BLOG: McLellan preaches defence

An example of where numbers can be deceiving occurred on Saturday afternoon in Dallas as the Oilers did well to limit opposition chances but still gave up six goals against the Stars.
"Our defensive finish," stated Oilers head coach Todd McLellan when asked what he would like to improve. "What I mean by that is we didn't give up much in Dallas. Our lowest shot total at even strength against and our lowest shot attempt given up this year. The result was still six goals against. From the goaltenders to the defencemen and out we've got to be more responsible.
"If you score three on the road, you should have a pretty good opportunity at having success and we weren't close at that in Dallas," McLellan continued.
"When you look at how few opportunities at even strength and even on our penalty kill that we gave up -- actually shots that got to the net -- there's something wrong with coverages when you give up that many goals. And the commitment to coverage. It's beyond goaltending. It's team wide and it's something we need to fix. We've addressed it many times. The group is going to have to respond at some point and finally get it."