BLOG: Excitement in Oilers locker room building as playoffs approach

EDMONTON, AB - Things are about to get real.
McDavid's historic season, new individual career highs and a 50-win regular season for the Edmonton Oilers all go out the window as the NHL shortens its list of teams down to only the playoff-worthy competitors, who proved over a rigorous 82-game schedule that they're worthy of their place in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"I think emotions and everything get magnified at this time of year," Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. "What you put all the work in for is to earn a spot in the playoffs. It's gone from 32 to 16 teams, and anytime the league narrows, the quality of play increases.
"Every moment is magnified and I think the excitement of our players today in practice was quite obvious."
The first practice of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs for the Oilers on Saturday afternoon at Downtown Community Arena brought palpable excitement to the players and coaches of the Blue & Orange, who open their post-season campaign at Rogers Place on Monday evening with Game 1 of their opening-round series against the Los Angeles Kings.
"It's renewed energy, right?" winger Zach Hyman said. "You play an 82-game season to have an opportunity to play in the real season, and today is the first day of that. So it's almost like the start of a new year where you're excited about your team and the opportunity that you have ahead of you."

Following an off-day on Friday after closing out their schedule with a 5-2 victory over the San Jose Sharks that marked their ninth win in a row, the Oilers wiped the slate clean and returned to work Saturday to make sure that every lead domino they toppled over the course of the regular season to prepare themselves for this moment pays off in the form of a long and successful playoff run.
"You've heard me say it ad nauseam down the stretch here that we use each game or each day during the regular season as a dress rehearsal to prepare us for this moment that we're in right now," Woodcroft added. "So as we're in these couple of practices to get ready for Los Angeles, not much has changed for us. We continue to work at our game.
"We're aware of what Los Angeles does very well. We have a plan, but we are steady on the rudder in terms of our messaging and our preparation. I think today we had a good day and we're going to look to build on that tomorrow."

Building a playoff beard if you're an Oilers player or coach involves different approaches and philosophies. Some want to go all out, others won't entertain the idea, while a few are keeping things status quo with their already-established dominance when it comes to facial hair.
"I haven't shaved in 10 years, so that's not happening," Mattias Ekholm stated. "I might trim it."
The beardly Swedish defenceman checked all the boxes for the Oilers at the Trade Deadline when he was acquired from the Nashville Predators to fortify their blueline, and the beard was a nice extra bonus.
"I'll tell you a funny story," Woodcroft said. "When we made the trade for Mattias, one of the first things Mark Stuart our assistant coach said was 'He's got a great beard game,' so it'll be interesting to see."
"He's already got the playoff beard," captain Connor McDavid said. "Nobody's going to be able to get a beard like him."

The trade proved to be seamless after the 32-year-old finished the season with a team-best +28 plus/minus despite only playing in 21 games for the Oilers, who went 18-2-1 to close out the season with him in the lineup.
With the best beard in the Oilers locker room and the most playoff experience on the team with 75 post-season games under his belt, including a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals with Nashville in 2017-18, nobody's willing to challenge Ekholm's seniority in both departments.
"Nobody tells him what to do. He's gone the furthest on our team," Hyman said, still sporting a stitched-up cut below his lower lip from Tuesday's victory over the Colorado Avalanche. "I'll shave. I'm just waiting to get the stitches out, but everybody's got their own different protocol. Most guys will be growing a beard, I would imagine."
The moustache is Stuart Skinner's specialty, and the Calder-worthy Oilers netminder has no plans to change other than a small trim before letting it go until the Stanley Cup is won. "I'm for sure keeping the 'stache," he said. "I'll do a little trim and then I'll shave all this (around the moustache), get a haircut, then not touching anything for the rest of the summer, hopefully.
"I'll trim it a touch just so I'm not eating food and eating my mustache at the same time, and then we'll go from there. But after that, I'm leaving it."

For Woodcroft, he'll be carrying on with his clean-shaven look for the sake of his own appearance and the wise words of his parents from when he was younger.
"I don't know if you'd want to see my beard. It's bright red," he said. "My parents always said, 'You want to make sure that you present nicely,' so I'll make sure that I'll be clean-shaven. I can't speak for anybody else, but I'll be clean."
But above all, the Oilers are just excited to get their Stanley Cup Playoff campaign underway.
"I'm excited for the opportunity just to play in the playoffs. It's not easy to get in," McDavid said. "We've always kind of said that and t's a great opportunity. I think our group is excited for the challenge and looking forward to getting things rolling."