FEATURE: Oilers showcase their growing maturity over 10-game win streak

EDMONTON, AB – To understand all the contributing factors in the Oilers setting a new franchise record with 10 straight victories, you have to go back to late November when the club found itself at a turning point in another lengthy unbeaten run this season against Winnipeg.

For Assistant Coach Glen Gulutzan, who's been behind the bench in Oil Country for six seasons, it might’ve marked the biggest shift he’s seen in the team's mentality towards evolving into a group that thrives in moments where games are in the balance.

“We've just had this real sense of calm in those tight games, which I think is a big change for me over the last five years,” said Gulutzan, who took to the podium inside the Oilers Hall of Fame Room to speak with the media after Monday’s practice.

“We've matured in the point that we're very comfortable in one-goal games.”

The Oilers found themselves down 1-0 to the Jets in the third period on Nov. 30 after their constant pressure was absorbed by former Vezina Trophy-winner Connor Hellebuyck, who stopped all 30 shots until Edmonton’s offensive persistence and defensive solidarity paid off late in the contest.

Darnell Nurse fired a wrist shot on goal with 6:49 left that squeaked through Winnipeg’s goaltender before Leon Draisaitl punctuated the late comeback with a power-play marker with over two minutes remaining in regulation. Ryan McLeod added an empty-netter for his first goal of the campaign, and Stuart Skinner made 25 saves on the night to help secure the Oilers a 3-1 victory and their fourth straight win en route to their first of two nine-game winning streaks this season.

Flashback to the present day, and the Blue & Orange are coming off back-to-back overtime victories over Detroit and Montreal to set a new franchise-best of 10 straight wins with some stellar goaltending, resilient team defending, clutch scoring and an all-around improved mindset within the group that firmly took root during that comeback in Winnipeg.

“Since we were down in that game and came back late, the air on the bench is different than it used to be,” he said. “The air on the bench had some particles of panic. It just doesn't have that anymore. It has an element of calm and confidence, and that's a big thing for a hockey club. “

“I attribute it just to that – the maturation of the player.”

On Saturday night, the allure of achieving their record-setting win streak was acknowledged by the coaching staff, but never accentuated.

Head Coach Kris Knoblauch dangled the carrot to his players of having the opportunity to do something never done before in franchise history, but they didn't need any extra encouragement with the way they were already firing on all cylinders.

“I think the way the players dealt with it, we didn't do much about it,” Gulutzan said of the franchise record. “We addressed it, which I really liked. Knobber acknowledged it before the game, but it wasn't emphasized, so I thought he did a good job with that. And what I liked most about the players is that it wasn't something that caused them any angst. They were just playing. They were in a similar mindset at eight, nine and ten wins in a row, so for me, I really like that about our team."

It's been an even more incredible turnaround when you consider Edmonton's slow start to the season in a year where the coaches and players arrived with high expectations.

After starting the season 2-9-1 in their first 12 games, the Oilers have risen from 30th overall in the NHL and 10 points out of the second Western Conference Wild Card spot to within three points of the Los Angeles Kings for third in the Pacific with an 18-3-0 record.

Their goaltending from Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard has been phenomenal, with their young starting netminder posting a 14-2-0 record in his last 16 games with a 1.87 goals-against average and a .930 save percentage save percentage. Defensively, the Oilers have conceded only 17 goals over their 10-game win streak – 11 of which came in their last eight games.

Earlier in the win streak, their offence routinely scored more than three goals a game in their regular explosive fashion, but the Oilers have had to pick their spots in recent games and come up with some clutch goals – just like they did in Winnipeg earlier this season and again on Saturday when Evan Bouchard delivered the game-winning blast in overtime against the Canadiens.

At times during his tenure in Edmonton, Gulutzan has seen his team get flustered in those types of scenarios, but the maturation of the group to stay composed in those one-goal scenarios begins with the maturation of the leadership group that was pushed early on this season when the club was marred in its difficult start. In his eyes, part of that tepid beginning to the 2023-24 NHL campaign for the Oilers started with a disappointing end to their 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs after falling to the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round.

"What I've seen in those guys is just a maturation in leadership and how they approach it,” Gulutzan said. “Early on this season, I still think there were some lingering effects of the disappointment of last year and we worked our way through that. What I did learn about those guys is just how mentally strong they can be and how badly they want it.

"I guess the best way I could put it is just how badly they want to put in work to get this thing where they want it to go, and I think from early on until now, what's changed with them is just a level of calmness and that maturity has kicked in where they're like, ‘You know what? We’ll just go out and play our game and whether it's a one-goal game or we're down one or we're up one, we're just going to continue at our game.

"I think that's where they've matured. They get calm in a more pressure sense, and that's what's come about here in the last ten-game winning streak.”

It's all been coming together for the Blue & Orange, who've remained steadfast in their resolve to improve but have still found moments to appreciate the record they've set despite some of the great teams the Oilers had during the dynasty days of the 1980s.

"Obviously it takes a lot to win ten games in a row. You have to play really well," Zach Hyman said. "You have to have really good goaltending, you have to play really well defensively, you have to get timely goals, so yeah, I think it's fun.

"It's fun when you're coming to the rink, you're winning and you can continue to improve on a record. Special teams were not able to get to that number. They won a ton of Stanley Cups, but for whatever reason they couldn't win ten games in a row, so I think it's pretty cool to have this team break that record and hopefully continue it and push forward here.