammoth the night before. “We didn’t turn the puck over, we made them defend, and when you make the other team defend, it’s just such an easier game to play,” Knoblauch told media after the National Hockey League team’s practice at Rogers Place, where they prepared for Thursday’s game (7 p.m.) against the visiting New York Rangers. In the first period Tuesday night, it was looking like more of what the Oilers had mostly been playing the first 10 games of the season: flatly, reflected in their .500 record before taking the ice against the Mammoth, who came into the game as one of the NHL’s hottest teams with a seven-game winning streak. Knoblauch said after the game he counted several turnovers by his players on line rushes over the first 20 minutes that saw Utah take a 2-0 lead into the intermission. “You should be looking at two or three a period; we turned it over 16 times on the attack, which didn’t allow us to get any offensive zone time or to pressure them,” he said. “It was really easy for them and we have to defend instead. It got much better in the next two periods. Guys went to work and it got better.” Indeed, the final 40 minutes belonged to Edmonton. The Oilers scored five times in the middle frame, and McDavid – who scored twice Tuesday – punctuated the win with an empty-netter in the third period to cap the come-from-behind victory. “I think you just saw a little bit of the urgency and that desperation kind of go up, which we didn’t see a lot of in the first 10 (games), so hopefully that can stick around,” McDavid told reporters. “I thought of the game as simpler: We dumped in more pucks, went to the net a little bit more, shot some pucks from the top, and we were rewarded for doing that, so some good signs.” Hyman out a little longer Expect top-line winger Zach Hyman to return to the Oilers’ lineup as early as the second week of November. That’s what Knoblauch indicated following Wednesday’s practice, in which Hyman took part, saying No. 18 will be “week to week” after saying a month ago he’d be back in the lineup at the start of November. “We said it was bare minimum Nov. 1, and it won’t be Nov. 1, but it’ll be at least a week after that, and hopefully shortly,” Knoblauch said. “We want him back. I think he looks ready, but obviously we’re looking at the long picture and making sure that we don’t have any setbacks.” Hyman has been sidelined since suffering a wrist injury early in Game 4 of the Western Conference final against the Dallas Stars and having surgery to repair it shortly after. “The doctors are the ones who are there to protect you from yourself at times and make sure that when you do return, that you are able and ready, and that’s how I feel,” the 33-year-old told media after practice. “Having said that, they know more than I do.”
