BLOG: Raising the battle level

EDMONTON, AB - How does a team thaw from a 2-10-2 cold snap?
By turning up the temperature, engaging in heated puck battles and showing some fire on the ice.
Tensions may have boiled over at Monday's Oilers practice - evidenced by Colton Sceviour's stick demolition after a physical drill - but at the end of the skate when members of the Orange & Blue congregated at centre ice for a team stretch, the consensus deemed it a healthy session.

"It's no secret what brings success in this League: playing hard, playoff-style hockey," Brendan Perlini, who scored his third goal of the year versus the Ottawa Senators on Saturday, said.
"I've been on the unfortunate side of some losing teams that have gone through streaks like this. The way out of it is practices like that. Competing hard against each other and everyone pushing to get better."
Following a pre-practice team meeting regarding the club's current situation, players put the onus on themselves to have a demanding skate with the leadership crew of Connor McDavid, Darnell Nurse and Leon Draisaitl establishing the precedent.
Near the tail end of the skate, McDavid and Nurse partnered up for what became a fierce corner battle exercise, bumping shoulders and crashing the boards in pursuit of puck possession. Draisaitl and Duncan Keith followed their lead, maintaining the physicality with spirited scrums of their own.

"That's not something that I design; that's something that they design and that's the way they want it," Head Coach Dave Tippett said. "To me, that's good leadership."
Seeing that approach from the National Hockey League's two biggest superstars, a stalwart top defender and future National Hockey League Hall of Famer made it a mandate for the rest of the group to follow.
"Those are your leaders; those are your big dogs," defender Tyson Barrie added. "That sets the tone. If Connor McDavid and Darnell Nurse are battling and playing against each other hard, there are zero excuses for anybody to take any sort of breaks."
The Oilers are hopeful Monday's practice creates momentum going forward, as the club will get two more skates in before hosting the heavyweight Florida Panthers on Thursday.

From that point, there will be little slack in the schedule with a Battle of Alberta on the docket, plus clashes with the resurgent Vancouver Canucks and Central Division contenders the Nashville Predators.
Tippett believes pushing the physical pace at practice will translate to a concerted effort on the defensive side of the puck in games. "I think there are ways that we can be harder to play against," the coach said.
"In defending, you can be in the lane but then not be in the lane. You want to block a shot, you can put a lot of effort into doing that. We're there but we're not there. We have a guy but we don't have a guy. There's another element or another part of it that has to get done at a higher rate for us to become a harder team to play against."
As the Oilers search for their first win of 2022, the heat is on to perform. That begins in practice.
"It's not fun to practice like that," said Barrie. "It's hard work. We just have to work our way out of it. It's the only answer."