Setting the franchise record with 10 victories in a row is an impressive achievement that's obvious to current Edmonton Oilers players, given that Stanley Cup-winning squads captained by the likes of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier stalled at nine.
Still, the team's top-liners say the focus remains on improving their position in the National Hockey League even more even though they've avoided losing in nearly a month.
"It's exciting for us, but at the same time, we want to continue to push and keep getting better, striving for more," forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins told reporters Monday at Rogers Place following practice. "We know the start we had, so you've got to put these streaks together a little bit and get yourself back into it."
Associate coach Glen Gulutzan said one key to the Oilers' overall turnaround this season — Edmonton has run up a record of 20-6 since Kris Knoblauch took over as head man in mid-November following a 3-9-1 start — but particularly during the 10-game win streak has been a sense of calm in tight games.
"I think that we've really settled down in one-goal games," Gulutzan said on Monday, a day before the Oilers return to action on home ice against the Toronto Maple Leafs. "Up one, down one late in games, going right back to Winnipeg (a 3-1 Oilers road win on Nov. 30), we've had this real sense of calm in those tight games, which I think is a big change for us."
That's what fans saw on the squad's recent three-game road trip, which was punctuated by the record 10th win in a row Saturday. Down 1-0 in each of their visits this past week to Chicago, Detroit and Montreal, the Oilers came back each time to claim victory, the last two in overtime.
Nugent-Hopkins said confidence played a central role on the successful road swing and that their "game is coming along."
"I think the way we're staying in games, I thought in all three games on the road ... were tight for 60 minutes, and we just stayed in it and stayed confident that, eventually, we'd be able to break through and we got the job done," he said, adding that the biggest takeaway from the road trip for him was how the Oilers were able to "shut things down" when games are close and goals being scored are few.
"It's the mindset that you have to have, especially later in the year — obviously, playoffs especially — but you have to stay in games for a full 60."
Zach Hyman, Edmonton's leading goal scorer with 26 who narrowly missed out on an all-star berth recently, said the Oilers have "no room for error" when they're down — either in a game or in the standings given their cold start to the season — and have to "make sure" they play well defensively.
"That includes a lot of things," Hyman told reporters. "It starts with our goaltending, and obviously Stu and Picks (Oilers goalies Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard) have been playing phenomenally. I think our defensive corps has been playing great, our forwards have been helping, tracking back and trying to limit errors.
"It's not one thing, it's a culmination of a bunch of things we've had to clean up because our season was on the line there for a little bit."
What Gulutzan said he's seen from the leadership on the roster — in particular from stars Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl — "is a maturation ... and how they approach it."
"Early on this season, I still think there were some lingering effects of the disappointment of last year (playoffs series loss to the Vegas Golden Knights)," Gulutzan said.
"We worked our way through that. What I did learn about those guys is just how mentally strong they can be and how bad they want it, how badly they want to put in work to get this thing where they want it to go.
"From early on until now, I think what's changed with them is a level of calmness and that maturity has kicked in where they're like, '"We'll just go out and play our game, and whether it's a one-goal game or we're down one or up one, we're just going to continue at our game.'"
