Can Anyone Play Defense Anymore?

Edmonton followed Tuesday's 6-5 overtime loss to the Vancouver Canucks with a 9-7 win over those same Canucks on Thursday, and I'm starting to wonder how badly Mike Babcock yelled at these guys after Game 1. Whatever he said seemed to work for about 40 minutes.

The Oilers walked into Rogers Arena, scored five unanswered goals, built an 8-2 lead, then Vancouver scored with one second remaining in the second period. They scored three more times in the third, and suddenly an 8-2 hockey game was 8-6 with 13 minutes left.

"Nobody is in here saying 'Way to go,'" Connor McDavid said. "We understand that the game has to look a little bit different, but I thought the first 40 is what it could look like a lot of the time and what it should look like a lot of the time. Guys working hard, tracking back, responsible with the puck and just kind of rolling over them. We have to replicate that 40 minutes."