A break in the schedule for the Edmonton Oilers over Christmas meant a break in the momentum the team carried into it.
After losing just twice in their previous 13 games, the Oilers lost sight of their winning ways coming off a four-day hiatus, getting tripped up in a 4-3 overtime loss to a Los Angeles Kings squad they are jostling for playoff positioning against, before falling 5-3 to the 27th place Anaheim Ducks.
And for a group that hadn’t dropped back-to-back games since Nov. 18, the whole idea going into Tuesday’s game at Rogers Place, where the Utah Hockey Club paid its inaugural visit New Year’s Eve, was to turn the losses around before they can turn into a trend.
“Going out to California and only getting one of four points, and coming back home, let’s get back on it,” Knoblauch said.
“We were playing so well before the break, let’s get back to playing well. Especially, we’ve got a couple home games before we go on a long, tough road trip. We want to get as much momentum as possible.”
Like they had prior to Christmas.
But it wasn’t the first time Knoblauch’s team suffered from bad timing to have time off.
Last season, the Oilers went perfect through January before seeing a 16-game win streak end coming out of the all-star break.
But the coach said this time away could just as easily have worked in their favour, especially given the bumps and bruises that accumulate at this point in the proceedings.
“Yeah, we were on a roll but we could have been in that same situation (regardless of the Christmas break),” Knoblauch said. “I don’t want to say that that took away our momentum, but it could have happened either way.
“It could also have helped us having that few days off to go back, so I don’t know.”
It turns out, there may be no one-size-fits-all rule to live by when it comes to these breaks.
“If you’re going through a winning streak, you want to maintain that as much as possible and keep going. A losing streak, you say, ‘Oh, we want a break,’ but then you’re also thinking about it longer,” Knoblauch said. “I don’t know if there is a right answer.”
The only response that holds any meaning, of course, is the one found on the scoreboard after 60 minutes. And then doing it again. And again.
Like they were before.
“We’ve played some good hockey before those two games, so I think we all know we’ve got to get back to that,” said defenceman Mattias Ekholm.
“But the break can sometimes get you off the rhythm a little bit, so it’s about finding it here and we have some games coming up to do so. And win some games on the road, obviously, coming up here.”
After a second home game this week, ending with a rematch against the Ducks on Friday (7 p.m., Sportsnet West), the Oilers will play seven of their next eight on the road — a start contrast to their December schedule, which saw a stretch of eight of nine games at home, which could have contributed mightily to their recent success.
But to Ekholm, it doesn’t matter so much where they play, or who they play even, when it comes to the team getting back on track.
“I don’t necessarily love looking at the opponent too much,” he said. “It’s about us and what our group can do.
“And when we’re on top of our game, good things usually happen.”
When they don’t, the key lies in getting back on top.
“I think when you lose a couple in a row, you’ve got to have that sense of urgency. Just dial it up a little more,” said forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. “Obviously, you never want to string together a streak of losses, so it takes a mature team to kind of find your way out of that.
“Over the past couple years, we’ve been good at responding in games where we need to.”
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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