Both Oilers and Devils are battling expectations
Edmonton kicks off its season Saturday looking to rebound from 2017-18’s step back
Expectations are like an expensive bottle of red wine.
Sometimes the price tag and how it looks doesn’t quite equate to how it tastes.
Like last year’s Edmonton Oilers, who were coming off a 103-point season and were a sexy pick to win the Stanley Cup before the wine turned to whine as they tumbled to 78.
Either the Oilers didn’t get off their high horse or the coaches tried to take the pressure off those expectations too much rather than saying; “OK, show us how good you are.”
So which edition of the Oilers are we going to see starting Saturday on Hockey Night in Sweden?
The heat was on the Oilers last October to replicate the year before and even though they looked all-world in a 3-0 pasting of Calgary in the opening game, they crashed and burned after that. Now the New Jersey Devils, who will be sharing the playbill Saturday, are facing the same scrutiny after surprisingly making the playoffs last year, going from 70 points to 97.
The Oilers were the hunted last year and now the Devils are.
The pressure may be squeezing them, too. Although it depends on who’s doing the talking.
“To be honest, I think we’re in different situations,” said Devils winger and last season’s league MVP Taylor Hall. “Everybody was expecting the Oilers to take another step last year and it seems like everyone is pegging us to go down.”
There was a mental adjustment for the Oilers, though, in 2017-18 and it’s the same for the Devils this season, where they’re not sneaking up on anybody.
“I know in our exit meetings with the players last spring the message was we need to be better and we can’t be satisfied. A year ago today we were picked to finish last and we wound up making the playoffs,” said New Jersey coach John Hynes.
So over to you, Todd McLellan. What does the identity of this year’s Oilers have to be?
“We had a meeting in training camp and I asked our group, ‘Who are we and who are you?’ ” said the Oilers coach. “We have to answer those questions. In the past when we’ve had a strong identity and played to it consistently, we’ve given ourselves a chance to win, but we got away from that.
“Part of our identity is to play faster with better tempo and pace and puck movement. We’ve said all of that, but we need better risk management. We definitely need to be a better defensive team, part of that is our special teams (25th on the penalty kill). But overall we can’t be giving up 264 goals. If we do that again, we aren’t getting the opportunity to play in late April or early May.”
That brings us to goalie Cam Talbot, who was strong in the pre-season. Was his game just off last year, especially early in games and often on the game’s first shot, which got past him? Or was it because the guys in front of him were like Walmart greeters in their end?
Talbot, who was A-plus two seasons ago, probably deserved a C on his report card last year.
“I have to get back to playing confidently and aggressively,” said Talbot. “And last year I gave up my ice too early and was trying to overthink things too much. I have to get back to the basics, challenging the shooters.”
Like all coaches, McLellan said goaltending and team defensive play all go into the wash.
“When the team’s playing poorly, the goalie often has poor numbers. There’s times when a goalie can bail his team out and make the team look better than they are and Cam’s done that in the past,” said McLellan. “We want to balance that out and he’s been sharp through pre-season.”
New Jersey and Edmonton certainly don’t have a hate on for each other. That wasn’t the draw from the league’s standpoint to have their opening faceoff in Gothenburg.
“This (matchup) may seem a bit random, but it was set up so Leon (Draisaitl) could play in Germany and Nico (Hischier) in his home country in Switzerland and there’s a lot of Swedes on both sides, so it makes sense,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid.
But they are in the expectations game just like the Oilers. So gentleman, start your engines.
“It seems like we’ve been over here (Europe) for a long time with no games, just the one (in Cologne, Germany) ... lots of practices and lots of sightseeing, but right now we need the stress of playing a game that counts, a real win and a real loss,” said McLellan. “We need to set the bar early in Game 1 against New Jersey and try to move it up.”