EAST MEADOW, N.Y. — Don’t look now, but the Edmonton Oilers lead the National Hockey League in rush chances against, and rank 25th in rush chances for.
Connor McDavid played just 18:50 last game. Tristan Jarry had a shutout.
Up is down in Oilers land. Down is up.
And like the guy or not, there is a two-word answer for all of it: Mike Babcock.
“You're getting called out on whatever you're not doing right to help the team win,” Leon Draisaitl said on Friday.
That is exactly what McDavid was talking about back in June, when he, Zach Hyman and Draisaitl took a very active role in the Babcock hire.
“It's time to have that happen in Edmonton,” McDavid said that day. “I’m excited about that challenge to be pushed by a coach, because it's been a really long time in Edmonton.”
Today, the puck-possession Oilers rank second in the NHL in dump-in rate. They also rank second in puck battles won.
“It's a simple game and (it is) determined by effort,” Babcock explained. “But if you have effort and you don't have structure, you're not playing together.
You've got to arrive as five everywhere; you've got to play together. And the more you know what the other person's doing, the more space there is for all of you.”
It is explicit what a player must do to remain a part of this transition from that free-wheeling, firewagon team that got odd-manned rushed right out of the playoffs by the Anaheim Ducks last spring.
“It's very clear when (Babcock) talks, guys listen,” said veteran Mattias Ekholm. “If I'd say one thing tactically or even structurally that he does really well, he does eliminate those grey areas.”
The first casualty of a new coach with new expectations? Come on down, Jake Walman.
Walman was a healthy scratch in Wednesday’s 4-0 win over Calgary, and practised Friday here on Long Island with 13th forward Max Jones as his defence partner.
The fact Walman is on Year 1 of a seven-year contract that pays him $7 million annually is a double-edged sword.
On one hand, general manager Stan Bowman won’t love running into Walman at the press-box coffee pot Saturday at UBS Arena where the New York Islanders host Edmonton (Sportsnet, Sportsnet+, 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m.
PT). On the other, Babcock could give two sticks who got signed for what and how long.
What’s Walman’s next move?
“Well,” began Babcock, “he sits down and meets with me again here today, and we go through the whole process.
“I've said this to my kids over the years when
it didn't go as good for them: ‘Are you going to let any coach be mentally tougher than you are? No,” Babcock said.
“Put your work boots on and get back to work. Then when you get prepared for your opportunity, you're ready.
When you don't put in the work and you feel sorry for yourself, when you get the opportunity, you're not ready.
“I'm not trying to pretend life is fair. But I'm going to say to you,'Embrace whatever you've been given and make it better.’”
We knew when the season started that Babcock came with a doghouse, and that doghouse was well worn in by players from previous stops.
Those close to the team have expected Walman, and perhaps Trent Frederic, to inhabit that doghouse at one time or another, and each has been healthy-scratched already this season. But the true effect of that doghouse is felt on the players who won’t ever see it.
The same group that got rinsed out of last spring’s playoffs in a flurry of two-on-ones and lost battles against the Ducks has been hardened. As a team, through 13 contests, the Oilers' game has visibly changed.
They dump pucks, they win battles and now they have a second card in their hand beyond the ability to beat you with a couple of superstars and a world-class power play. They can grind a win out every so often.
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And when someone steps out of gameplan, it gets noticed. Quickly.
“We've asked for that. We need that.
We wanted that, and we're getting it,” Draisaitl said, sweating after a fast, physical practice. “We all understand within our group that no one is allowed to do anything more than anyone else.
Yes, of course, your top-end guys, they might have a little bit of a longer leash when it comes to offence. But at the end of the day our identity — the way we play— we're all going to play the same way.
We're all going to have the same mindset.
“He's very hard on that, and that's the way that we want it. The way it should be.”
Spec's checks: Jarry will start against the Islanders, with Matt Tomkins likely to get his first start as an Oiler Sunday at Madison Square Garden
Injured players Devon Levi and Zach Hyman are on the trip and skated separately from the main group Friday
Lines stayed the same as they were in the win over the Flames
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins will tie Kevin Lowe for the most games played as an Oiler (1,037) on Saturday, and take over that mark with career game No. 1,038 Tuesday against New Jersey.
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