EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers have, for some many years, been must-watch hockey in the regular season. As high event in the opponent’s end as they’ve been in their own zone, you could call the Oilers a lot of things over the past 20 to 25 years.
But you could never call them boring.
Today, as they build towards their third straight second-place finish and playoff appearance under general manager Ken Holland, they are a team that has perhaps found the brake lever on excitement. Not dull, not overtly defensive, the Oilers are simply a team that has learned to play in control.
Today, this is a team that can hold a lead without a goalie playing like his hair is on fire. One that can cough up a 2-0 lead, as they did Wednesday against Dallas, but then regroup and calmly take it back in a relatively dominant 5-2 win.
“Guys are confident right now — up and down the lineup,” said Connor McDavid, who had the empty netter on a three-point night. “Guys feel good about their own game, and feel good about our team game. There are a lot of good things happening right now.”
Edmonton is 7-1-1 in April, an .833 stretch run that ranks sixth in the NHL. Since March 1 they’re 16-5-3, fifth-best in the NHL.
The Oilers only had to pass Los Angeles in the standings once, because Edmonton simply has not allowed the Kings an opportunity to retake second place in the Pacific.
After a pair of 4-0 wins over Nashville and Vegas, the Oilers manhandled the Stars for much of Wednesday’s game, scoring five times at even strength. That’s a 13-2 aggregate over two wildcard teams and a Vegas club playing for its life.
So why the steady waters, in a town where riding the waves was always fun, if not always the key to success?
“I think we’ve gone through quite a bit of adversity over the year,” said Duncan Keith, after the first plus-five night in his 1,252-game career. “We started out really well, then things went kind of sideways. We had a coaching change. We’ve gone through a lot and we’ve tried to learn a lot.
“It’s taking what you’ve learned and putting it to work in the moment. So far we keep seeming to get better.”
Truly, this Oilers team looks nothing like the one that found itself in a position to fire Dave Tippett back on Feb. 10. But here they are, undoubtedly better for it.
“This year we have had to fight for our lives,” McDavid said. “We have been down and out, and out of the playoffs by as many as (six) points. We were out of the race and had to scratch and claw and get our way back in — and we still haven't clinched. We have been playing playoff hockey here for a while and I think maybe last year we were a little more comfortable in our position. I’m not going to say we took our foot off the gas, but we didn't have to play that desperate style of hockey.”
What began as desperation has emerged as a calm that any playoff run requires.
On Wednesday it looked like they would run Dallas out of the building, up 2-0 just 6:17 into the game. But the score was 2-1 after 20, and tied up five minutes into the second.
The “oh, oh” factor never reared its head, however. The fragility that was once well rooted here at Rogers Place appears gone, at least for the time being. When Edmonton played the game it wanted to play, Dallas couldn’t stick with them.
“We simplified our game and asserted our will,” said head coach Jay Woodcroft. “Our team is trending in the right direction, but as I’ve said the last couple of days, I don't think we’ve played to our full potential yet.”
“I think our five-on-five game has improved a lot. I like where it is at,” added McDavid. “When you are solid five-on-five, not a ton of things are going to go on, and that’s all right.”
McDavid awoke Wednesday morning to see that Jonathan Huberdeau had passed him in the NHL scoring race, knocking him off the Art Ross perch he has held virtually the entire season. McDavid answered with a three-point night against Dallas, but spoke afterwards like a guy who has moved on from focusing on individual trophies, in exchange for the one trophy that has eluded this franchise since 1990.
“We’ve talked a lot about that stuff here,” he said, when asked about the Art Ross Trophy. “We have been here and done that — we are trying to play good hockey and win games.
“That is ultimately what we are focussed on.”
