Oilers working to create winning culture
It all starts with the right mindset.
For a long time, times were bad in Edmonton, with the pinnacle of poor play marked by three consecutive first overall picks, the latest in 2012.
That landed Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, and Nail Yakupov in Edmonton, one of who remains with the club.
Then, one more time, in 2015, the Oilers chose first overall, selecting phenom Connor McDavid, who has 90 points through his first 82 NHL games.
Now, after years of ugly games and mounting frustration, the Edmonton Oilers are finally on the road to recovery.
This season is different. Through 37 games, the Oilers sit second in the Pacific, owning a 19-12-6 record and 44 points.
Not only does that performance surpass any recent Oilers season, but the team is on pace for 98 points - such a finish would mark the best season in Edmonton since 1987-88, coincidentally Wayne Gretzky's final season in Alberta, a season capped with the Oilers fourth Stanley Cup in five years.
The Oilers returned to the winner's circle two years later, but playoff appearances soon become infrequent altogether over the next two-plus decades, as Edmonton qualified for the postseason just nine times in the next 25 years, a stretch which includes the franchise's current 10-year playoff drought.
That could all change in as little as four months, as McDavid, whose 42 points sit tied with Sidney Crosby for first in the NHL scoring race, has Oilers fans believing that, for the first time in a long time, playoffs are a real possibility in Edmonton.
"It all starts with believing when you come to the rink that you can win," McDavid told Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Journal. "We've found ways to pull ourselves back. You look at a game like San Jose, where we didn't have much going on, we were still able to pull a point."
Through December, the Oilers have missed out on points just twice, carrying a 7-2-4 record through 13 games. That includes four wins in their last five, and 11 points out of a possible 14.
"When we're up we can hold it, when we're down we can come back," McDavid added. "We feel we can play with anyone in the league. It's definitely a good feeling as opposed to last year."