“Sometimes it’s easier to get really whacked across the face, instead of kind of pitter-patting around for another couple of weeks, win one, lose two — and you never really find it. Sometimes a slap in the face is just what you need.” — Leon Draisaitl, on losing 9-1.

EDMONTON — The first game on the long road back started with a mismatch of a fight, when Trent Frederic challenged as tough a fighter as there is in the National Hockey League, Columbus’s Mathieu Olivier.

It went badly for Frederic, but in a hockey dressing room the result of that fight is irrelevant.

“Huge credit to Freddy, taking on that guy,” said Connor McDavid, the Oilers captain who singlehandedly refused to allow the Columbus Blue Jackets out of Rogers Place with two points Monday. “I can’t say enough good things abo

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