Slumping Oilers hit a critical stretch
Hitchcock continues to stress positives despite current four-game losing streak
Don’t look now, but with the Edmonton Oilers at their weakest and most vulnerable, here comes the do-or-die part of the schedule.
On a four-game losing streak, minus their best defenceman and sitting 10th in their conference, the Oilers are in a stretch of seven straight games against the West: Vancouver, San Jose, Winnipeg, Arizona, Los Angeles, Anaheim and San Jose.
They are 0-1 so far after that 4-2 loss to Vancouver on Thursday and need to find their stride in a hurry or risk watching the teams ahead of them pull away for good.
“We’re playing within our own division now, so these games are huge,” said defenceman Darnell Nurse. “We didn’t have many of them early on in the season, but when you start to get into them they for sure have a little more importance because the points within your division and your conference matter that much more.
“We have to be ready because these are huge games for us.”
Post Christmas has not been kind to the Oilers in recent years. This is where the season got away from them last winter. They were 17-17-2 and still very much in the mix at Christmas, then went 1-6-1 after the break and that was it.
Forward Jujhar Khaira, back from his two-game suspension, doesn’t have any concern that another holiday crash is right around the corner. He sees them pulling out of this rather quickly and turning this make or break stretch into a proving ground.
“If we stick to our game plan, if we believe in each other and have each other’s back out there, it’s going to be a good seven games for us,” he said.
This is a team that does tend to ride waves of momentum, both good and bad. They went 8-2 1 under Todd McLellan, followed by a 1-6 slide. Then they went 8-1-1 under Hitchcock and are now on an 0-4 slide.
So the ability to get hot is definitely in their arsenal, but so is the ability to make it look like the sky is falling.
“We have to find ways to not turn one bad game into another,” said forward Drake Caggiula, who’s back in the lineup Saturday after a bout with the flu. “We have to find a way to forget about it and move on.”
Asked after practice Friday if he has to do as much emotional coaching as tactical coaching given that this has been a fragile group in the past, Hitchcock said they are not the least bit fragile now, then began some emotional coaching.
“I hate the word fragile,” he said. “It means weak to me. To me, it means you can’t go the distance. We’re anything but that. Our starts are our problem, it’s not that we can’t go the distance. To me fragile is a bad word because it means you’re not competitive.”
The mood in town might be somewhere between fear and gloom, but despite four straight losses and 24 goals against in the last six games, the coaches’ room remains upbeat.
Hitchcock still believes this is still that same 8-1-1 team that simply isn’t deep enough to withstand a couple of well placed injuries.
“I know this is a very tough time for people, but I’m excited,” he said.
“I’m excited by the response and the improvement. We won games before where we needed our goalie to completely stand on his head. We’re approaching a different stage now as a group.
“But we got smacked right in the face by injuries, injuries
This is a pretty damn resilient group that wants to get better. As long as they want to get better, we’re going to get better.
to the wrong spot in our group (defencemen Oscar Klefbom and Kris Russell) where we couldn’t absorb it and now we’re trying to fight out of it.
“It’s helped us see what Caleb Jones is all about and to try and get Darnell Nurse to another level. There’s been some adversity and we’ve suffered some pains for that, but it’s helped us.”
The coach doesn’t see a team on the ropes, wondering where the KO punch is coming from, but rather a team that is committed to grinding its way out of this.
“I like our attitude, I like how we work, I like where we’re going. I know it doesn’t show up on the scoreboard, but man, I’ve seen it way worse than this. This is a pretty damn resilient group that wants to get better. As long as they want to get better, we’re going to get better.
“The minute they start losing hope or become fragile, that’s when you’re really in trouble.”
They haven’t given up hope, but if they don’t get back on track soon, they will be staring trouble in the face.
“I told the players today, we’re not where we want to be but we’re getting there,” said Hitchcock.
“We just have to keep on task. If we keep playing with enthusiasm and keep becoming good students we’re going to end up in a good spot.”