GENE'S BLOG: 20 New York minutes

I'd like to know where you were around 3pm ET or 1pm MT on Saturday.
Maybe you were putting up your Christmas lights or doing a little Christmas shopping. Possibly with a gentle weather day you were outside playing some street hockey or skating on the good-looking rink now being used in ICE District Plaza.
There's also a good chance you were sitting in front of your TV watching the Edmonton Oilers on Sportsnet and wondering what was next to happen in New York against the Rangers. Down 3-0 after 40 minutes, the numbers were daunting as the Oilers headed into the final period of the game and the road trip. The plane was prepped, the flight plan was set and the team was headed home, but what would they be taking with them? Would they be packing a place in the air for a victory?
The betting line had to put the odds heavily against the Oilers. Shut out on Long Island and hovering around 120 consecutive minutes without a goal, it didn't seem likely but still possible. Also standing in their way was the reigning Vezina Trophy winner Igor Shesterkin and the Eastern Conference finalist Blueshirts.
Yet the Oilers put together the best show not on Broadway, piling up a period filled with goals like the first of the season by Evan Bouchard and the first of his career by Dylan Hoĺloway in his first trip to the New York City. Before you knew it, the power play made their impact with career man-advantage goal 101 by Leon Draisaitl.

The world's most famous arena witnessed a home-team defeat in the Big Apple that would sting to the core. Here's Jay Woodcroft from Sunday on the final 20 minutes:
"It was a dramatic win. We are looking to build off that. Whether it's the watershed moment where we finally put a big string together, time will tell. I don't know that today. We'll know in a month if that was the moment."
I understand if you're thinking, how important could one period be when you play 246 of them in a season? Or how could 20 minutes when you play 4,920 minutes through 82 games make this much of a difference? And that's not even including overtimes!
Also, you could become skeptical because this was done in November and not April. Is it possible this could make or break a season? The answer is no or yes or maybe. It's still to be determined what this will all mean. For now, it meant a happier flight home. It meant staying above .500 at 11-10-0. It also meant staying ahead of four teams in the Pacific Division. In short or long, it meant a lot to every Oilers player and coach on that bench at 4 Penn Plaza in NYC.

The value of what happened early afternoon on Nov. 26 also had a lot to do with where Edmonton is in their season. Consistency has been a word used by the Oilers, particulary the lack thereof. Another is uneven regarding their play. Here's a one-letter representation of their results the last nine games: L-W-L-W-L-W-L-L-W.
Every game they win brings the hope that it will lead to another W. It's why those 20 New York minutes from Saturday were so valuable. Again, we bring in the coach.
"I don't walk in and say we have to win five in a row. I walk in and say here's what we need to do to win. Everybody is searching for that moment in the season... Ok, we can build off that and then we took off."
The wait on what this will mean is on. If Edmonton is able to run together multiple wins then it will be that period of time which will be looked upon as a a factor in a turn to the positive. If it's not, they'll wait for another important period of time in this young season that sets the Oilers on their way to success.