Come-from-behind efforts to win no recipe for success: Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers made a comeback by snatching away victory from the Ottawa Senators in overtime Tuesday night.

They came from behind and pulled off a win on Tuesday night, but the Edmonton Oilers know they’ve got to stop relying on desperation and start playing better defence to win games.

From head coach Kris Knoblauch to star players Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman, Oilers personnel acknowledged after the come-from-behind 5-4 overtime victory over the Ottawa Senators that their team simply needs to play better defence. In their last 11 games, dating back to a 6-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Jan. 22, the Oilers have allowed 50 goals, the worst in the National Hockey League.

“We’ve got to keep the puck out of our net, obviously, but when we’re down, we have the firepower to come back,” Hyman told reporters after the game. “We don’t want to be putting ourselves in that position -- like we have been of late -- too often, but sometimes, you need a game like that where you can come back and it’s a complete team effort and you’re able to dominate a third period to win a game.”

After the Senators took a 4-2 lead early in the second period, the Oilers heavily outshot the visitors and tied it in the third on goals by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Hyman. Evan Bouchard scored the winning goal on an overtime power play.

“It ended up working out for us, but we need to be careful of being in those situations too many times,” Draisaitl said after the game. “We can’t keep chasing games going into the third. It’s not a recipe for success ... As a group, we can be better and make it a little easier on ourselves.”

Walman needs ‘more urgency’

Defenceman Jake Walman told media on Wednesday his limited ice time in the third period of Tuesday’s game came as a result of his play moreso than because of injury, something Knoblauch confirmed, saying coaches need to see “a little more urgency to his game.”

“I think he played with that in (last year’s) playoffs,” Knoblauch said, adding that two injuries to Walman appear to have made it difficult for the defenceman “to find his game.”

“He needs to find his game, push himself to get better, whether that’s in practices or in the games, just making passes. I think it all comes down to moving your feet, skating. That should be a strong attribute of him.”

Crude remarks

• Knoblauch said the injury that saw Mattias Janmark placed on long-term injured reserve and led to the decision to end his season with surgery is a chronic one that dates back to last season. “He was playing through a lot of pain going into the Olympic break, and then when he came back from the Olympic break, felt that that time off would be really beneficial, and it really didn’t make that much improvement,” he said.
• The coach said forward Curtis Lazar, who left Tuesday’s game in the first period after a collision with Senators forward Nick Cousins, would miss at least a week of action but could be out for up to a month with an undisclosed injury.