“It’s about this year. We’ve talked about last year, a lot of questions about it, and I’ve answered all of them. But we’re moving on. It’s about this year, it’s about this group in here. Last year is over and done with”
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And so it begins…
The Edmonton Oilers could win the Stanley Cup this year, Part II.
After a long, gruelling post-season run and a short summer to recover, the Oilers are right back where they started last season — odds on favourites to be back in the final.
Just ask the gambling sites, almost all of whom are saying the smart money should be on Edmonton now that they have a four-round playoff march under their belt.
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This is good, it means that despite all of the significant off-season changes, most “experts” still think Edmonton has what it takes.
But the Oilers also know from experience — from a 2-9-1 start that got their coach fired — that being heralded as a Stanley Cup contender in October can also be dangerous.
In their case, it was almost fatal.
So, as much as the Oilers gained invaluable playoff experience with their march to the final last year, that’s not going to help them very much right now. They can use in April, May and June, if the odds-makers are correct.
What they need right now is the experience they gained last October, when looking too far ahead got them tangled up in almost every early season hurdle.
“Looking into the future, we did that last year and it didn’t turn out well for us in the beginning,” said Oilers winger Zach Hyman, on the eve of Edmonton’s season-opener Wednesday against the Winnipeg Jets.
“If I’m not mistaken it was kind of similar last year, we were media darlings or whatever to make it to the finals and obviously we had a tough start. I think we can learn from that
“That’s the message for whole group. There’s nothing guaranteed in this league. You have to earn it, and we learned that the hard way last year.”
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Getting caught up in their own hype is something they promise won’t be happening this time. So don’t ask them about getting back to this year’s final when it’s nine months and over 100 games away.
“We put ourselves in a hole last year,” said Leon Draisaitl. “It ended up working out, but it’s certainly not something you want to do every year.”
Looking back is not happening, either.
The heartache and motivation from making it to Game 7 of the Cup Final will be a topic of conversation among fans and media in every city they visit this year, especially in the wake of Amazon’s excellent documentary footage on the series with Florida, but last year’s final is a dead issue for the players.
With a new season’s worth of challenges to be met, nobody inside the room is interested in a reliving the worst night of his career.
“Enough about last year,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, when asked Tuesday afternoon about the lessons learned from a Game 7 loss. “It’s about this year. We’ve talked about last year, a lot of questions about it, and I’ve answered all of them. But we’re moving on. It’s about this year, it’s about this group in here. Last year is over and done with.”
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Someone wanted to know about what the short hectic summer was like and before he ever got the question out, McDavid shut that down, too.
“Summer is over, also,” he said.
All they are concerned about, they say, is the here and now.
“We certainly don’t want to put ourselves in the same spot as last year,” said McDavid. “Knowing you can maybe dig yourselves out of a hole if there is a bad start, I think there’s that confidence in the group, but that being said we don’t want to go through that again.”
And so it begins… Everyone will be watching the start to see what the Oilers are all about, to see if they’re for real, to see if there’s another stumble, to see what impact the off-season changes had.
Once the puck drops, last year doesn’t matter a lick.
“You find out really quickly as the season goes on what kind of team you have,” said Hyman. “Going into a new season you just want to get off to a good start, you want to get a feel for what kind of group you have, what your identity is. Your season shows what you need to work on, what your team is good at.”
This time, they can’t ease their way into the season. There is too much at stake. If they didn’t have that 5-12-1 start last year, maybe they have home ice in the Cup Final and they’re the ones unveiling their rings today.
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Not that we’re talking about last season, anymore. It just shows that October still really matters.
“It sets you up for the year, it sets you up for the playoffs, it sets you up in general,” said Hyman. “We were on the road for three of the four series last year. You want to have home ice, you want to gain an identity, you want to gain confidence. You want other teams to look at you as a team that’s hard to beat, hard to play against. There is a lot to strive for.”
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