Oilers' Taylor Hall: 'What we can grow into is a possession team'

The knock on the Edmonton Oilers for several seasons is that they a) boast a roster filled with undersized skilled players and b) play like a junior team. 

Oilers star Taylor Hall is clearly tired of getting pushed around on the ice and racking up losses (while racking up points), just like he was getting tired of having to shake hands with a new head coach every fall. Still, he doesn't think his club's relative lack of size is any excuse for not being tough to play against.

"We’re not going to bully teams out of their arena, but what we can do and what we can grow into is a possession team," Hall told Jim Matheson of the Edmonton Journal this week. "A team that’s hard to knock off pucks and battles the way the big teams do.

"There are teams built the way we are, and they have success," Continued Hall. "The Rangers were a fast team that had trouble with their identity at the start of the year and figured it out over the course of the season. They were a fun team to watch. They’re not big, but they play with the puck and they’re fast. That’s how we have to be."

It might also help if the Oilers forwards (and occasionally their defensemen) didn't blow the zone the moment a defensive player forces an opponent into a 50-50 puck battle.