Klefbom faces confidence crisis as pressure to perform intensifies
If a team’s top defensive pairing isn’t going, then the team isn’t going.
The offence, the defence, the power play and the penalty kill are all tied to the performance of your best defencemen, so if they’re having trouble, everybody is having trouble.
Fans of the Edmonton Oilers don’t need to be told this, of course, because they are watching it play out before their own eyes.
The tandem of Oscar Klefbom and Adam Larsson is neck-deep in struggles, and there aren’t a lot of dots to be connected between that and the fact that the 27thplace Oilers are a week or two away from being in very real danger of missing the playoffs.
It’s more Klefbom than Larsson at the moment as the 24-year-old seems caught in a dizzying pingpong game between bad decisionmaking and low confidence.
“In my opinion, Klef is a little indecisive right now, offensively and defensively,” said head coach Todd McLellan, who might as well throw in the neutral zone to round out the hat trick of places where his No.1 defenceman is feeling lost.
“Confidence comes from making the right reads, not feeling good about your game comes from making the wrong reads. It goes together, confidence and play.
“He’s got a tremendous shot, but it’s not getting through to the area he’s targeting, whether it’s blocked or he’s missing the net. Those are individual struggles that affect the team play.”
McLellan broke the pairing up in practice Monday, skating Klefbom with Darnell Nurse and Larsson with Matt Benning. There’s talk of pairing Nurse with Larsson. It’s an obvious move to shake things up, but like with the sputtering power play, it’s not about shuffling players, it’s about players being better.
“People spend a lot of time talking about our Nos. 6 and 7 defencemen and what we have coming in the system, but 1-2 and 3 have to get the job done,” said McLellan. “They have to perform at a high level, and when that doesn’t happen, there’s no rescuing them with minutes to your seventh or eighth defencemen.
“Right now, we’re working hard to get 1-2 and 3 up and running and get them to where they need to be.”
Klefbom, who went minus four in Saturday’s 5-4 loss to the Washington Capitals, knows it starts with him. “Obviously, it’s not good enough, you guys can probably figure that out, that I’m not playing my best right now,” he said. “It’s tough. If you’re out there and you make one mistake, you start to think what you could have done better. It’s turning into bad momentum. I have to be better for sure.
“Right now, it’s not good enough for the whole team, but for me on a personal level, it’s not good enough.”
There is no question Klefbom has regressed since last season. He looks tentative, and when he does commit to something, it’s often the
He’s got a tremendous shot, but it’s not getting through to the area he’s targeting.
wrong decision. Ill-advised pinches at ill-advised times (like eight seconds into one game and in the final minute of the first period with a 2-0 lead in another) have cost the Oilers goals and momentum.
After going plus-three with nine shots on net in the season-opening game against the Calgary Flames, he’s been minus-nine with 23 shots in the next nine games, as the Oilers went 2-6-1.
The slump isn’t all his fault by a long stretch. Starting goalie Cam Talbot started poorly, forward Leon Draisaitl missed some time, special teams are miserable, and they’re having as much luck finding a right-winger for the first line as OJ had finding the real killer.
But, again, if your top pairing isn’t going, the team isn’t going.
“Me and Adam were struggling a bit last season, too,” said Klefbom, who has two assists in 10 games. “You just need that good bounce and you build off that. Right now, it’s just a bad bounce, and it takes you down right away. You get in a bad circle.”
It’s troubling, but Klefbom says this is not the time to start letting it get to his head. He and the Oilers have to fix their issues while there is still time, because that time is running out.
“I can’t be bad out there, I have to play better,” he said. “And the way I’m going to be better is I have to stay positive and do whatever I can.
“I can’t just go up to Todd and say I’m not feeling it today, go with somebody else. I have to step it up, for sure. There are a lot of games left and a lot of hockey, so there’s no reason why I don’t have time to pick it up, but it has to happen pretty soon.”