"Some nights we respond real well. Other nights we're disappointed."
Friday the Oilers were disappointed with the outcome but not their effort. They thought they competed well against the Capitals, who lead the League with 89 points and have won 13 consecutive home games.
The game was tied 1-1 until Justin Williams scored 5:48 into the third period to put the Capitals ahead for good.
"We believe that we can play with the top teams in the League and we think that we can compete with them," McLellan said. "Tonight on the road in the middle of a long road trip we played against a real good team and pushed them right to the end. So we'll take that. Unfortunately, we didn't get the points, but we'll move on."
Although captain Connor McDavid picked up his League-leading 69th point with an assist on Leon Draisaitl's second-period goal, he was mostly quiet with the Capitals limiting the opportunities he had to use his speed. That's part of the learning experience for him and the rest of the Oilers, who had some trouble getting to the inside to create quality scoring chances.
"I think it's kind of uncharted territory for some guys in the room," Oilers goaltender Cam Talbot said. "Other guys have been there, some guys haven't. It's a great feeling to know you're in the mix this year, and to play these meaningful games coming into March and April is a lot of fun."
Talbot has been through this before as the backup with the New York Rangers from 2013-15. This is his second season with the Oilers, and he's encouraged by the progress they've made.
They are 2-2-0 on this six-game road trip that concludes with games against the Nashville Predators on Sunday (5 p.m. ET; SN 360, FS-TN, NHL.TV) and the St. Louis Blues on Tuesday. After that, they play 12 of their next 14 at Rogers Place, which might get to host some playoff games in its inaugural season.
Regardless of what Chiarelli decides to do before the deadline, there figure to be some thrilling days ahead in Edmonton.
"Just coming to the rink now, everyone is excited to be there and you can tell the atmosphere at Rogers Place is unbelievable," Talbot said. "It's going to be a lot of fun here going home for the home stretch. We're home for pretty much the whole month of March, so coming down the stretch here is going to be a lot of fun playing in front of our fans and, hopefully, being able to clinch a playoff berth at home would be pretty special."