The saying goes, the NHL season is not a sprint, it’s a marathon.
And for good reason.
The Edmonton Oilers are approaching the two-thirds mark of their 82-game schedule and were already reaching out for those little white paper cups of water.
Lucky for them, there is a water station on the horizon in the form of a 14-day break between games while the NHL pushes pause for the 4 Nations Face-Off taking place in Boston and Montreal from Feb. 12-20.
You couldn’t have found a much hotter team than the Oilers over the past two months, as they turned a mediocre start to the season — flirting with a .500 record — into an incredible run of 22-6-1 beginning Nov. 23.
But the momentum began to stall somewhat ahead of their current trip to St. Louis and Chicago, having come up short in one-goal losses to the Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs.
While they still managed to earn one of those four points, it was rare consecutive losses for an Oilers squad that had gotten used to finding ways to win the close ones. Especially now that they were supposed to have been re-energized with the return of captain Connor McDavid from a recent three-game suspension.
And while it’s not exactly cause for concern for a club that came into Tuesday’s game with a chance to take sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division, it had the makings of the normal wear-and-tear of the dog days of the second half of the schedule beginning to become visible.
“It’s a long season, everyone goes through it,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said. “Whether it’s a long season because of travel, or back-to-back games or maybe illness is going through your locker room, injuries, whatever it is. But for an 82-game schedule, you try to make it as easy for the players as possible.
“Getting them focused as much as they can, what you’re doing with mixing up the lines, or what you’re doing in practice or focusing on the opposition. But everyone in the back of their mind, they are thinking about the break whether they are playing in the tournament or they just have the two weeks off.”
As for the race itself, the Oilers opened February among the leaders of the pack, running neck-and-neck with the Vegas Golden Knights atop their division, top three in the Western Conference and top five overall.
Getting near the front is one thing, but with a trio of games on the schedule this week, the Oilers need to keep their focus on recapturing their tremendous momentum and not having a couple of losses turn into their own version of Heartbreak Ridge heading into the break.
“It’s important that we put in a good effort and win as many games as possible,” said Knoblauch, who once again was set to combine his top two offensive weapons on the first line Tuesday in St. Louis.
It’s the seventh time this season McDavid and league-leading goal scorer Leon Draisaitl were to play on the same line to start a game — a nuclear option for an Oilers head coach looking to shake things up in the lineup and press the attack whenever the situation may call for it.
And perhaps that underlines the importance more than anything of not having his players get too far ahead of themselves with a break looming.
“We are probably best having those two on separate lines, but there are times when I think it’s good that they do get to play together,” Knoblauch said. “And last game against Toronto, 5-on-5, it was probably one of our strongest games that we’ve played against a good team.
“So, there was not much need to change up the lines, a little tweak on the third and fourth lines, but pretty much all the same.”
One big difference Tuesday was the return of Mattias Ekholm to active duty in time for Tuesday’s morning skate.
Their top defensive force, Ekholm missed his first game of the season Saturday against Toronto, who capitalized on his absence with a pair of early power-play goals on the way to a 4-3 win.
“Missing Mattias is a huge hole for us, whether he’s playing against other team’s top lines, he contributes so much offensively,” Knoblauch said, quick to point to Ekholm’s all-around game. “His offensive numbers aren’t as high as other top defencemen, but that’s just because of the other top defencemen getting their power-play points on the first unit, but 5-on-5 points he’s among the leaders the last two seasons.
“And then also on the penalty kill, he’s huge there.”
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge