Losing ugly: Edmonton Oilers drop road opener to 'scrappy' Canucks

Sometimes you win ugly. Sometimes you lose that way.

The Edmonton Oilers lost ugly in Vancouver on Saturday night, coming out on the wrong end of a 3-2 score in a game they were widely expected to win.

After all, the Canucks hadn't won on home ice since February, and the Oilers were following upthegreat win Wednesday that opened their season.

What Saturday night proved is that no team can win in this league without bringing its best game on a nightly basis.

The Oilers simply didn'tdo that.

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After starting on a high note in their home openerwith a 3-0 win over the Calgary Flames, the Oilers hit the road for the West Coast with hopes of continuing the festivities against what looks to be one of the league's weaker teams.

Things seemed to follow the script early on, when defenceman Kris Russell equalled his goal total from last season by banging in a loose puck1:08 intothe first period.

Then ugly showed up.

With the Canucks on the powerplay, speedy centre Bo Horvat grabbed the puck, charged down the ice andwent around young blueliner Matt Benning with ease to eventhe score.

"Matty struggled, I thought, tonight," Oilers coach Todd McLellan said post-game. "He played really well in the first game. But tonight, from the get-go, I thought he was just average."

Given how competitive the league is now, "just average" doesn't get the job done.

The Canucks added another less than two minutes later when some sloppy work in the defensive zone led to a Brandon Sutter goal.

"I thought we were going to play a cute, control-type game, and they played a scrappy, hard game," McLellan said of the hole his team dug for itself.

"By the time we figured that out, itwas a little too late."

Glass half-empty, or half-full

The home team made it 3-1 half a minute into the second period, when Horvat slipped his second goal between Cam Talbot's pad and the post.

By that point, Oilers fans on Twitter were already urging coach Todd McLellan to break up his top line, the same line that dazzled three nights earlier.

Sometimes the glass is half-empty. Sometimes it'shalf-full.

Sometimes you drop the glass and it shatters on the floor.

No sense crying. Just sweep up the mess and move on.

The Oilers have to do that now as they come home to prepare for the Winnipeg Jets on Monday night at Rogers Place.

For the half-empty crowd, Saturday's game offered proof that the Oilers' young defence remains a work in progress. It offered proof that if teams can slow down captain Connor McDavid, as Canuckspesky winger Derek Dorsett did throughout much of the game, the Oilers can struggle to score.

Dorsett played only 14 games last season after suffering a serious neck injury. He was a pest all night, and at times he and McDavid exchanged unpleasantries.

I thought L.B. played tremendous. He kept us in it and gave us a chance to the bitter end.- Oilers coach Todd McLellan

For the half-empty crowd, the Oilers powerplay was, in the coach's words, "abysmal." There were too many loose pucks in the D-zone, too many penalties, too many offensive rushes that failed to generate even a single shot on goal.

That's the story that matters, but it's not the whole story.

For the half-full crowd, Saturday's game offered proof that backup goalie Laurent Brossoit looks solid and should able to spell starter Cam Talbot reliably as the season wears on. He took over the net early in the second period and shut the door from that point, stopping all 19 shots he faced.

"I thought L.B. played tremendous," McLellan said. "He kept us in it and gave us a chance to the bitter end. So good for him."

If you prefer half-full, then Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the team's often-forgotten former No. 1 draft pick, scored a nice goal, playing most of the night with Milan Lucic and Zack Kassian.

"I thought Nuge's line played well," McLellan said. "They had numerous chances. We killed seven penalties tonight, so that took a lot of guys out of the game."

The Oilers didn't win on the scoreboard, where it counts. But they outshot the Canucks 35-26, and out-hit them 26-16.

McLellan figures his guys were the best team on the ice for about 10 minutes of Saturday's game.

Losses can be built in 10 minutes.

Wins take 60.

Follow Rick McConnell on Twitter.