“It's easy to say play a better defence, but I also think at times it's almost like we got to go out there with the mindset that we can't just think that we're going to score every shift. Sometimes, you’ve got to go out there and just make sure we take their momentum out of the game a little bit.
“Like [in Carolina], they just kept coming. We’ve got to find a way to just get pucks deep and make sure the crowd gets out of it a little bit because they just kept coming and they just got goal after goal. Then, it's game over. I think managing the game is something that we have to do better.”
That task, along with the lifting of the Blue & Orange out of this early-season slump, will fall on the entire group.
Ekholm saw upon his arrival last season in Oil Country just how capable this Edmonton team is after going 14-0-1 down the stretch into the playoffs; looking like they were incapable of losing.
Coach Knoblauch spoke post-game on Wednesday that the desire from his group to limit mistakes is creating a sense of paralysis on the ice that’s contributing to errors, and working out of that funk is a priority for the group.
“Last year when I got here, were on a roll and we barely couldn't lose a game, so to see us on this side of things, it's different,” Ekholm said. “It's probably where you learn the most, so I know we're a resilient group. I know guys care in here almost to the point where they care too much, and it gets to a nervous thing or a pressure thing.
“That's something we're working on. To be able to perform under pressure and to be able to perform in a situation like this is something that's hard, but it's something that we're working on.”
