BLOG: Oilers showing resiliency amid push for Pacific Division title

VANCOUVER, BC – ‘Resiliency’ continues to be the word used by the Oilers to describe this season amidst a successful run over their last 24 games with a 19-4-1 record, seeing their maturity as a group put to the test in a handful of challenging scenarios over their successful run of results.

“A lot of things have to go well in order to do something like that,” goalie Stuart Skinner said after Saturday’s pre-game skate in Vancouver.

“Huge credit to how the guys have been playing, but I think a lot of it's just kind of resilience. I think we've been down in a lot of games in that stretch. The way that we've been able to come back and just stick with it, I’ve liked our battle and our mentality to show up every single day.”

The Oilers have leveraged their experience over recent seasons throughout the regular season and playoffs to win four straight games entering Saturday’s clash with the Canucks on Hockey Day in Canada, with three of those victories having come in scenarios where they trailed by multiple goals.

Thursday’s 4-3 win over the Avalanche was their first win when trailing by three or more goals in a game since Game 4 of the 2023 First Round against the Kings, having lost their previous 33 games (regular season & post-season) when trailing by three goals or more.

Edmonton has already matched their total multi-goal comeback wins from last season (six) in 37 fewer games, proving they have that composure in the dressing room to stay focused and fight back if the situation presents itself.

“I think it takes somebody who's gone through experiences like that in the past to show up a certain way when things do happen,” Skinner said. “I think that's what we’ve got. It kind of goes back to last year. We have a pretty similar group. We got some new guys that have just come in and brought that maturity level, brought that resiliency, so the way that it's been working, you get down three goals against a fantastic team and just don’t give up and you find a way to win.

“It shows that we have a lot of belief in each other. We're not a team that really panics when we're down. To be honest, we thrive when we down.”

While it's never something they want to rely on, the Oilers know they can flip the switch if they ever need to up their intensity in a situation where they're trailing by a few goals. Using that mindset over a full 60 minutes is always at the forefront for an Oilers side that's still learning despite their experience as the oldest team in the NHL and going all the way to Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final.

The Oilers started the season 0-3, thanks to a bit of an emotional hangover from playing deep into June last season, but their recovery from another slow start to the campaign (2-11-2 after 15 games in 2023-24) has them feeling a lot more confident at this stage over last year.

"We've gone through a lot, so a little bit of maturity there," Mattias Janmark said. "At the beginning of the year, we weren't finding those ways to win, but you kind of go through it, and now the confidence is a little bit higher.

"We know we can score a lot of goals. So whenever we end up down in games, we kind of have to take that out, but it's not something that we can rely on. It's going to bite us if we keep getting off to slow starts, but it's good to know that we have that within us."