Rome is burning here in Edmonton and head coach Dallas Eakins stopped fiddling around with defenceman Nikita Nikitin, making him a healthy scratch just 21 games into his two-year, $9 million deal.
Tonight the Oilers host Chicago in the fifth and final game of a homestand that has produced but a single point thus far, an OT loss to Ottawa. Head coach Dallas Eakins had his entire team out for some power play work at Saturday morning skate after a 2-0 loss to New Jersey on Friday evening, but the roughly 15-minute practice was matched in length by an on-ice team meeting. After that, the entire team exited the Rexall Place ice en mass.
More NHL on Sportsnet:
Subscribe: Rogers GameCentre Live
Rogers Hometown Hockey | Broadcast Schedule
Sportsnet Fantasy Hockey Pool
Nikitin has been one of Edmonton’s most ineffective defencemen this season, and on Friday had another brutal game.
“He had a rough night last night,” admitted Eakins, who’d given the veteran Russian plenty of rope through 20 games. “He went too far.”
The Oilers’ season has sewered before American Thanksgiving — again — as they take a 6-12-2 record into tonight’s visit by Chicago. Frustration levels are sky high among fans in Edmonton, with a team that simply does not do the dirty work or go to the tough places where goals are scored.
This group has never done that, but things were supposed to be different this season. They aren’t.
“There has been a lot of talk this year about change,” Eakins said. “What are we going to hang our hat on as a team? That change has to come from within this (dressing) room.”
In Friday’s 2-0 loss, Taylor Hall made the crucial, unacceptable giveaway on the first New Jersey goal. Justin Schultz, who has not grasped the defensive concept necessary to be a 23-minute NHL defenceman, made the egregious pinch on the second goal.
Winger David Perron lamented post-game that the same people are making the same errors without consequence. He didn’t name names, but he didn’t have to. Hall owned up to his error immediately after the game in the media, but as another season heads down the drain, it just amounts to more talk.
“You have those discussions in the locker room, discussions among teammates, and eventually, you discuss yourself out,” said captain Andrew Ference. “You’ve got to do it. Actions make you who you are.”
He was talking about the tone of Saturday’s team meeting, on a team that has talked its way back into the Western Conference basement this season. Ference was clear that the time for talk has passed.
“Prove it. Show us something different,” he challenged. “It’s not just doing it for one shift, showing how hard you work for one period. It’s coming every night, trying to meet your potential.”
One night the Oilers score four goals, but give up five. The next they allow just two, but score none. When the goaltending is good, the shooters can’t score. When the goaltending is bad, as it has been on numerous nights this season, nothing has a chance of working.
And the defensive core is simply not strong enough to compete out West.
“It’s called consistency,” said Ference. “That encompasses everything. In a system, if you have four guys who have bought into the system and one guy who’s not, it’s a big wrench in the machine.
“(Inconsistency) destroys everything else that you’re trying to build. Good teams can’t have it. Teams that are struggling definitely can’t have it.”
It’s a familiar theme here in Edmonton, where the Oilers have once again become a soft, perimeter group. They look at the NHL highlights and see hard fought-for garbage goals scored from in tight and in traffic. And the Oilers are asking themselves, ‘Do we score enough of those goals?’
“You can talk it to death. I don’t know how you can get more black and white than some of the conversations we’ve had in here,” said Ference. “But eventually you’re responsible for yourself. You can talk all you want… There are certain things that are non-negotiable.”
