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Final 10 games mostly against playoff-bound opponents
In the aftermath of the sorry scene that unfolded Saturday night at Rexall Place, Edmonton Oilers head coach Dallas Eakins tossed out the words “blip” and “hope” in the same breath.
Maybe it didn’t have the same attention-grabbing efficacy as the water bottle toss that ignited a spat between Eakins and Taylor Hall during the Calgary Flames’ 8-1 drubbing of the Oilers, but it was conclusive, nonetheless.
It was the most lopsided win the Flames have had in Edmonton and the Oilers’ worst defeat since they were thumped 10-2 by the Buffalo Sabres on Jan. 27, 2009.
The pitiful performance, including the Oilers giving up four goals on five shots, inspired some fans to toss their jerseys, including the one goaltender Ben Scrivens quickly scooped up with his stick and flipped back into the crowd.
“I apologize to the fans who were here who had to watch that,” Eakins said in his postgame media conference. “It was painful on the bench and I’m sure it was painful in the stands.
“We hope it’s just a blip on the radar.”
The Oilers had Sunday off — one of the four mandated off-days on the monthly calendar. They resume their homestand at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday against the San Jose Sharks at Rexall Place.
Of the 10 remaining games, there’s nothing but trouble looming.
The Oilers have two games against the Sharks, and three against the Anaheim Ducks; both teams are jockeying for the top seed in the Western Conference. There’s a meeting with the Phoenix Coyotes, who looking to secure a playoff spot; another against the Los Angeles Kings; plus a contest with the upstart Colorado Avalanche.
Games against the New York Rangers and Vancouver Canucks round out the final stretch.
“We lost 8-1 and you don’t really expect the fans to cheer and stay in the game. They’re disappointed, just as much as we are,” Hall said.
“We set a goal to be a better team at home and, obviously, this wasn’t our best. We’re going to work to win our fans back over the next couple of weeks and next year.”
Edmonton hadn’t lost two straight games in regulation since Jan. 21-24, rolling out a 10-4-3 record recently, but the club also lost 3-1 to the 30th-place Sabres on Thursday.
“That’s the biggest thing with hockey. It’s an 82-game season,” said Scrivens.
“Obviously, we didn’t play anywhere near what we expect, but that being said, the game is over now. There’s nothing we can do to change it.
“We’ll get back to practice, try and address the numerous mistakes we made, and we’ll go forward and try to win the next game.”
Eakins said he hoped players would be able to reset during the day off and that it would be back to work when they returned to practice.
“This is when it’s hard. You have to walk around town with it for a couple of days,” said Eakins, “but I told them when they come in on Monday, this has to be gone. We need to get back to how we were playing before. Like I said, we have to make sure this is a blip on the radar.”
“The fans weren’t happy and, again, I’ve said it before, if we were sitting there, I’d be doing the same thing they were,” said David Perron, who reached over to Hall to try to defuse Saturday’s “watergate” incident.
“You can’t have those situations. We can do whatever we want in the room, but not in front of 20,000 people,” he continued. “Then rumours start without knowing the whole story. Hopefully, we learned from it.”
Both Eakins and Hall said after the game their confrontation was the result of overboiling emotions and that it was over and done with.
In the second period, the winger threw a water bottle that exploded and showered Eakins and associate coach Keith Acton. Words were exchanged between the head coach and Hall, who then went 13 minutes without a shift.
“I don’t expect anything more,” Hall said. “At times, I think we all get a little frustrated with how it’s going. Sometimes, you just have to take a step back and realize that frustration is never going to help anything. We know we have to get better.”
There’s seldom been any uncertainty about Hall’s state of mind. He has celebrated goals with unbridled joy and slammed his stick on the ice in frustration.
“Definitely the biggest weakness in my game is being able to control my emotions,” he said.
“I’m not going to blame it on anyone else. It’s just one of those things. I expect so much of myself and our team and, after a while, you get frustrated.
“But it’s really not going to help anything. Just staying calm and staying in the game usually works out a lot better. I can’t really think of any times where I’ve been frustrated and I’ve really let go of my emotions and had it work out for me in a game. I’ve just got to control that.”
Eakins, for his part, said there are going to be confrontations between players and coaches and that you just move on when it’s over.
“I’ve had bigger run-ins than that with players this year,” he said. “Sometimes it’s caught on camera; sometimes it’s not.”