Trending: Wings tighten up defense but fall to Oilers, 2-1

EDMONTON -- The Detroit Red Wings managed to tighten up their defense but the offense is still wanting.
Although the Wings were able to hold the hot Edmonton Oilers to two goals, they only scored one in a 2-1 loss at Rogers Place Friday night.

Detroit fell to 3-5-0 (2-3-0 on the road) while Edmonton improved to 7-1-0 (4-0-0 at home).
Mike Green scored the only goal for the Wings, who have just three total goals in the last three games.
James Neal and Ethan Bear tallied for the Oilers.
Detroit goalie Jonathan Bernier (2-2-0) made 35 saves and was named the game's second star.
Edmonton netminder Mikko Koskinen (4-0-0) had 25 saves.
Up next for the Wings is a small break after three games in four days and then a Tuesday night home game against the Vancouver Canucks.
The Oilers travel to Winnipeg to face the Jets Sunday night.
1. Jonathan Bernier: Although the Wings had given up five goals in each of the last three games, to Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary, the fact is that the goaltending has not been the problem. Certainly Bernier was the solution for the Wings Friday against a team that was averaging four goals per game. The Oilers tested Bernier early and often, with chances from Alex Chiasson and Neal (twice) in the first few minutes of the game. He did get a bit of assistance during the Oilers' first power play as Neal hit the left post. But Neal, the league's goal-scoring leader, did find the back of the net at 7:39 of the second when he cleaned up a rebound. Bernier was screened when Bear's shot from the right point went past him at 12:22 of the second. But Bernier bounced back with some spectacular saves, particularly on Oilers star Connor McDavid, who was held without a point for just the second time this season.
Quotable: "I felt pretty good right off the bat, I knew I needed to step up from my last game. I felt good all night, just couldn't find a way to win tonight. I knew (McDavid) had a guy on him. I was just trying to cover the low part of the net and obviously, he's got a lot of speed. But his arms were extended, so it was tough for him to elevate the puck." - Bernier
Quotable II: "Amazing. He's been amazing all year ever since training camp. I think both our goaltenders are capable of keeping us in games when we need them. For us, it's just managing our game and making sure we can help produce a little more offense and help our goaltenders out." - Madison Bowey
Quotable III: "The penalty kill was good. I still think we could be better. They're a dangerous team out there. They've got a couple of the best players in the world. We didn't give them much, so that's encouraging. To be good on the penalty kill, your goaltender has to be your best penalty killer and I thought Bernie was tonight." - Dylan Larkin
2. Mike Green: Considered one of the premier offensive defensemen of his era, it was a little surprising that Green had not recorded a point through the first seven games. But at 16:37 of the second period, Tyler Bertuzzi had the puck behind the net and found Green in the mid-slot. Green's shot through traffic beat Koskinen and cut the Oilers' lead to 2-1. Bowey had the second assist. Green finished with 32 shifts for 20:37, had three shots, one hit, two blocked shots and was plus-1.

Quotable: "In the end, we haven't scored enough lately for sure. Here's what I liked, we got down, 2-0, we talked about not melting when you get down, 2-0. We didn't melt. We kept digging, we found a way to make it 2-1 and I thought we had the better of the chances in the third period. We had a couple shifts where we got in our end a little bit, but I thought overall, we had the better of the chances, so we gave ourselves a chance to win the hockey game. We just got to keep finding ways to get better. I thought today, we took a step in that direction with the way that we dug in. Do we need more offense? Yeah. Are certain guys going to score more? Yes they are. Let's make sure we keep taking steps forward." - Wings coach Jeff Blashill
Quotable II: "I thought we played pretty good today, just some chances didn't go in, crossbar at the end. We had a good third. We tried our hardest. We dug in, got it deep and played simple in the third, we just didn't get rewarded." - Bertuzzi
3. Madison Bowey/Trevor Daley/Dennis Cholowski/Alex Biega: The Red Wings had an entirely different third defensive pair from Thursday night's game in Calgary. Instead of Dennis Cholowski and Alex Biega, Trevor Daley and Bowey played. After the game, Blashill revealed that Cholowski had been banged up and wasn't able to play, even though he did participate in the optional morning skate. Bowey assisted on Green's goal, which gave him four assists in four career games against the Oilers. Bowey finished with 20 shifts for 16:05, had one hit, one giveaway, one blocked shot and was plus-1. Daley had 22 shifts for 13:54, had two shots, a giveaway, one minor penalty and was even. In Cholowski's absence, Filip Hronek took his spot on the first power-play unit.

Quotable: "Obviously, I want to give it my all every time I'm out there and want to show I'm ready to go and I think tonight obviously not the outcome we wanted but definitely happy that I could get in there and help contribute. I just think that we got to get back to playing hard hockey and defending well and keeping goals out of our own net." - Bowey
Quotable II: "I thought Bowey, he got told really late he was going in and I think that's a real hard thing and I thought he played fine." - Blashill
Quotable III: "I think tonight, even though the result wasn't there, it was a confidence builder. We know when we play our game -- and we didn't play our best -- when we play our game, at times, we're up there with the best, hottest teams in the league. If we just forecheck hard, if we move our feet, we get pucks out of our zone quickly, we're a good team. We need to shore up the other part and score goals. We had some chances there late. It's on the forwards there." - Larkin