The Edmonton Oilers saw their 16-game winning streak come to an end on Tuesday with a 3-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights, but according to some members of the team, that's not such bad news.
The Alberta team was one win away from joining the 1992-1993 Pittsburgh Penguins for the longest winning streak (17) in National Hockey League (NHL) history.
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“I can only speak for myself, but I'm very happy that I don't have to discuss it anymore [la séquence], defenseman Mattias Ekholm admitted after the meeting, according to comments on the NHL website. Of course you want to win every game you can. But at the same time, I feel like the closer we got to this record, the more we talked about it. Now it’s a little behind us and we have to start a new series.”
Kris Knoblauch, who replaced Jay Woodcroft as the club's head coach in November, was aware that this streak would eventually end and obviously wants to move quickly to the next step.
“The opponent can come out and have incredible games and even if you're pretty good, it's not good enough,” he said. I think that's what happened tonight [mardi]. I thought we were pretty good, but it wasn’t good enough.”
A memory
Despite everything, the Oilers needed a winning streak like this after putting themselves in an unfortunate position early in the season. According to captain Connor McDavid, this defeat serves as a reminder.
“We are disappointed to lose tonight [mardi]said Number 97. It's been a while since we've done this and sometimes we forget how much we hate losing. It’s a good memory.”
“We needed some time to get back into the race and we did,” he continued in comments to the Edmonton Sun newspaper. [On] checked this box. We have to play good hockey until the end of the season.”
Edmonton will look to get back to winning ways against the Ducks on Friday in Anaheim. McDavid's teammates sit third in the Pacific Division with a record of 29-16-1.