What a difference a year makes?
Not really.
After all of the lessons the Edmonton Oilers were supposed to have learned last season and all the poise and experience they gained in the playoffs, they find themselves in the exact same place they were a year ago.
Despite stressing the importance of a good start and vowing to be more determined out of the gate, the Oilers are once again 1-3 after four games, with just about every element of their game, from superstars to special teams to second-line support, needing to be better.
It’s a short sample size, and they did rise up for a hard-fought, adversity-filled comeback win over the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday, so maybe their season-opening home stand was just a temporary stumble and they’ve got things figured out.
“We’re confident in the character of our group, we’re confident in the abilities here,” said winger Connor Brown, one of the best players in Edmonton’s 4-3 overtime win over the Flyers.
“We just needed to get the ball rolling in the right direction, so gritting one out like that is a huge step.”
The Oilers were far from their best for most of Tuesday’s win. They were shorthanded seven times and gave up two goals on Philly’s first three power plays (they’ve allowed seven power play goals in four games). Their own power play went 0-4 (and is 1-for-9 on the season). They gave Philly too many clean looks. And their top guys were silent for 55 minutes.
But they overcame a 2-0 deficit and found a way to push through for a much-needed win. Sitting 0-4 would have been ugly.
This will at least quiet the masses and calm the water for a couple of days until we see what happens on their upcoming road trip through Nashville (Thursday) and Dallas (Saturday afternoon).
“There was a lot of self-inflicted adversity, obviously the penalties were not ideal with the amount of time we were penalty-killing,” said head coach Kris Knoblauch, who had to sit Leon Draisaitl down in the third period after another needless stick foul put the Oilers in a bad spot.
“Ultimately, we made it harder than it had to be. All the penalties made it hard, especially generating offence, but in the long run, it looks good for us, fighting through all of that and coming out with the victory.”
Was the Philadelphia game a turning point? If we are still going by the 2023-24 blueprint, the answer is no. Last year, after being bombed in a home-and-home series with Vancouver to open the season, the Oilers trounced Nashville 6-1 and looked like they had put their troubles in the rearview mirror.
They lost the next four games.
When they snapped that losing streak with a resounding Heritage Classic win over the Calgary Flames, making it look like they had finally figured things out, they lost another four in a row.
So who knows what to expect?
The Leon situation
It’s always a tense and potentially volatile situation when a coach benches a star player, but the way Knoblauch handled Draisaitl’s second selfish penalty in two games, and the way Draisaitl responded, played out perfectly.
Draisaitl is an emotional player, which is good. He plays hard, comes up big, fights through pain and is somebody you want in your foxhole when the battle is hardest. You can’t stifle that. You have to give him some leeway.
But two really bad penalties in two close games when the team is already leaking oil is something that has to be addressed. If not, a coach’s voice loses impact in the dressing room.
So Knoblauch got the message through, sitting Draisaitl down for a couple of shifts and then getting him back in the game. Draisaitl accepted responsibility for the bad decision and instead of sulking went out there and scored the game-winning goal.
The system worked like it’s supposed to work.
“As a group, we took some penalties we didn’t need to take, seven or eight tonight,” said Knoblauch. “We have to stay out of the penalty box. We have to make it easier on ourselves so we can attack five-on-five and draw penalties.
But after a very slow start to the game and the season, Edmonton’s top guys came up big, with McDavid setting up Evan Bouchard’s tying goal late in the third period and then feeding Draisaitl for the OT winner.
“Our best players really came up clutch,” said Knoblauch. “We need those guys to make key plays and key moments and they definitely did tonight.”
E-mail: [email protected]
Bookmark our website and support our journalism:Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun.