The Oilers are fresh off a few days at home of resting physically, recalibrating mentally and retooling their game after a 2-2-0 road trip down the eastern United States that included four games in six days.
"I think what you try and do when you have a little bit of a break between games is you try and get some rest," Woodcroft said. "There are some minor bumps and bruises that aren't necessarily public information, but you allow people to heal up and not only physically reset, but mentally reset as well."
The Oilers are 5-2-0 on the road so far this campaign and need to bring some of that success back to Rogers Place, where they're 4-5-0 in nine home games. Just as they utilized home ice to claim the series win in Game 7 six months ago against Los Angeles at Rogers Place, where they'll have the opportunity to get their home record back to .500 tonight with a strong test versus the Kings.
"It gives you a little bit more time to dive a little deeper into it and spend a little more time talking about it to try and figure it out, so the last couple of days were good for us," Woodcroft said. "I thought we had a good meeting yesterday taking stock of where we're at so that we can take a step over this next little while. I think we had a good practice yesterday, a good pre-game skate today, and we have a very competitive team coming into our building."
"That's certainly an area that we want to improve. We want to bring that road mindset that's allowed us to go 5-2 on the road to home ice, where we know we can better."
TAKING STOCK
The Oilers aren't in a precarious position in the standings, but that isn't masking any belief that they could've been a lot better off by this point.
"I'm pretty open with where we're at," Woodcroft said. "Nobody in our organization runs away from the fact that we feel we can play better. We don't think we've fired on all cylinders. We don't think we're yet at the level we know we can get to, so in terms of areas that we want to improve or take stock with, I've talked about them ad nauseum."
US Thanksgiving has always been the de facto date in the NHL where the separation between the playoff and non-playoff teams really begins to show; if you're in a playoff spot come then, it's usually a good statistical indicator that you'll be playing bonus hockey in May and June.
As that date inches closer, the Oilers feel they're scratching the surface of what they can accomplish, but need to start seeing some growth.