For starters, Edmonton Oilers must need it extra — Jay Woodcroft

Article content material

You gotta need it.

That, in easiest phrases, is why the Vancouver Canucks dismantled the Edmonton Oilers after which bludgeoned the items Wednesday evening.

Article content material

In response to the particular person most certified to make that willpower, the Canucks wished these two factors greater than the Oilers did.

So, in a Thursday assembly together with his gamers within the wake of a baffling 8-1 season-opening loss, head coach Jay Woodcroft addressed what he felt was a key challenge — effort.

Article content material

After a robust pre-season that urged the Oilers had been fired up and able to go, they weren’t. To not the extent that Vancouver was, anyway.

“We expect we’ve had a very good month right here in Edmonton however the best way we performed was nowhere close to our customary, nowhere close to the extent of desperation and urgency required to win within the NHL,” mentioned Woodcroft.

The consequence — two objectives towards within the first interval, three within the second and three within the third — was a splash of chilly water that received everybody’s consideration.

“The assembly we had with our workforce didn’t go wherever close to techniques, it went to effort,” continued Woodcroft. “I don’t know that we had a constant sufficient or exhausting sufficient effort to earn a number of the breaks that you must come again from a state of affairs like that.”

The widely-held perception, since one sport is not any motive by any means to alter the best way you’re feeling a couple of hockey workforce, is that this was a weird and unexplained phenomenon the Oilers gained’t have to fret about once more.

However Woodcroft additionally warns that to ensure that that to be true, the Oilers have to appreciate what to anticipate from a league stuffed with groups hungry to take down a star-studded, high-profile contender, and what it’s going to take to resist these relentless assaults.

Article content material

“That’s the kind of sport we should always count on to see on a nightly foundation from our opponents. We’re disillusioned that we didn’t meet the aggressive stage of that sport.

“We settle for it, we personal it. We weren’t ok. We realized our lesson from it and I’d count on a way more aggressive displaying from our workforce on Saturday evening.

LATE HITS — Woodcroft mentioned third-line winger Dylan Holloway ought to be good to go Saturday after a shot block halfway by means of the third interval despatched him to the dressing room.

Additionally, much-needed defenceman Mattias Ekholm seems to be inching nearer to his 2023-24 debut. He missed all of coaching camp and the season-opening debacle in Vancouver with a hard hip challenge however might be prepared on Saturday.

“He had an excellent day Wednesday and he’s having an excellent day as we speak,” mentioned Woodcroft. “We’ll see the place he’s Friday however he’s in a very good place. We’ve clearly slow-played him right here for a bit of bit.”

E-mail: [email protected]

Share this text in your social community