PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers at Coyotes

The Edmonton Oilers look to win back-to-back games when they close out their three-game road trip at Mullett Arena on Monday afternoon against the Arizona Coyotes.

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TEMPE, AZ – When Kris Knoblauch took over behind the Oilers bench in mid-November, one of his first responsibilities as head coach to get the players back on track was to try and help calm the waters inside the dressing room from a difficult 3-9-1 start to the 2023-24 NHL season.

“They're under so much pressure from what's going on around the NHL, what the fans are saying, and what's going on with their seasons,” he said. “So much of it's just out of their control, and ultimately, they're worrying about things that are just uncontrollable.

“If they can control what is under their control, it's just so much easier to simplify things."

With their eyes too far on the future, it was important for the players to stay grounded in the present and focused on what was immediately ahead of them. Since his arrival, the bench boss has enjoyed the response he’s received from his group and hopes their success with a segmented strategy can continue.

• PROJECTED LINEUP: Oilers at Coyotes

“I thought there was a lot of frustration with how the season was going when I came in here,” Knoblauch said after Sunday’s practice at the Ice Den in Scottsdale. “We just needed to settle things down and not look at what's going to happen April 1 or May 1. It was just, ‘What can take care of right now?’ and look at the short term.

“I think with any team that I've ever coached, you just have to look at what you can control at the moment, and that's from game to game or even shift to shift. I think we've done a pretty good job of handling that.”

The Oilers have compiled a 29-9-0 record under Knoblauch since his arrival on Nov. 12 and are looking to make it back-to-back wins on Monday afternoon when they take on the Arizona Coyotes, who face Colorado in Denver on Sunday before flying home to host the Oilers inside the charged-up atmosphere of Mullett Arena on the campus of Arizona State University.

"That is something that will be new for me," Knoblauch said. "I have not been in that arena yet. I don't know what that's going to be like. I'll be taking the advice of the coaches and the players and seeing what kind of factor that is, but I think it's important for us to have that energy and play, and the atmosphere of playing in that arena just provides that."

Entering Sunday, the Coyotes had lost eight straight games to fall 10 points behind the St. Louis Blues for the final Wild Card spot, so the Oilers can expect a desperate opponent that'll use any advantage they can get to earn two points and push themselves into the post-season conversation.

"We haven't played here this year, so that's obviously a different challenge," defenceman Mattias Ekholm said. "But I think they as a team have played better this year. They're in the hunt for the playoffs, so we know that they're a dangerous team and they got a lot of young, skilled players, so we'll have to bring our A-game."

Edmonton responded in a big way to their defeat in St. Louis by beating the surging Dallas Stars 4-3 in overtime on Saturday, avoiding losing two straight games for the first time since before the Christmas break between Dec. 16 & 19, 2023.

“I think obviously there's a tremendous amount of talent here, and good teams end up putting together long winning stretches and the losing stretches are –  more importantly – short,” Knoblauch said. “And I think when they do have a bad game, they take it personally and they take a lot of pride that they want to respond and play well, and we've been able to do that.

“So obviously we want to continue doing that, and hopefully we can try and put together a little bit of a winning streak that we haven't seen for a while.”

Ekholm emphasized that feeling of pride inside the locker room for being able to keep their losing streaks to a minimum over the last three months.

“I think there's going to be games where you don't like your effort throughout the year. There's a lot of games, it's the grind, but to me it's all about the response and what you do the next game,” he said. “If you let one slip, that's okay, but if you can always back it up with a good effort. Then, usually, you're going to like your results at the end of the year, so I think that's a great mindset to have and I think this is a great thing that we've been doing the last couple of months.”

Aiding Edmonton’s revival since November has been the approach of breaking the season down into eight-game segments; focusing on winning five or six of those contests so their results reflect those of a playoff team by the time the postseason arrives.

A lot can happen over 82 games, with a few clunkers like in St. Louis on Thursday to be expected along the way, but compartmentalizing the season into digestible segments where players and the coaching staff can implement and respond to changes over its course can help keep players on task.

“It's a long season,” Ekholm added. “Obviously, 82 games go slow throughout the year, so it's good to break it down sometimes and set shorter-term goals and try to hit those knowing that if we do so, that the big picture is going to look great in the end.

“I think that's something that's been really good with this group. We've had a shorter-term mindset and as of late it's been paying dividends.”