"We were able to play the last two preseason games together and that helped us gain that chemistry," Zajac said. "Those guys are young and hungry. [Quenneville] wants to be here the whole year so he's going to be giving it every night. [Wood] is a good player, and teams are starting to take notice of his speed so he's continuing to push himself."
Palmieri gave the Devils a 1-0 lead 58 seconds into the first period on the first shot of the game, beating Talbot over the right shoulder from the left circle. Lucic tied it 1-1 with a power-play goal on a one-timer off a pass from McDavid at 4:01.
"It wasn't a good start," Lucici said. "I felt in the second period we were on our heels a lot and weren't moving our feet. We were kind of standing and watching, trying to make plays standing still.
Sometimes it's good having a hard realization that this is now regular-season hockey."
New Jersey held Edmonton to 12 shots on goal over the final two periods.
"Limiting their time in the offensive zone and coming through the neutral zone by giving them the least amount of space we can was important," Palmieri said. "We did a good job of limiting time and space. We were smart and made them play as much as we could 200 feet from our net."
Devils coach John Hynes said they appreciated the experience of playing in Bern, Switzerland, and Sweden during the European trip.
"It was a unique opportunity for all of us to be in the NHL and be able to come to Europe and visit two beautiful cities, and the experience was excellent," Hynes said. "It was also nice that we were able to find a way to win the game."
They said it
"The preseason is completely different than the real season, we all know that. We have to be better than we were [Saturday]. Our puck movement, support and ability to play fast and clean was not very good." -- Oilers coach Todd McLellan
"It's a young man's game, but it's a player's league and you can't really win with just young guys. You need to have strong veteran guys, and [Zajac] is another guy. We're lucky to have guys like Andy Greene, Brian Boyle, Travis Zajac, Ben Lovejoy and Drew Stafford because they've been around the game a long time, practice the right way and do the right things. The younger guys help with energy, but we're fortunate that we have veterans like that who are true professionals but also create the right environment for our team." -- Devils coach John Hynes
Need to know
It was the 11th NHL game played in Sweden during the regular season, the first in Gothenburg. The attendance was 12,044. … The Oilers activated defenseman Kris Russell off injured reserve and assigned defenseman Ethan Bear to Bakersfield of the American Hockey League. ... Taylor Hall led the Devils with four shots on goal in 18:56.
What's next
Oilers: At the Boston Bruins on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; TVAS, NESN, SNOL, NHL.TV)
Devils: Host the Washington Capitals on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; MSG+, NBCSWA, NHL.TV)
