EDMONTON — The look ahead in Edmonton is not like the look ahead in Vancouver, Montreal or Ottawa. It’s more Toronto-esque — as in, we’ve been looking into the distance for long enough around here.
Tell me what you’re going to do this spring? We’re interested in the right now, not some distant hopes in a long-promised future.
So, what lies ahead for a team that went three rounds last season, and finds itself in an identical spot a year later, hanging around the wildcard positions?
Let’s ask a few questions and sort that out, shall we?
Can the Oilers recapture the game that took them three rounds deep last season?
A season ago through 36 games, Edmonton had an 18-16-2 record and a .528 winning percentage, good for 20th in the NHL. This season they are 19-15-2 and ranked 18th in winning percentage — only one win better than the roster that got Dave Tippett fired on Feb. 10.
That team went on a tear, however, finishing 26-9-3 under Jay Woodcroft — behind only Florida over that final stretch of games.
Can this Oilers team find its game the way that one did? So far it’s been a series of starts and stops. A big win in Dallas, Calgary or Tampa, followed by a disappointing home-ice loss to a bottom feeder or two. They are a team that’s been unable to gain a foothold.
“As you build your team, you hope that no matter what opponent you’re playing, you’re going to be able to kind of weigh your game and find out what your game is. And I think as you go through a season you slowly begin to figure out what makes you successful,” Zach Hyman explained over the Christmas break. “Playing against an opponent that doesn’t give you much, that makes you play a certain way to win, can help you to find and figure out what makes you successful. (Games) against an opponent that’s first in their division, or in a building that’s traditionally really, really hard to play in … can definitely help us figure out exactly how we need to play moving forward.”
They just won a 2-1 game at Calgary coming out of the Christmas break, and recently beat the red hot Dallas Stars with a style that looked very much like a playoff team.
Can they roll those games out consistently in the second half?
“It comes down to the group in the locker room, right?” Hyman said. “Because everybody will say the right things. You always talk about it: ‘Hey, we need to play a certain way.’ But until you go out there and do it…
“There’s no answer, right? There’s no ‘how button.’ It’s going out there and doing it every single day and every single game. You hope that as you progress in the season, your group figures that out.”
[brightcove videoID=6317523038112 playerID=JCdte3tMv height=360 width=640]
What’s the future of Jack Campbell?
We’re not gonna lie. It’s looking iffy.
When a goalie undergoes an equipment change the likes of the one Campbell is tinkering with mid-season, it’s not a positive sign.
Campbell is currently working in new leg pads that are light years more modern and stiffer than the flexible Vaughns he has used for most of his career, and upper body gear that is clearly bigger and more contemporary than what he has used to date.
Whether he uses the new gear in what we suspect will be a start in one of the Oilers back to back games on Dec. 30 and 31, or waits a while, a new kit in the middle of his first season in Edmonton is testimony to just how it’s gone for Campbell since signing a five-year, $25 million deal last summer.
Not well.
He’s started just 15 of 36 games and has an .876 saves percentage and a 4.02 goals against average. If not for the emergence of budding Rookie of the Year candidate Stuart Skinner, Edmonton would not be in any kind of playoff contention.
What happens at the deadline?
Edmonton needs a defender, and some help in their bottom six.
They’ll find a defenceman who fans will think is nowhere near as sexy as Jakob Chychrun, but one who will take some hard minutes from Darnell Nurse and push Brett Kulak into a solid third-pairing role. And they’ll add a faceoff man of some description, two acquisitions meant to help keep pucks out of their own net rather than filling the opponent’s, something Edmonton is already adept at.
After that, there is not a single contentious signing on GM Ken Holland’s plate this summer. Evan Bouchard requires his second pro contract, but after that relatively easy bit of work, the only expiring deals belong to players like Ryan Murray and Mattias Janmark, Devin Shore and Derek Ryan.
Jesse Puljujarvi’s contract is also up, but if he isn’t dealt at the deadline to facilitate a deal he will not be qualified at $3 million, set free to find a new team and a fresh opportunity elsewhere in the National Hockey League.
