The luck of the Golden Placard comes with a price.
So when Bill Daly flipped the Connor McDavid card at the National Hockey League’s draft lottery on Apr. 18, you knew the hockey Gods would exact some measure of revenge at some point.
For the horseshoe-hiding Edmonton Oilers, those consequences arrived with the 2015-16 schedule and five of their first six games on the road, and continued into the preseason where last season’s leading scorer, Jordan Eberle, injured his shoulder on a harmless-looking bit of contact.
Today they are 0-2 with a game in Dallas tonight, and a home opener against the big, heavy St. Louis Blues on Thursday. Then it’s a weekend set in Calgary and Vancouver, and Oilers fans are wondering: Could this season become irrelevant even earlier than last year’s did?
Our advice? Chill.
This just in: The Oilers aren’t a powerhouse. In fact, over the past five seasons they have finished 28th on average in a 30-team league, and no one knows better than the people of Northern Alberta that inserting another 18-year-old into an NHL lineup does not show immediate dividends. (Even if his name plate has been altered by some Oiler disciples to read, “McJesus.”)
So they opened in St. Louis, a 109-point team last year and perennial Stanley Cup contender, losing a tight 3-1 game with an empty-netter. Then Edmonton traveled to Nashville, a 104-point club with the second best home record in the NHL last season, and lost 2-0.
Tonight it’s Dallas, a Stars team that only had 30 more points than the Oilers last season. So we’re saying there’s a chance — if the Oilers can manage to score a goal, that is.
Right now they’ve scored just once in two games, coming when Blues defenceman Alex Pietrangelo banked a clearing shot off the leg of teammate Alex Steen and past goalie Brian Elliott in the season opener. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got credit for the goal, but not for a shot on net.
“On my list of concerns coming in as a coach, [scoring] was not at the top by any means,” head coach Todd McLellan told reporters with the team in Dallas. “We’re trying to be perfect right now, but when we looked around the league at all the goals scored on Saturday night, there were very few perfect ones. A lot of them were on secondary opportunities, garbage-type goals.
“Our guys have to understand that’s usually how it’s going to happen. So we’ll get better in that area.”
There have been so many reasons to expect an instant turnaround in Edmonton — a new GM in Peter Chiarelli; a new coach in McLellan; two new defencemen in Andrej Sekera and Eric Gryba; McDavid — but the reality is, anyone who has paid attention around here is not expecting a quick fix.
Sure, the Oilers are 0-2. So are the Pittsburgh Penguins and Los Angeles Kings. The Columbus Blue Jackets and Boston Bruins are 0-3. But where the Penguins and Kings are built to win now, the word playoffs isn’t even in Edmonton’s lexicon right now.
Edmonton is a team that hasn’t played at an NHL level defensively in recent memory, going back into the past decade. Before anyone starts talking about making the playoffs, McLellan will have to instill a structure that will give Edmonton a chance to finish 20th.
To that end, the first two games have been a moderate success. Edmonton allowed two five-on-five goals in St. Louis and was tied 1-1 midway through the final period in a game that was relatively even. Then the Oilers allowed two goals in Nashville, outshot the Predators 31-26, and had five power plays to Nashville’s two. A power play goal, and who knows?
We’ve seen this two-step before, with every team that puts a new focus on defensive play. Step One is to learn how to be responsible defensively — an absolute must in today’s game. Step Two is to learn how to create offence from that new posture.
The old Oilers scored a decent amount, but the only way they could create offence is to trade chances with the opponent. Oilers hockey meant the puck was going in at one end or the other, and their annual place at the bottom of the standings is testament to how well that approach works in today’s NHL.
In today’s game you need great goaltending — another upgrade achieved thus far with Cam Talbot — and solid defence. Once those are in place – and only then — the other end of the rink demands attention.
The microcosm to all of this is McDavid, who has arrived at the NHL level so incredibly far ahead of other No. 1 overall picks in defensive awareness. In his zest to prove he can be counted on defensively however, we’ve not seen the McDavid that made the highlights shows last season.
“[For me] it’s just getting back to skating with the puck and trying to play the game as much as I can. That’s the main thing,” said McDavid. “You can get caught up in it, think about [the fact] you’re playing in the NHL, but at the end of the day you have to do the things that got you to this level. I just have to get back to that.”
Tonight would be a great place to start. We wouldn’t hold our breath, however.
This could take a while.