Struggling Oilers search for answers

There is little for Dustin Penner(notes) to be upset about when it comes to his performance over the first seven weeks of the NHL campaign.

He’s now the toast of Edmonton, after being labelled a bust by many in the hockey world for not building upon a strong first full season and justifying the five-year, $21.25-million US offer sheet the left-winger signed with the Oilers in July 2007.

Penner has rebounded from a career-low 37 points last season to record a team-leading 13 goals and 25 points in 23 contests entering Monday’s date with the visiting Phoenix Coyotes at 7 p.m. MT.

Problem is, his success hasn’t been contagious, but rather one of the few positives during the team’s horrific 3-9-2 showing over the past month.

In hopes of getting to the root of the recent struggles, the Oilers players met briefly on Sunday after dropping a 5-2 decision to the visiting Chicago Blackhawks the previous night.

Then, head coach Pat Quinn huddled with seven players, including Penner, for close to 90 minutes to further discuss matters.

“We went over a lot of team stuff in there; there was nothing special,” said centre Shawn Horcoff(notes), one of the seven players along with Sheldon Souray(notes), Ales Hemsky(notes), Steve Staios(notes), injured goalie Nikolai Khabibulin(notes) and captain Ethan Moreau(notes).

“It’s good for us to vent, he [Quinn] told us some things that we needed to hear and he wanted to know what we were seeing also. It went back and forth and I think it’s nice to have that.”

Chicago exposed many of Edmonton’s problems of late, making good on Oilers turnovers, finding open shooting lanes close to the net and applying pressure in the offensive zone.

Following Saturday’s loss, Quinn talked about his charges not playing intelligent hockey.

“We got beat in all of the fundamentals of the game,” he told reporters. “We had some guys that didn’t play very hard. … We got handed our lunch.”

Now the Coyotes come to town fresh off a 3-1 win over the powerful Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday that pushed their record to 3-1-1 in the past five outings and 13-9-1 overall, good for seventh in the Western Conference.

And unlike 12th-place Edmonton, Phoenix has a healthy No. 1 netminder ready to play. Ilya Bryzgalov(notes) is unbeaten in regulation in four starts (3-0-1).

“He’s found … a routine that’s worked out well for him, which is he practises extremely hard,” Coyotes goalie coach Sean Burke(notes) told the Arizona Republic.

Bryzgalov is 12-6-1 appearances this season with a 2.04 goals-against average and three shutouts that tie him for the league lead. A better commitment to off-season conditioning is seen as one of the big reasons for his strong play.

Phoenix could use a top effort from its goalie, considering wins have been hard to come by at Rexall Place. Dating back to the 1993-94 season when the franchise called Winnipeg home, the Coyotes have posted only six victories in 30 visits, including three ties.

This is the first of four meetings between Phoenix and the Oilers this season. Edmonton won three of four a year ago, but fell 3-2 in the last meeting on March 26.

Khabibulin continues to nurse a sore back and didn’t skate with his teammates at Monday’s morning skate.

Jeff Deslauriers probably will get the start, with Devan Dubnyk(notes) on the bench after being summoned by the Oilers’ American Hockey League affiliate in Springfield, Mass.