BLOG: Oilers re-evaluating their effort after opening-night defeat

EDMONTON, AB – It was an effort that was nowhere near their standard, and the post-game comments of the Oilers players and their head coach reflected that.

“You get ready for the next one. That's what we're going to do,” captain Connor McDavid said on Wednesday. “Obviously you’d like to learn from some of the breakdowns and get ready for the next one.

“Lots of things went wrong.”

When the Oilers reconvened on Thursday morning at Rogers Place to regroup following their season-opening 8-1 defeat to the Vancouver Canucks, the conversations weren’t centred around the new tactical approach they implemented this offseason, their personnel deployment in the defeat, or one single player’s performance.

Instead, the discussions surrounded their collective effort levels in their opening game of the regular season after putting in what they thought was a solid month over Captain’s Skates, Training Camp and the pre-season working towards starting their campaign out strongly with a good first game on the road against the Canucks.

After Wednesday night, it’s quite clear to the group that their competitive level wasn't where it needed to be.

“The meeting that we had with our team today didn't go anywhere near systems. It went to the effort,” Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. “When I say that, I'm just talking about how regular-season hockey is different than pre-season hockey, and how we understand that given our recent history, the players that we have and our potential here in Edmonton, that's the type of game we should expect to see on a nightly basis from our opponents.

“We're disappointed that we didn't meet the competitive level of last night's game. But that's one game that happened last night, it didn't sit well this morning. We've gone through it, we've taught off of it, and now we flush it.

“The good news is that we get a chance or another crack at that same team coming into our building here on Saturday night in front of the best fans in the world.”

Woodcroft mentioned in his media availability on Thursday afternoon that within their own defensive zone, some of the things he wanted to see were taking hold in his group. But the challenges arose from too many giveaways and some poor reads of the play when the Canucks applied pressure on the rush.

“I think we spent very little time in our own zone yesterday,” Head Coach Jay Woodcroft said. “In fact, I think we had double the amount of O-zone time than we spent in our D-zone, so I didn't see breakdowns of that variety. I saw a couple of breakout turnovers, I saw a couple of rush reads that have to be a whole lot better, but I didn't see a whole lot of zone time in our own end.”

The Oilers are a proud group who will hold each other accountable on their quest to improve on a day-by-day basis, and a poor result in their first game of the campaign will put that philosophy to the test early in hopes of answering back on home ice against the same Canucks team that put eight goals past them on Wednesday night.

“I don't believe in sweeping things under the rug. I believe in being direct and open and upfront and telling the truth,” Woodcroft added. “Close teams can have those kinds of conversations, and close teams know when they haven't lived up to a certain type of standard. There's not a person – coach or player – that feels good about the result of that game.

“We think we've had a real good month here in Edmonton, but the way we played last night was nowhere near our standard; nowhere near the level of desperation and urgency required to win in the NHL.”

Instead of having to dwell on the defeat for an extra day on Friday before their chance to respond on Saturday night at Rogers Place in front of their home fans, the Oilers are looking at the extra day as another opportunity to work on some of the issues that need to be addressed.

“You can look at it that way, but I would say that's a glass-half-empty kind of viewpoint,” Woodcroft said. “I think the yin to that yang would be that we get a day to work on some things, and clearly there are some things that need to be touched up.

“Today is a recovery day. A couple of guys are going to go on the ice and others are going to get their off-ice recovery, but tomorrow is when we'll practice and we'll be ready Saturday night. I have complete faith in our people.”