“You can be the judge of whether you believe in us or not. I think we’ve proven it year over year.” — Zach Hyman on his Edmonton Oilers.
EDMONTON — It was The Tragically Hip that warned us of the perils of ruminating on yesterday’s accomplishments.
“You can’t be fond of living in the past,” advised the great Canadian poet Gord Downie. “’Cause if you are then there’s no way that you’re going to last.”
So how does that apply to an Oilers team that has stunk the joint out for three consecutive autumns, yet embarks on a five-game homestand Tuesday with full confidence that they are ready to pull the same rabbit out of that same old top hat from which the last two seasons were magically rescued?
“Our locker room has been through it before,” Zach Hyman said on Monday, the day before Edmonton was to play just their 10th home game in 27 starts. “We’ve been through adversity, through the outside noise, through all the chaos that comes with it…
“We’re used to it. We know we have to play better, and you can be the judge of whether you believe in us or not. I think we’ve proven it year over year.”
Right around this time two seasons ago, with Kris Knoblauch just a few weeks into his tenure behind the Oilers’ bench, Edmonton walked into Washington and won 5-0. They never looked back, going 44-15-5 from that game onwards.
“More Oiler-like,” Hyman assessed that evening in D.C. “Great special teams, great PK, great power play. Great saves that kept us in it early. Great even strength play…
“It’s the kind of game that you look up to and say ‘Yes. This is how we should play.’”
Roughly a year later, back in the glue again with a middling 10-9-2 record on Nov. 22, Mattias Ekholm was speaking to the concept of how a Stanley Cup finalist can make just a few changes, yet arrive to start the season like a bunch of total strangers.
“Ultimately, it’s about how you gel as a team,” said Ekholm. “Things can look great on paper, and you’re thinking, ‘Oh, they’re just going to take off where they left off, right?’ Well, it doesn’t work that way.
“It can change in a heartbeat. It could be one guy here or one guy there, and then all of a sudden, nothing works.”
Today, the Oilers find themselves somewhere in the same postal code of both 2023 and 2024, a couple of points removed from the Western Conference playoff picture on American Thanksgiving.
Edmonton is an 11-10-5 team, though it somehow resides just four points south of Pacific Division leading Anaheim. A two-time Stanley Cup finalist, the Oilers haven’t won three games in a row yet, have the worst team save percentage in the NHL (.877), and are ranked 30th in goals allowed per game at 3.58.
All of that can be assuaged, however, with a solid homestand against Minnesota, Seattle, Winnipeg, Buffalo and Detroit.
“When the world’s caving in, you take a look at things, and it’s still right there within our grasp,” said veteran centreman Adam Henrique. “I know you (media) guys love Thanksgiving and those sorts of things. But it’s there, and we know that.”
With the goaltending under intense scrutiny here, Stuart Skinner authored a shutout on the road in Seattle Saturday, the latest in a growing number of solid wins that were supposed to begin the turnaround, but never did.
The Edmonton power play went two-for-two in that game, the penalty killers a perfect six-for-six.
If ever there was a springboard game, this was that.
“We’ve had a few of those where we want to get going,” Henrique said. “It was a complete game. Now, being at home here for a little bit, we’ve got to step on the gas.”
“It’s a big, big stretch for us,” echoed Hyman, “to come home, establish our game at home. We’re usually very good at home. It’s a fun building to play in, and we’ve got the most amazing fans, so it makes it easy to come to the rink every day and play.
“It’s going to be a good stretch for us to get back on track.”
It always has been, around this time of year.
You wonder how long the Edmonton Oilers can keep living this way?
from Sportsnet.ca
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