7-5 or 1-0, the Oilers got a win and that’s all that matters. Final score: 7-5.

I mean, yeah, you don’t want to ever give up five goals against in a game, but credit to the team for sticking with it. That was a hard fought game and they deserved both of those points. BaggedMilk has the Wrap Up here.

On what happened after the Oilers’ strong start: “I think we got away from what was making us successful. That’s playing north, getting pucks behind their d. We were making plays we haven’t been doing a lot lately. That’s something we don’t want to creep into our game. We were fortunate that we finished off and got the two points, but that’s not something we want to do.”

On his goal, not having bounces going his way: “It’s been one of those years, right? Last game I had a real good scoring chance and it goes off the bar. ‘when’s it ever going to go in, right?’ That was a great forecheck by Archie. Honestly, I was trying to feed Shoresy backdoor. It’s one of those bounces you said that finally went my way this time.”

On how much time post-game the Oilers spend evaluating vs. just saying they got two points: “I think tomorrow we’ll probably go over some video. We don’t want bad habits creeping into our game at this time of year. We all know better than that. It was nice, like I said, that we got two points. It’s a crucial time right now and points matter and we got to get wins.”

On what the message was after going up 4-1 in the first: “The message is keep playing the right way. When the game is loosey-goosey, sometimes you fall into their trap and that’s something we don’t want to do. it was good we got the win.”

On going 3-0 to start the homestand, what he’s learned about his teammates over those games: “When we play the right way, we’re a hard team to play against. We beat some really good teams. We beat the Caps, we beat Tampa. These guys came out hard too. They were giving us a hard push, but when you play the right way, you give yourself a better chance to win. That’s what we’ve been doing and doing those things will be good stuff going into the playoffs. It doesn’t matter where you finish (going) in the playoffs. When you get in it’s a new season. try to get good habits going into the playoffs.”

On his comfortability under Woodcroft: “I think for me, I just got to focus on controlling things that I can control and just try to take it day by day. It matters most that we’re winning. My goal is for us to get into the playoffs. I don’t think in my life I’ve ever not made the playoffs, so getting wins is important for our group. I want to compete for a Cup like all of us do. I think that’s where the focus is.”

On three games against non-playoff teams ahead of the deadline, building momentum for ken holland: “Points are huge. I bet tomorrow we’ll review those bad habits we kinda had there to not put those in our game for the upcoming games. Let’s get some wins.”

On if the result is more important than how they got there: “Yeah. If I’d rather be sitting up here talking about how well we played but didn’t get the win, I’d be lying to ya. It was a good two points. We needed them, and we’ll take them.”

On the hot start and how they cooled off: “We got out to a perfect start if you will. We spent the first five minutes in their end. They had no shots, we had three goals. I don’t think you could draw it up better than that. We started to get away from what was making us successful in the first five, and maybe got a little too comfortable with where we were at in the game. That leaked into the second, and obviously we had a poor start to the third period. We scored some timely goals in the third there, got the lead and we were finally able to keep it.”

On the Oilers’ start to the homestand: “I think it’s been good. we’ve had a couple big wins against some top teams. Obviously, we were playing a team in Detroit tonight we can’t take lightly. We started out that way — we didn’t take them lightly and we got some results. This week we’ve got a couple more teams in similar positions like Detroit — playing with nothing to lose and playing loose. We’re going to have to learn from tonight a little bit taking that same game we had in the first into Thursday and Saturday afternoon.”

On taking things out of the game: “Anytime you get on a winning streak, you’re never going to play perfect hockey throughout it. We’ve won three in a row here, a couple of those against really good teams. We’re never going to complain, and I’m never going to complain about getting two points and moving on.”

On if there was a bit of human nature that led to them letting their foot off the gas: “Yeah, you could say that. There’s some merit to it. But becoming a good team, and a team that wins consistently, having that same attitude no matter what the score is. I think is important and will help you in the long run. I thought we got away from that a little bit, obviously, throughout the game.”

On the powerplay and how it’s coming along: “I think we’re always looking to improve on the powerplay and get good looks. I think we had some good looks we weren’t able to capitalize on and those couple you mentioned in the third there. I think we had three powerplays today, so going 1/3, you can’t sit here and complain about that. You have to continue to push and score those timely goals when you need to.”

On Woodcroft utilizing timeouts: “He’s head coach, he has a feel for when he maybe needs to settle things down. We had just talked about that in the dressing room while it was intermission. It was something he felt he needed to do and it was able to settle things a bit for the group, refocus, and remember we’re playing a hockey game.”

On where he feels he’s at in his return to play: “A lot of things kind of go into that. It’s not just on the ice, it’s off the ice too as I spend a little more time here in Edmonton. In the beginning, 15 games we were on the road quite a bit. Finally had a chance to settle in and starting to feel better. Just trying to get better like everybody else is and continue to grow my game and become a better hockey player every day.”

On if there’s a feeling you get as a player that it’s going to be a high scoring game: “It’s funny you mention that. I was talking to a couple guys in the room saying ‘now that we saw the result, it felt like it was going to be one of those games.’ We jump out to a three-goal lead. where teams are in the standings, I’ve been a lot of different games on both sides of the equation. You can kind of feel that some nights aren’t going to be perfect and you’re going to have to grind one out and maybe just outscore the other team like we did tonight. We let them hang around a little bit, especially in the second period. Then they jumped on us in the third and like I said, we had to respond. It’s good we came out with the win.”

On his chat with Sam Gagner in the game: “I wasn’t going over there to fight him, just to let him know who he’s on the ice with. just sticking up for a teammate, that’s all.”

On the game: “Not a Picasso by any stretch, but what I liked was even though it wasn’t a perfect night our team found a way to grind it out when things weren’t going our way in the third period, but we found a way to make a difference and get the two points. There’s things to clean up in our game, for sure, but I was impressed with our players finding a way to win a game.”

On if the start of the game came too easy: “I think it was part of the game plan, to come out hard. We’ve done that here on this homestand, is try to assert our gameplan on the other team immediately. We accomplished that. I thought there was a little bit of a lull. What I thought was at the root of that lull was a lot of just self-inflicted errors. Passing through people, offensive zone turnovers at the blueline. Just things that we didn’t demonstrate in the first five minutes. In the end, it’s a credit to our players finding a way to win when it got tense there.”

On Foegele, his line with Shore, Ryan: “I feel good about that line, about putting them in any situation in the offensive zone, neutral zone, defensive zone, I feel good about them. We also mixed Archibald in down the stretch there, he did good things with that group. Happy for Warren to get rewarded and he ended the night +3. He’s doing some things properly.”

On the powerplay: “I’m not as much hung up on the percentage number. I think the powerplay found a way to score a big goal at that point in the game and helped us win the game. That was important for us.”

On adding in some new wrinkles to the powerplay: “I would say different penalty kills present different issues. You have to get creative in how you try and solve some of these kills. This is the best league in the world. There’s great coaches, great players on the other team. You have to do your work and it’s a credit to our players to going out and execute that plan. Going out and scoring a goal at that moment was important and a real factor in us getting the two points.”

On having Bouchard in the bumper spot on the pp: “That came down to the line change and who changed for who. Bouch has enough hockey sense to figure out even though that’s not his spot on the unit he figured out he had to get to a certain point of the ice surface and he looked dangerous there. I wish he would’ve shot that one puck, but it’s a credit to his hockey sense he figured out where to go when not all the pieces of his unit were on the ice.”

On it not being a Picasso, and how much critique there is from the game: “We’re not going to bury our heads in the sand and pretend there weren’t things in our game that have to get cleaned up. we will address those.

I was talking with (Edmonton Oil Kings head coach) Brad Lauer this morning. I had a coffee with him and his staff in their room and he used a great line. He said: ‘The wins are pieces of art, but you don’t always hang every picture in the living room. Sometimes you hang them in the basement.’ And I thought that was a really good way of putting it. Brad’s a really funny guy and I’m going to steal that one, because I think it adequately describes tonight’s game.”

On Kane’s play: “He’s a legit top-six forward. He touches most areas of the game. He can penalty kill, he’s on the powerplay. He makes us a better team with his physicality. His physicality sometimes acts as a deterrent. Just little subtle displays of his physicality. the 50/50 battles, how hard he is on faceoffs establishing inside position, finishing his check, obviously, going to hard areas to score. I’m happy he got two goals tonight.”