BLOG: Oilers self-assessing own efforts to answer back in Game 2

LAS VEGAS, NV - Despite a described "loose" adherence to their own game plan and a few self-inflicted wounds, the Edmonton Oilers still found themselves within striking distance against the Golden Knights late in Game 1.

"I think that was our first regulation loss in almost eight weeks," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "We didn't play our best game, but I thought were one shot away when the game was 5-4. We had numerous chances to even it up."

The Oilers were well aware of their second-round opponents' tendencies from four regular-season meetings and extensive scouting of their Pacific Division rivals before taking to the ice to begin their second-round series at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday night.

Right from the opening puck drop, you could see the Golden Knights' tactics of attacking the Oilers with a hard forecheck to force mistakes from their defencemen and maintaining possession in the offensive zone; both being far cry from what they experienced in their-first-round victory over the Los Angeles Kings.

"It's definitely a different style of game," Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. "LA is a pretty unique team in he way that they play in their neutral zone. They don't pressure a lot, so these guys kind of are the opposite of that."

"I thought they did a really good job kind of hounding on us, especially in front of the net," netminder Stuart Skinner added. "I felt like they were kind of tipping everything, which is props on them."

After the Oilers scored on an early power play, a turnover in the defensive zone from Vincent Desharnais led to a goalmouth scramble that was finished off by Ivan Barbashev between the hashmarks. Later in the third period, in the minutes following Edmonton adding yet another power-play goal for the seventh straight post-season contest, the strong pressure from the Golden Knights resulted in the Oilers giving up two goals back-to-back in the span of a minute.

"The first period, that's completely within our control," Woodcroft said. "That's an individual error where we turned a puck over. Normally, we don't make that play. It's an individual error; not ideal, but we don't live in an ideal world.

"I think in the third period, there are better ways of handling that situation... I thought we had a good shift after our goal. It was the next shift after, and I thought just there were things that we could do to handle that situation better."

But if the Oilers are one thing, says Woodcroft, it's that they're honest self-assessors and will leave no stone unturned when it comes to correcting these issues in time for Game 2.

Edmonton is well aware of the assets and the ability that the Golden Knights have at their disposal, but like they have all year, the players and coaches are responding by keeping their focus on the areas of their game that they can manage to do away with individual mistakes.

"I think any good team, that's an important quality," he said. "We don't run away from the things that we have to correct or improve, and I think there are things that we can do better or that are within our control that we can handle better. In the end, we don't feel we played our best game in Game 1, but we were one shot away."

Game 1's have not been kind to Edmonton with an all-time 24-26 record in the first game of a series, with their last victory coming against the Anaheim Ducks in the second round of the 2017 playoffs.

The Oilers in their most-recent series with the Kings grew in strength as it wore on thanks in large part to their internal focus and ability to self-assess their mistakes and react the right way.

"I think that's something that we definitely improved on throughout the year -- getting back to our game," Nugent-Hopkins said. "Obviously kind of midway through that game, it wasn't the way that we wanted to be playing and I thought by the end, we were starting to push the pace a little bit and just get down there and play the way that we know that we can play."

Nugent-Hopkins, who's one of only three players left from that 2017 Oilers team, believes Game 2 on Saturday night will be a much more composed and collected performance reminiscent of their play over their 22-game run without a regulation loss (18-0-4) that came to an end on Wednesday.

"I thought we grabbed it a little bit last night, brought ourselves within one, but there are still strides to take to get better.

"I think the way that we respond on Saturday is obviously important, and I think that we're going to bring our best game."