They’re coming into Tuesday’s game off back-to-back shutouts, but the Edmonton Oilers’ head coach is quick to credit strong goaltending for that feat, not necessarily overall team defensive mastery. “We also got a lot of key saves. Our goalies played really well,” Knoblauch told reporters after the Oilers’ morning skate ahead of their date with the visiting New Jersey Devils (8 p.m.) “For the weekend, it was great, but I think we’ve got a lot of room to (grow.) Offensively, we’re generating as much or more than almost any team in the league, and defensively, I think we still need to get better. “I know that’ll get better as especially our (top) six defencemen play together. We haven’t had that very much with Jake Walman being out for the majority of this season, but I think we still have room to grow there.” Tristan Jarry will start in goal on Tuesday night for the Oilers. The 30-year-old earned a shutout victory on Saturday in a 6-0 decision over the Canucks, the night before Connor Ingram stopped all 27 St. Louis Blues shots in a 5-0 home victory. Knoblauch said he hasn’t settled on a rotation for Jarry and Ingram – nevermind goalie Calvin Pickard, who’s on the roster as well – saying coaches are “balancing the goaltenders.” “They’re rotating pretty much back and forth, but a lot of that has to do with Jarry coming back from injury,” the coach said. “Now they’re both playing really well, and we feel very confident putting either one of those guys in and playing back-to-backs. But after the week, we’ll probably reevaluate what that schedule is. We kind of have it mapped out, since Jarry came back, what it was going to look like for the next seven-to-10 days.” Defenceman Darnell Nurse said he feels the Oilers’ ‘D’ corps “have done a good job as a group keeping things to the outside” while crediting the goalies “for some huge saves and big moments.” “We’re keeping the looks that we give up pretty consistent,” Nurse told reporters. “I think when you’re checking well and doing the right things as a team, there’s a lot more predictability in the ‘D’ zone, a lot more predictability of what comes from the other side of the ice offensively.” Devils on 2nd of back-to-backs The Devils (25-22-2) are playing the second of back-to-back games on Tuesday, coming to Edmonton after a 2-1 overtime win in Calgary the night before. Simon Nemec scored at 1:18 of overtime to lift the Devils over the Flames. In Sunday’s Oilers victory, Zach Hyman recorded two goals and an assist, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins scored a goal in his 1,000th career NHL game, all with the Oilers, a team first. Hyman has scored 17 goals in his last 20 games, the most by any NHL player since Dec. 11. Other Oilers goal-scorers in the win over the Blues included Vasily Podkolzin (one goal, one assist) and Andrew Mangiapane. Connor McDavid and Mattias Ekholm each had two assists. The Oilers (25-17-8) have a record of 5-1-2 in their last seven games and sit second in the Pacific Division before NHL action on Tuesday, two points behind the Vegas Golden Knights (24-12-12), who have played two fewer games than them. Crude remarks
