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 The outlook now looks a bit rosier.
The Oilers continued their mini revival under interim coach Todd
Nelson Sunday with a 5-2 victory over the visiting New York
Islanders.
"We have a little bit of a roll going here, and we're feeling good
about ourselves," right winger Jordan Eberle said after the Oilers
improved to 2-0-2 in the four games since Nelson took over behind
the Oilers bench. "We're starting to create a bit of a team
identity, and we're starting to get results."
Four games without a regulation loss is Edmonton's longest run of
prosperity since October.
"It's a combination of the (new) coaches and a few new guys in the
room," left winger Matt Hendricks said. "It's just a new sense of
energy -- the expectations have changed. We need to expect to win if
we're going to win.
"I don't think we've hit it at that angle before, but we are right
now."
 The Islanders, third in the Eastern Conference at 26-12-1, had to be
expecting more out of this game than a frustrating defeat, but that
is all they got.
"We were slow coming out, and we let them do some things they wanted
to do," New York center John Tavares said. "Give them some credit,
but we were slow and got outworked and were just not good enough.
"It starts with me -- being on for three goals against isn't
acceptable either. We need a better effort than that, I don't care
how good things have been going. We can't get complacent. We just
didn't play very well."
Islanders coach Jack Capuano didn't like the work of goaltender
Jaroslav Halak (18 saves) and a couple of defensemen.
"I thought we played pretty good, and I thought we had some guys
that were downright pretty bad," he said. "We gave them three gifts
and an empty-netter. We were physical we did a lot of good things,
but at the end of the day, it's about execution, and there are some
guys that need to look in the mirror."
The Oilers jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Hendricks capitalized on a
misplayed puck by Halak and scored at 16:59. It was the first goal
the Islanders allowed in the first period in seven games.
Edmonton wasted no time in doubling its lead in the second period,
scoring just eight seconds after the faceoff when Eberle took a pass
from left winger Taylor Hall and buried his eighth of the season.
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The Islanders, who came into Edmonton on a 7-1-1 run, closed the
lead to 2-1 after 40 minutes when Edmonton-born defenseman Johnny
Boychuk scored on a power-play point shot at 3:41.
After failing to score on a two-on-none break late in the second
period, center Derek Roy made amends in the third when he scored on
a one-timer from the slot at 2:33 to give Edmonton a 3-1 lead.
Hendricks added an empty-netter, and left winger Matt Fraser made it
5-1 with the goalie back in as the Oilers won going away.
Center Brock Nelson scored in the final seconds for the Islanders.
"I thought we did a pretty good job closing the game out," Roy said.
"I thought we did a great job bearing down and blocking shots. We
are going to need that."
Edmonton goalie Ben Scrivens made 31 saves.
NOTES: The Oilers returned their third pick in last summer's NHL
draft, C Leon Draisaitl, back to junior hockey. He had just nine
points and was minus-17 in 37 games. ... Oilers D Keith Aulie served
the second game of his two-game suspension for a head shot on
Calgary C Matt Stajan. ... LW Rob Klinkhammer, who came to Edmonton
with a first-round draft pick in the trade that sent LW David Perron
to Pittsburgh, played his first game as an Oiler, picking up an
assist in the first period ... Isles RW Michael Grabner is
practicing, and he said he is pain-free after missing two weeks with
complications arising from his October hernia surgery. ... The
Oilers' first-period goal was the first one allowed by the Islanders
in seven games. It was the first time in six games that they hadn't
led after 20 minutes. ... New York G Jaroslav Halak lost for the
first time in eight starts.
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