The message from head coach Mike Babcock after Edmonton beat the L.A. Kings 4-1 on Tuesday was pretty simple: Nice win, but don’t make a habit of it.

The Oilers, outshot 40-16 by the Kings, knew they got away with one and needed to up their game when they stepped up a weight class Thursday night against the visiting Utah Mammoth.

“You don’t want the L.A. game to be the blueprint of what we’re doing, I’ll tell you that right now,” the Oilers coach warned at the morning skate.

Alas, it was more of the same against the Mammoth.

As a crowd of 16,176 looked on in dismay at Rogers Place, the Oilers started slowly (three shots in the first period), dug themselves a hole (2-0 midway through the second period) and spent the rest of the night trying to crawl out of it. Unsuccessfully, as it turns out, as the Mammoth held on for a 4-2 decision, handing Edmonton its first regulation loss of the season.

“Obviously we want to be better,” Oilers captain Connor McDavid said of the opening 20 minutes. “We’re not sitting around going ‘way to go, great period.’ Part of the game is defending and part of the game is offence too, so we have to find the balance.

“We’ve done a good job checking and I thought we had enough chances to tie the game up, but it didn’t go that way tonight.”

Ironically, the Oilers liked themselves better in this loss than they did in in some of their wins, which is a kind of progress.

“I liked a lot about this game,” explained McDavid. “I liked that everyone competed and dug in. It was a tight-checking game. I liked the game better tonight than in L.A. That’s a positive and we get another crack at them on Saturday.”

It was one of those nights, of which there have been a lot lately, when if the top guys didn’t get it done, it wasn’t getting done. The foursome of McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Vasily Podkolzin and Evan Bouchard have been carrying pretty much the entire offence all season (22 of Edmonton’s 31 goals), but you can’t rely on that every single night.

And on a rare off night (Draisaitl’s was their only goal), the Oilers were in trouble. Down five forwards and a defencemen to injury, they did their best to lock things down and try to grind two points from an emerging power team, but Utah was the better side.

“Right now we’re not as deep and I thought that showed tonight,” said Babcock. “We played a pretty good team and I thought we worked. We needed our big boys, obviously. I played them too much (McDavid saw 25:52 of ice time and only one other forward outside of the first line played more than 16:00), but I thought we competed and put in a good effort.”

As they did in the final two periods in Los Angeles (outshot 29-10), or in the first two periods against San Jose (Edmonton had eight shots in 40 minutes), the Oilers spent the first period against Utah in an offensive quagmire, managing just two shots in the first 18 minutes and three in total, from Alex Formenton, Max Jones and Filip Hallander.

“Yeah, it was something we talked about as the game was going on,” said defenceman Connor Murphy. “We didn’t like how it seemed like we lost a little more of the puck battles and physicality to start the game. We have to take ownership in our own building, be able to be the ones coming out on top and executing in those plays.”

Two Utah power play goals against Edmonton’s 26th ranked penalty killing put Edmonton in a bad spot. You kept waiting for the Oilers to hit the gas, but when Draisaitl made it 2-1, Logan Cooley made it 3-1 just 21 seconds later, leaving Edmonton down by two at the second intermission.

A fluke goal from Shakir Mukhamadullin early in the third period made it interesting, but the Mammoth sealed it into an empty net.

Edmonton’s newfound ability to shut down a hockey game kept it close, but in their present form they aren’t there with the big dogs yet. One hall of fame line and three fourth lines wasn’t anyone’s plan when the season started, but it’s what they’re forced to deal with until Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Zach Hyman, Matt Savoie, Jason Dickinson and Colton Dach return.

“I think you’ll see that (depth) when guys come back, but that’s not our situation right now,” said Babcock. “Tonight we were right there, knocking on the door for another chance…our thought our group really competed. Not as good in the first but good second and third. I’m not displeased with this at all.”

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