EDMONTON, AB - It would've been easy for Head Coach Dave Tippett to roll his team out for a full practice on Thursday after last night's 5-2 loss to the Ottawa Senators.
But a season of 82 games and beyond needs to be managed.
"There's a method to the madness," the bench boss said. "I don't like skating when we play every second day. We want to have one full practice between games, not two full practices."
After putting in a full practice prior to Wednesday's contest at the morning skate, the plan to keep the majority of players off the ice on Thursday was one part of a week-long plan developed by Tippett with the vast amount of resources at his disposal in the organization.
The Oilers will skate at full power Friday morning ahead of an evening meetup with the Los Angeles Kings before doing it again on Saturday due to an earlier puck drop than usual on Sunday against the Buffalo Sabres.
"Some of the sports science stuff goes into it to see where we're at," Tippett said of evaluating his team to build a schedule. "There's different readings that we get - physical and mental fatigue levels - on where the group is at. So we monitor all that stuff."
"Usually the coaches sit down and we'll run it by a few guys. In the meeting this morning, we talked about some of the stuff we want to accomplish and this is the way we're going to do it."
FEATURE: Season in segments
Reducing goals against was once again an emphasis for the Oilers at Thursday's team meeting evaluating the end of their third 10-game segment of the season
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