The Edmonton Oilers are back and looking to address what’s been ailing them: keeping the puck out of their net. Oilers players not participating in this year’s Winter Olympics took to the ice Thursday at the Downtown Community Arena for practice, with some of it aimed at improving their defensive play. The Oilers went into a two-week Olympic break on a three-game losing skid, giving up 16 goals during it. They’ve given up an average of 3.29 goals per game through 58 games this season, 25th in the 32-team National Hockey League. Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said after practice while his team is well-positioned offensively, it needs to improve its defensive game but that he expects players to rise to the occasion as they head into the final stretches of the regular season. “We’ve made some adjustments to our team for the last 24 games, and we feel that that’ll help our team,” Knoblauch told media. “I also think getting down to crunch time and knowing that we’re in a win-now situation will help our team and kind of be more focused on the defensive play.” Defenceman Darnell Nurse acknowledged the Oilers can’t simply score their way out of any problems and need to clean up their defensive play. “Individually, we’ve got to be better in that department, and as a team collectively, we have to,” Nurse said. “We all know the test and the challenge and the amount of work that it’s going to take to be able to bring that down and the commitment that it’s going to take.” The Oilers made a move they hope will help improve defensive play in bringing Paul Coffey back as an assistant coach for the rest of the season. Coffey, an Oilers’ Hockey Hall of Fame player, guided the team’s defence the previous two seasons, when they averaged 2.87 goals-against per game, seventh-best in the NHL in that department. He is expected to rejoin the team at practice on Friday. Edmonton returns to game action on Wednesday in Anaheim for the first of a three-game road trip in California. Oilers Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Josh Samanski made the trip to Italy to play in the Olympic men’s hockey tournament. McDavid and Canada will face Finland on Friday morning at the Winter Olympics in Milano Cortina. Team Germany, featuring Draisaitl and Samanski, ended its Olympic run on Wednesday in a quarterfinal loss to Slovakia.
