PREVIEW - Oilers at Jets
EDMONTON, AB – Despite their 2-1 defeat to the Winnipeg Jets in the shootout to open their eight-game pre-season schedule, Head Coach Jay Woodcroft was pleased with what he saw from the Edmonton Oilers on Sunday night.
With seven more exhibition games to go, continuing tonight with the second of back-to-back games against Winnipeg at 6:00 pm MT, the bench boss will hope it's the start of a very productive preseason for the Blue & Orange when it comes to laying the foundation for a long campaign and showcasing some of the changes they've tried to implement over the course of Training Camp.
"I thought it was a good game for our team. There were a lot of really good signs," Woodcroft said. "Things that we worked on showed up in the game, and I thought the pace was good for the first exhibition game of the year.”
Zach Hyman netted Edmonton’s lone goal behind a solid Collin Delia, who made 36 saves for the Jets, with the experienced line of Hyman, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Evander Kane exemplifying some veteran poise for the Blue & Orange in a 20-man roster that featured plenty of new faces and up-and-coming prospects.
“I thought our veteran line of Nugent-Hopkins, Kane and Hyman really set the competitive tone for the game, and then we got really good contributions up and down the lineup,” Woodcroft added.
The trio of established Oilers helped push the pace with close to 20 minutes of ice time apiece in the loss and produced a power-play goal as the forwards on Edmonton’s first-unit power play that was filled out by Evan Bouchard and Lane Pederson.
Sunday served as an early opportunity for the three regular Oilers forwards to settle back into playing in an NHL atmosphere and form some chemistry that could pay off down the road in the regular season.
"I think it was an opportunity to get them a home exhibition game early, and what I really liked is you can have the attitude of, 'Oh, I have to go play this game,' but I thought all three of them displayed a fantastic attitude and they set the competitive tone for the rest of the group,” Woodcroft said.
“They had numerous chances. They were buzzing. They did some good things defensively, and I was quite pleased. And when they play that well together, it's a little kernel in your mind that says, 'Oh, maybe if I ever have to change things up, that's something that maybe we could go to.'