With the high individual and collective expectations in the Oilers locker room this season, Head Coach Kris Knoblauch believes that type of frustration being shown by his young goaltender is a healthy sign that both he and his teammates are committed to their winning culture.
“I think it's hard to swallow anytime you lose a game, whether it's five in a row or after you've won nine in a row,” Knoblauch said on Friday. “I think there's a lot of confidence in the guys. The expectation is to win every game. I think there's a strong feeling in the room that way, and yesterday, I think guys were really disappointed, but I think it was a good frustration.”
Thanks to the eight-game win streak, the Oilers have pulled themselves back into the Pacific Division pack with a 13-13-1 record and have a firm bearing on the direction that their club is going, which has helped lessen the disappointment from Thursday’s result at Rogers Place.
The seven goals conceded to Tampa Bay were more than half of the entire total they gave up over their win streak (13), so there are stilly plenty of positives to build on heading into the opportunity to begin building another win streak against the Florida Panthers.
“I think the vibe is really good in the locker room right now. We're playing great hockey, so I think that helps,” Ryan said. “We've won some games, but probably more importantly than that, our game is going in the direction we want it to go.
“That's a resilient group in there. We've been through a lot this year already and in the last couple of years as well, so confidence is high.
“It's only December, so there's a lot of hockey to be played and we control all of our destiny at this point, but the fact that we’ve dug ourselves out of that huge hole is pretty remarkable and just speaks to the resiliency of that group.”
