Youthful Oil Kings still battling erratic play
Displaying an ability to play hard has not been an issue for the Edmonton Oil Kings this season.
Playing hard for an entire 60 minutes at a time, however, has been a different story.
Heading into their game against the Medicine Hat Tigers on Wednesday (7 p.m.) at Rogers Place, Oil Kings head coach Steve Hamilton is looking for a more consistent effort from his young group.
The Oil Kings were all over the map in a 4-2 loss against the Kamloops Blazers on Sunday.
“That’s been our struggle, the consistency,” Hamilton said. “We get off to a good start, and at times, we play ourselves into situations where we take a penalty at the end of our power play where we had just missed a wide-open, empty net to give us a 1-0 lead.
“Just as that penalty expires, they score and it’s 1-0. But if you look at the complexion of the first period, we had a really good start and had a chance to build off it.”
The Oil Kings dominated the opening 10 minutes of the game against the Blazers and went on to outshoot the visitors 17-10 in the first period.
Yet, they were unable to maintain the momentum in the second and fell behind 3-1 and were then forced to chase the game.
“In the second period, for whatever reason, we go away from the formula that makes us successful,” Hamilton said. “We continually go back to the keys, the foundational pieces that we have when we have success. That’s something, the consistency of commitment to that is where we’ve had our struggles, our ups and downs.
“When we play well, we’re on point, we’re sharp, you can tell the guys are all-in, so to speak, and when we mismanage the puck, that’s the one thing that hurts us. We fuel the other team’s offence when we’re unable or unwilling to make their defencemen turn to go back and get it and we turn it over easily in the neutral zone.”
With a team made up mainly of players 18 years old and younger, there are going to be inconsistencies throughout a rebuilding season. Hamilton, however, feels his team can no longer use youth as an excuse heading toward the tail end of the year.
“Consistency is something that comes with experience and confidence and all of those things,” Hamilton said. “We talk about youthful moments, but everyone here has played at least half a year in the league. So at that point, it falls on the players to commit to playing hard.
“It’s an aggressive game and if you don’t have an aggressive mindset or a willingness to battle in those critical situations, you leave everyone else exposed on the ice. So there is a little bit of responsibility on players that goes along with that.”
Coming in against the Tigers, the Oil Kings (13-27-4-2) need to put in a full effort to earn a positive outcome.
The Tigers (24-28-5-0) are currently first in the WHL Central Division standings.
The last time the two teams played at Rogers Place — in the final game before the Christmas break — the Oil Kings battled back from a two-goal, third-period deficit en route to a shootout loss.
The Oil Kings lost 5-1 to the Tigers in Medicine Hat on Jan. 5.
“They have a lot of high-end skill,” said Oil Kings captain Colton Kehler. “But it’s definitely a team that we can have some success against if we play the right way. We know the game we have to play to do so, and it’s just a maturity thing knowing the spot that we’re in.”
The Oil Kings are currently fifth in the Central, 11 points back of the Kootenay Ice for the final playoff spot in the division.
The Oil Kings have been playing much better since returning from the Christmas break. They are 6-5-1-1 after Christmas, but have dropped three of their past four games.
“We have enough games to make a push toward the end of the year,” Kehler said. “It’s just about taking it day by day and coming in and putting in the effort. That’s the biggest thing for us.”
Consistency is something that comes with experience and confidence and all of those things.