Perry says Oilers must 'look themselves in the mirror' amid 0-2 start

While the Edmonton Oilers aren't strangers to poor starts, this is certainly not how they hoped to begin the 2024-25 campaign.

The reigning Western Conference champions were embarrassed 6-0 by the Winnipeg Jets in their season opener Wednesday before losing 5-2 to the rebuilding Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.

Veteran forward Corey Perry, who's responsible for Edmonton's only five-on-five goal through two games, believes there's no way to justify the team's poor start.

"You can make all the excuses in the world, whatever you want to say," Perry said postgame. "Everybody's gotta look themselves in the mirror and start to bear down and play."

Perry added that the Oilers need to start moving the puck faster.

There was a bit of progress shown from Game 1 to 2, as Edmonton produced 17 high-danger scoring chances compared to just one for Chicago, and the Oilers controlled 76.45% of the expected goals share, per Natural Stat Trick.

"We had our chances, we need to finish them," head coach Kris Knoblauch said.

Edmonton started the 2023-24 season 3-9-1 before head coach Jay Woodcroft was fired and replaced by Knoblauch. The Oilers went 46-18-5 under the new bench boss and made it all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Fortunately for the Oilers, the second loss won't marinate as long as the first, as they're back in action Sunday night against the Calgary Flames.