Oilers' Tippett: It 'baffles me' to have offense questioned after win
Edmonton Oilers head coach Dave Tippett isn't pleased his team's offensive abilities were questioned after a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday night.
"All I heard all summer was all you guys talking about how we couldn't defend, and now all I hear is, 'You can't score,'" he told reporters Thursday when asked about the club's production at five-on-five.
"That game (Wednesday) night, it was a tightly checked game," he added. "You had (Connor) McDavid against (Auston) Matthews all night ... there wasn't space for either team.
"Would we like to score more? Yeah, but the other team has a say in that, just like we had a say in Toronto not scoring. You're always looking for things to improve, but it's almost funny to me how everybody talked all summer about 'Toronto and Edmonton have to defend better,' and then Toronto and Edmonton actually defend well, and now they think it's a bad hockey game. So it just baffles me sometimes hearing what's (being said.)"
The Oilers entered Thursday night ranked ninth in the NHL with eight goals in five games at five-on-five. However, they did sit 23rd in the league with 2.6 markers per contest.
Edmonton placed 15th in both goals for and goals against per game last season.