BEDEVILLED NO LONGER
Hall enjoys stellar season in Jersey
If the best revenge is living well, then Taylor Hall is wreaking a terrible vengeance on the Edmonton Oilers.
Every night, as he places the New Jersey Devils on his back and practically wills them toward a playoff spot, fans in Edmonton wince in pain, wondering why the former cornerstone of the franchise isn’t doing that here.
We can only imagine how Oilers brass is coping with it.
The organization never came out and said Hall was to blame for all those years of missing the playoffs, but when a point-per-game player is dealt for a stay-at-home defenceman, you get the sense it’s more than just a hockey trade.
He did, anyway.
And now, two years later, while the Oilers wallow at the bottom of the standings again, starved for offence and wingers, Hall is riding a 26-game point streak after producing two assists in Tuesday ’s 6-4 win over the Montreal Canadiens and is being mentioned as a possible Hart Trophy candidate.
Turns out that maybe you can win with him after all.
Asked during a Professional Hockey Writers Association conference call Tuesday morning if he feels somewhat vindicated by what’s happening this season, the 26-year-old stopped short of saying ‘I told you so’ and focused the attention on living well.
“I’ve always wanted to play on a playoff team,” said Hall, who missed the post-season in all six of his years with the Oilers. “I’ve always wanted to be on a winning team, a successful team, and for whatever reason, it just didn’t happen in Edmonton.
“More than anything, I’m just happy to be in that situation, happy to be in a playoff race spotlight. It’s a fun place to be after not really experiencing that throughout my career.
“So I don’t think ‘vindicated’ is the word I’d choose. I’m happy with the season I’ve had personally, and I’m happy with our team’s season and that’s a good feeling to have after the years I’ve been through.”
His time in Edmonton was the worst period in franchise history. Hall came to the Oilers in 2010, and in his six years with the club — a stretch that included three more lottery wins, as well as drafting Leon Draisaitl at No. 3 and Darnell Nurse at No. 7 — the Oilers finished 30th, 29th, 24th, 28th, 28th and 29th in the 30-team NHL.
The organization made an awful mess of things, but Hall felt the blame shifting his way instead.
“You don’t want to start feeling sorry for yourself,” he told northjersey.com last month. “At the same time, you have to look at it. ‘Am I really the reason?’ I don’t think that. I’ve never thought that. I think I’ve played on some pretty bad hockey teams, if you want to put it bluntly.
“You get drafted No. 1 overall and it comes with the territory the first couple of seasons. Then, after that, it’s kind of like, ‘OK, what are we doing here?’”
They are still asking that question in Edmonton, 12 years after the first of three rebuilds began. Organizational stability in New Jersey, something he never had with the Oilers, definitely agrees with him.
“Over the course of my career in Edmonton, I had a lot of different coaches (five in six years) and a lot of different changes. Coming here and having the same coaching staff two years in a row, that’s probably the biggest thing.”
Hall also admits he’s grown as a player because of all this. He’s a veteran now, with more than 500 games to his credit, and is being counted on to be a leader in New Jersey.
It’s a role he fully embraces.
In the end, the trade that cut him so deeply two years ago might have been the best thing that ever happened to him.
“Whenever you go through change, whether it’s a trade or anything in life it forces you to take a step back and re-assess things a little bit. More than anything, it was an opportunity for a fresh start with a fresh coaching staff, fresh management. I was able to come in with a clean slate and I think that helped out a lot.”
Hall gives a lot of credit for his development and his breakout season to Devils head coach John Hynes, who is able to reach him in a way that none of his coaches could.
“It’s not that I didn’t want dialogue with my coaches in Edmonton, of course, I always wanted to learn,” said Hall. “But as far as day-to-day dialogue, one-on-one, I think that John Hynes and I have developed a pretty good relationship this year, and we’ve been able to talk about more things than just what line you’re playing on or how you’re playing.
“We’ve been able to talk about our team’s schedule, different things on our team.
“He’s brought me more involved in a leadership role than maybe I was involved with other coaches in Edmonton.
“It’s not to say I had bad coaches by any means in Edmonton. I learned a lot from my coaches there, I just never maybe connected with them one on one as much as I have with the coach here.”
Coming here and having the same coaching staff two years in a row, that’s probably the biggest thing.