Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers got shafted by the NHL and the Department of Player Safety.
Good.
They stumbled out of the starting gate two years in a row and looked dead and buried by November.
Good.
They had to go four games without an injured McDavid earlier this season and had Zach Hyman playing in a bubble for almost six weeks. In the first two months of the year, Hyman and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins fell off the face of the earth offensively. And goaltender Stuart Skinner went through another October crisis.
Good. Good. And good.
And, as painful as it was to lose Game 7 of last year’s Stanley Cup Final, that will also be good for them in the long run.
Whether it’s sketchy officiating, a beef with the league, self-inflicted struggles or stretches of a schedule that look like they were drawn up by somebody who’s never seen a map before, the Oilers are ploughing through all of it like a four-wheel drive through a powdery snow drift.
These things aren’t holding them back, they’re toughening them up.
“Absolutely,” said Oilers Skinner, who is the Oilers poster boy for fighting back from adversity. “It feels horrible in the moment but it’s always been for the better, it’s always given you a lot more strength, a lot more courage and puts a lot more battle in you. Adversity kind of tells you who you are.”
Legit Cup contenders
And who are the Oilers? A team that climbed from near the bottom of the NHL to sit first place in the Pacific Division, second place in the Western Conference and third overall after Saturday’s win over Buffalo.
They went from at or near the bottom of the league in almost every important statistical category — goals for, goals against, save percentage, power play, penalty killing — to analytics darlings and legitimate Cup contenders once again.
“I think that’s huge,” said Skinner. “It just shows that a lot has to do with the belief in the group and sticking with it even though some calls aren’t going your way, some bounces aren’t going your way or I played badly a few games.
“It shows a lot about our group, the mental resiliency of not worrying about where you are in the standings and just trying to get better.”
The Oilers could have allowed themselves to be rattled after the whole McDavid suspension saga. A couple of veteran referees got caught ignoring an obvious extended infraction and you wonder if Curious George Parros threw an extra game onto McDavid’s suspension for no other reason other than jealousy or envy.
The Oilers lost the heartbeat of their team for three games, but dug in and outplayed the first place Washington Capitals badly, absolutely destroyed Vancouver and did enough to beat Buffalo.
Chew on that, Gary Bettman.
“It’s a good sign of the character in this room,” said Nugent-Hopkins. “A lot of these guys have been through a lot, we’re an older team, we’re the oldest team, we’ve experienced a lot. So there is no panic in here throughout games or throughout the season.
“It’s a good sign that we can stick with it no matter what is happening around us.”
‘He’s back’
There are more miles to go and more adversity to come before the playoffs even start, and the post-season itself in a two-month journey through stormy waters, but this is team that looks well-equipped to deal with anything.
From worst to first in half a season is no small feat. Just like worst to Stanley Cup Final last season was a striking display of composure and will.
“It’s kind of a similar story, we just learned a little bit quicker this year,” said Skinner. “The way that we’ve been playing, it says a lot about the group and how mature we are and how much mental resiliency we have.”
And now they get their captain back. Posting a winning record in the seven games without McDavid shows there is more to the Oilers than just a 2015 lottery win, but adding a super power to the lineup is always a nice boost.
“He’s a difference maker, he’s our leader,” said Nugent-Hopkins, who liked how the Oilers dealt with the latest piece of adversity. “It’s almost easier when you know it’s going to be three games and then he’s back. It’s ‘let’s dig it out.’ With an injury there is that uncertainty.
“We played well against Vancouver, we played a good game against Washington, they’re a good team. Three pretty good games. But when you get the best player in the world back it’s going to help things out.”
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.
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. The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun