NHL.com is the official web site of the National Hockey League. But they've helped us a lot … so for my part I can really only say thank you to both of them." View More Obviously this year it's been too much of an up and down. I think we've had some good years under both of them. Two great hockey people lost their jobs, right? Essentially we're the ones on the ice playing and we have to take responsibility for that partly. "Those days are always tough," Draisaitl said. Along with Tippett, associate coach Jim Playfair also was fired. I'm open to anything to win," he said.ĭraisaitl said Thursday was a difficult day for everyone in the Oilers organization. McDavid said if a reduction in ice time would help the Oilers win more, he'd embrace it. Draisaitl leads NHL forwards with an average ice time of 22:45 per game, followed by McDavid at 22:31.ĭraisaitl played 20:25 on Friday McDavid played 20:35. But obviously there's no secret that we need to be better defensively."ĭraisaitl leads the NHL with 65 points (33 goals, 32 assists), and McDavid is third with 63 (23 goals, 40 assists). I don't understand where that's coming from, to be honest. But it's not like we go into games pretending like we're going to score five goals every game. I think sometimes when the ball gets rolling a little bit we tend to sit back a little bit instead of really tightening up and really focus on the little things. "To begin with, it's not like we go into games predicting that we're going to win 5-4," he said. We won lots of games, we were scoring five goals to win."ĭraisaitl said playing those high-scoring games never has been the Oilers' intention. "You've got to keep the puck out of your net," Holland said. One of general manager Ken Holland's assessments when he made the coaching change was that Edmonton needs to improve defensively. Since averaging 3.81 goals during their 16-5-0 start to the season, they have scored 2.61 goals per game going 8-13-3. The Oilers are 12th in goals per game this season (3.18). So we have to find a way to do a little bit of both." We haven't been putting the puck in the other team's net either. "We've got to keep the puck out of our net. "For sure we have to give up less obviously," McDavid said. Edmonton was 12th in the NHL in goals against per game last season (2.75) but has dropped to 22nd this season (3.27). Tightening up defensively will be one of the priorities for the Oilers under Woodcroft. "We've got open ears and we're ready to go." "We need to change something obviously, and I'm sure Woody will come in with new ideas, with his philosophy and with his plan and we're all-in on that," forward Leon Draisaitl said. Edmonton (24-18-3) is fifth in the Pacific Division and was outscored 8-1 in back-to-back losses to the Vegas Golden Knights (4-0) on Tuesday and Chicago Blackhawks (4-1) on Wednesday. Woodcroft replaced Dave Tippett, who was fired Thursday. Whatever system puts into place, we're happy to play." We haven't found the formula yet, but that's all we want to do. We're up here and we come in each and every day and we want to win. "I'm not sure why … sometimes I think people forget that we're here to win. 'Woody' is going to come in and put his touch on the group and put his touch on the team. "Very open," the Edmonton captain said Friday before the Oilers defeated the New York Islanders 3-1.
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