Saturday's season opener was a tough game all around for the Oilers. Two numbers that stood out were the minus-3 ratings for both Matt Benning and Darnell Nurse. At times at practice on Monday in Boston the two were together but at other times, they were split up. Oilers head coach Todd McLellan said don't read much into that.
"We have seven (defencemen) so you're always going to see split guys right now. It was evident that there was one pair that struggled a lot when it came to puck moving and preventing. We've dealt with that and talked to them. As a group, we have to move pucks better, we have to defend better, be a little bit quicker and I think there's some offence that can be created from that group as well."
"That's only one segment of the team. The goaltending, forwards and coaching staff can all sharpen up a little bit."
Benning and Nurse both played a ton on Saturday. Nurse led the entire team with almost 24 minutes of ice time. Benning was second among defencemen with 21:17.
"They're both young defencemen as far as games played and they're playing big minutes and that's part of growing up. Eventually in years two or three of your career or maybe four you've got to assume that role. You've got to pick your spots when you want to go on offence. Those two should be prime time defenders to shut other teams' offensive players down," McLellan remarked. "They should be good penalty killers. They should initiate breakouts, move pucks up ice. I think they can both play physical and they've got a lot of tools.
"Sometimes you're over physical, you're running out of position. They made mistakes."
BLOG: Coach talks Saturday's defensive deficiencies
