You can’t blame the Edmonton Oilers for looking ahead to the two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off earlier this month.
It’s just too bad no one’s told them the break’s over.
They went into it having lost in a shootout to the Detroit Red Wings, and came out the other side with much more lopsided losses, 6-3 and 7-3 to Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals teams that represent either end of the Eastern Conference standings.
That set them up for Tuesday’s game against the Tampa Bay Lightning, smack dab in the middle of a five-game road trip that isn’t going to get any easier, as the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes — with all three opponents sitting top six in the East, alongside Washington — await them in a stretch of five games in eight days.
‘Haven’t been at our best’
“Our schedule isn’t easy by any means. The last two games have been difficult for us, haven’t been at our best. I think for us, we need to be playing a lot faster, moving our feet,” Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch said following Tuesday’s morning skate at Amalie Arena.
“We’ve been standing still too much, I think the more we skate, the more we’re going to create offensively.
“But the importance is defensively, we’re in the right positions but we’re not closing quick enough and it’s just allowing the other team to be given a little more time to make plays.”
In other words, their minds might be on the task at hand, but their feet are still kicked up on a beach they may or may not have visited during the break.
And with the NHL trade deadline coming up next week, there is no time like the present for the Oilers to find the same gear they rolled to a 22-6-2 record with from the end of November to the end of January, and hit the playoff stretch going full speed again.
With ‘speed’ being the key focus on the ice, providing benefits at both ends.
“We’re one of the better defensive teams in the league at giving up chances, and a lot of that is a five-man unit closing space,” said Knoblauch, acknowledging the Oilers have the oldest roster in the NHL.
“A lot of our guys with speed, not the quickest, but I think with making reads and just moving their feet, when we’re doing that collectively, we are pretty good.
‘Playing faster’
“And yes, offensively when we move the puck a little bit faster, that’s going to increase our production. But I think the biggest thing about playing faster is helping us defensively.”
Not giving up twice as many goals as they score is certainly a step in the right direction.
But it’s not just the five up front doing the skating who need to rediscover their footing.
While he didn’t give up any of those seven goals to Washington — including a hat-trick by Alex Ovechkin in his hunt for Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goal-scoring record — he gave up five in Philadelphia one night earlier, before getting tapped to play against Tampa.
“It’s tough for a goalie to find his game and play his best when we aren’t defending well in front of him,” Knoblauch said.
“You need your goalie to bail you out and make a save on a breakaway or two-on-one once in a while, but if you’re giving up those regularly, you can only do it so many times.
“I think when we have a little more structure, our details to our defensive game are better, it makes it much more easier for him to play because the game is much more predictable for the goalie and they can really step up and play much better.”
The key to playing fast, said forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, is not wasting any time getting off on the right foot.
“Just focus on the start, obviously try to play fast,” he said. “Especially the last couple games haven’t kind of been our M-O. We got away from it a little bit.
“I think something we’ve done well over the past couple years is not letting this kind of feeling linger on. But it’s definitely got to start when the puck drops.”
E-mail: [email protected]
On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge
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