Oilers still searching for consistency ahead of two key divisional games

EDMONTON — Wednesday marks eight days out from American Thanksgiving, that oh-so-important milestone on the National Hockey League schedule, and everyone in the game knows exactly what that means.

Next Thursday, we will enter Phase 2 of the 2022-23 season, where we move from “the start” into “the meat” of the season. Most teams will have completed their opening quarter (20 games) of the season, and if your game is still poor you are facing more than just a tough start — you are staring a tough season right in the eye.

For teams like Vancouver or Ottawa, U.S. Thanksgiving serves as a reckoning. If you are too far behind on Nov. 24 — more than five points south of a playoff spot, more or less — the chances of catching up are statistically remote.

For teams like Edmonton, who have forged a 9-7-0 record on the back of a few impressive wins and as many sloppy losses, it is also time to take a long look in the mirror.

Who are you, as a team and as an individual?

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Is three points in 16 games really who Jesse Puljujarvi (1-2-3) and Kailer Yamamoto (0-3-3) really are? Is being ranked 30th in shots allowed per game (34.9) and penalty killing (70.6 per cent), and 29th in goals allowed per game (3.63) really who these Oilers are?

Or is this just a shaky start?

“We realize where we’re at. It’s not a Picasso every night,” said defenceman Brett Kulak. “We’ve had some ugly nights where we’ve ended up sneaking one out and winning by one. But we’ve played some good games where it’s been the other way.”

Edmonton is doing what good teams do, hanging around in a playoff spot within striking distance of the Pacific lead, as it finds its legs in a new season. But with two Divisional foes that are ahead of Edmonton rolling through town this week, head coach Jay Woodcroft knows that this skating-along-at-60-per-cent thing won’t cut it much longer.

“Our start to this young season has been uneven. Lots of inconsistency,” began Woodcroft. “The details in our game aren’t at the level where we know they can be and certainly, when we see them, it’s not for long enough periods.”

A colleague told Woodcroft earlier this season that, sometimes early in the year, a coach just has to “look away” and let his team find itself.

Well, there’s no more looking away from a team that has been as delinquent defensively as this one has.

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Woodcroft knows his team can score. But he knows even better that the Oilers will live and die on their ability to play a staunch defensive game come April and beyond.

That skill is honed over the 82-game regular season, and right now, the aforementioned defensive team stats tell the story.

“The bottom line is we have to tighten up,” declared Woodcroft, who proceeded to outline in bullet points what has to happen.

• “We have to put import in emphasis on the starts of games.”

• “We have to value the amount of shots that we’re giving up.”

• “We have to improve on the penalty kill.”

“There are areas to our game that we got to get better at,” he continued. “Our level of simplicity and our effectiveness on the road — where we’re 5-2 — we’ve got to bring that home. We’ve got to figure out a way to make this the toughest arena in the National Hockey League to come into. We’ve done that in the past. We’ve got to do it again.”

The good news is, after a rocky 2-3 start to the season, this Oilers team was good enough to focus down, win five straight, and rescue its October. After a 5-4 loss in Washington where they allowed four Caps powerplay goals, Edmonton has enough game to walk into Tampa, limit the Bolts and win 3-2.

They get clobbered in Carolina, but eked out a hard, defensively sound 4-2 win in Florida two days later.

So, what’s missing?

“The word you’re talking about is consistency,” observed captain Connor McDavid. “Obviously, that’s what we want — a more consistent game. We’ve had good ones and we’ve had bad ones, and it’s kind of flipping back and forth. We definitely need to string them together.

“You know, we’ve got two at home here. You can (look for) our best in both.”

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Two of the three teams ahead of Edmonton in the Pacific come to town this week, with Los Angeles here Wednesday and Vegas for Hockey Night in Canada Saturday. We don’t know who will win those games but we know this for certain:

You can be ranked 30th and 29th in shots against and goals against on Nov. 15, and still be 12th overall in the NHL standings.

But if your defensive game is ranked 30th when the New Year— and the second half of the season — arrives, we can guarantee you the standings will not be so kind.

“For me,” predicted Woodcroft, “you look around the league, the teams that are going to figure it out over this next month are going to be the ones that truly separate.”

Which team will Edmonton be?

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