EDMONTON — At least at the Indy 500 they let you pull into the pit lane to change tires.
In the National Hockey League, they take the term “changing on the fly” to an entirely new level when it comes to tinkering with a lineup down the homestretch that Edmonton Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said was, “as disconnected as we have been for a long time.”
“You hear that when you’re not playing together,” mused veteran winger James Neal, who has heard it all from coaches through 820 NHL games and six different teams. “Every team goes through this, whether it’s early in the season, going into the playoffs, middle of the year… You’ll see a little bit of disconnect.
“We have new pieces, a lot of change going on. Everyone is trying to dial in and find their role within our lineup. We’re working on that. It’s take a few games here, but we’re starting to turn that.”
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In six of their past seven games — save an 8-3 thrashing of the Preds in Music City — the Oilers have been out shot and outplayed by their opponent. But Edmonton’s record in that span is an inspiring 4-2-1.
So with a practice day at his disposal on Tuesday — after a 3-2 overtime loss the night before in which Edmonton had just four shots on goal in the opening 30 minutes — Tippett got out the ol’ white board ‘n’ whistle, and held a good, old fashioned teaching practice at Rogers Place, prior to a Wednesday night visit by the Winnipeg Jets.
“From a coaching perspective,” began Tippett, “to have a real captive audience — where you’re not playing as well as you want, so players are trying to improve — it’s a good time to (slump). Not that you ever want to play badly, but you know how there are coachable moments?
“We’ve had a couple of coachable moments these last few games.”
There are windows in a season where a good team gets rolling along and wins come easy. Then there are times like this, when the goalie is making 40-plus saves every night, and guys are diving on the grenade just to get the game into overtime.
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The players know when they’re playing well, and they know when they’re not. So it was an attentive class that Tippett presided over on Tuesday, one that knows it’s pushing its luck collecting point after point while playing a disconnected, disorganized brand of shinny.
“I haven’t been on one team that’s played 82 good games,” said nine-year winger Zack Kassian. “It’s that simple. It’s a pretty important time for us, so you want to snap out of this pretty fast. But we’ve put ourselves in a good position. We’ve won some games that might not be that pretty, but we’re finding ways to win.
“I’ve been a part of Oilers teams where we’d find ways to lose every night,” he pointed out. “But there’s no ifs, ands or buts — we need to clean it up if we expect to make the playoffs and make some noise.”
Sometimes, even National Hockey Leaguers need the kind of hands-on instruction we all got as Bantams or Mites. Where the whistle blows, everyone stops where they are, and the coach comes around and moves you all into the correct position before starting the drill again.
It’s like sharpening your skates, but this time it’s the hockey mind that needs honing. It’s a long season, new players come and go, linemates and defence partners change.
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A refresher course, with a dozen games left in the regular season, never hurts.
“You need all of the above,” Tippett agreed. “When your team doesn’t get a lot of practice time, there’s video almost every day. But sometimes you need to go out on the ice, and just do it. Be in the right position. Stop in the right spot. Get the puck in the right spot, rather than just look at it on video. Those are the things we worked on today.
“We’re just too disconnected. Swinging all over the place, feeling like we want to get going and do something positive, but it ends up being just a mess out there.”
A mess to the coach, but pretty enough to the guy who updates the standings at the end of the night.
The Oilers have survived this long while disconnected. The chief mechanic knows, however, he has to tighten things up if he’s going to keep this baby out of the ditch.
