With the trade deadline just days away and the Edmonton Oilers sitting 26th in the league in goals against, GM Stan Bowman sat down with reporters Monday and delivered a clear message. Adding new faces won\u2019t fix what\u2019s broken if the current group doesn\u2019t change how they play.<\/p>\n
Speaking at Rogers Place, Bowman addressed the team\u2019s defensive issues, pointing the finger at everyone in the squad.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t played well defensively as a team,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cI think there\u2019s a number of factors, all of them contributing. It\u2019s goaltending, defence and forwards.\u201d<\/p>\n
The GM\u2019s diagnosis? The Oilers have swung too far in one direction. After struggling to score early in the season, they\u2019ve overcorrected and are now playing a high-risk high-reward style that\u2019s leaving them exposed at the back end<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest challenge for our group is we don\u2019t put ourselves in a great spot often in games and we score a ton of goals,\u201d Bowman explained. \u201cIf you think back to the early part of our season we weren\u2019t scoring a lot. So we\u2019ve swung the pendulum probably too far one way where we\u2019re pushing to try to make things happen and in the process of doing that, we put ourselves in really bad spots.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s about mentality, not the roster<\/p>\n If fans were hoping Bowman would promise a big splash at the deadline to solve all the team\u2019s problems, it seems we might be disappointed. Throughout Monday\u2019s presser, the GM kept hammering home the same point. This team already has the talent and they just need to commit to playing the right way.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil we learn as a team to be smarter about the way we approach the games, we\u2019re going to see a lot of highs and lows,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cSome nights we\u2019re scoring a lot of goals and other nights we\u2019re giving up a ton of chances and putting our defence and our goalie in bad spots.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s not to say the Oilers won\u2019t be active before Friday\u2019s 3:00 p.m. ET deadline. Bowman acknowledged that adding a player or two would be nice, but he was careful to manage expectations about what those additions could realistically accomplish.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019d be nice to bring a player or two in, I think, but also the biggest way we\u2019re going to be a better team is we got a lot of good players here and they\u2019re talented,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cThat commitment from our group to playing smarter hockey, winning hockey, I think is going to probably pay the biggest dividends.\u201d<\/p>\n So don\u2019t expect a magic bullet.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like it\u2019s going to completely change the fortunes of our team,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a lot of really good players here.\u201d<\/p>\n Paul Coffey\u2019s return was proposed by Kris Knoblauch<\/p>\n One move the Oilers have already made is bringing Hall of Famer Paul Coffey back onto the coaching staff<\/a>. Bowman said the idea came up during the February break when it became clear something needed to change.<\/p>\n \u201cWe weren\u2019t playing well heading into the break and I think it was obvious that we had to do something to change our group,\u201d Bowman explained. \u201cKris brought it up to me and said, \u2018Do you have any thoughts?’\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Coffey\u2019s been around the team all year in an ambassadorial role. but now he\u2019ll be back behind the bench working with the players day-to-day. Bowman thinks that combination of familiarity and fresh perspective could be valuable.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re not behind the bench you sometimes have a different view on things,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cThat combination I think is good.\u201d<\/p>\n The goaltending question<\/p>\n One of the more interesting exchanges came when Bowman was asked point-blank if the Oilers are shopping for a goalie. His answer? Kind of, but also not really.<\/p>\n \u201cI think our goaltending hasn\u2019t played great, but at the same time, I think a bigger problem is we put our goalies in a really tough spot,\u201d Bowman said.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the same theme again. The system is broken, not necessarily the pieces. Bowman pointed out that when the team played better defensively from mid-December to mid-January, the goaltending looked solid. When the team started cheating for offence and giving up grade-A chances, the goalies struggled.<\/p>\n \u201cWe put our goalies in some really tough spots and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a winning formula no matter who you have in net,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n That said, Bowman didn\u2019t completely let the goaltenders off the hook.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like to see our goalies find some more consistency to their game,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI think the better way to do that is not only for them to find their game, but for us to put them in situations where they\u2019re more likely to find it.\u201d<\/p>\n How does a Cup finalist forget how to win?<\/p>\n One reporter asked the question on every fan\u2019s mind. How can a team that\u2019s been to back-to-back Cup Finals and has been elite for years suddenly look this lost defensively 60 games into the season?<\/p>\n Bowman\u2019s answer was pretty straightforward that they\u2019re just not winning consistently enough.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s a lack of knowledge,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t get to the Stanley Cup final two years in a row if you don\u2019t play a winning brand. We definitely can do it. And we haven\u2019t done it frequently enough.\u201d<\/p>\n He chalked it up to the natural ups and downs of an NHL season noting that even the best teams have rough patches. But he also acknowledged that the players need to be better about managing the risk-reward balance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got some incredibly talented players and they have the best intentions,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cThey want to help the team win and they\u2019re not out there trying to do bad things. They\u2019re trying to score, but sometimes the risk-reward trade-off, it\u2019s in the wrong order and you end up where we\u2019ve been lately.\u201d<\/p>\n Bowman even mentioned that other GMs around the league have joked about wishing they had Edmonton\u2019s \u201cproblem\u201d of scoring too much.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve been talking to a lot of GMs lately and they kind of laugh like \u2018we wish we had that problem. We can\u2019t score to save our life,’\u201d Bowman said. \u201cSo, we\u2019re kind of in the other end where we\u2019re scoring a lot, but we\u2019re giving up too much.\u201d<\/p>\n Bowman refused to single out Darnell Nurse<\/p>\n When asked specifically about Darnell Nurse\u2019s play, a hot topic among fans lately<\/a>, Bowman refused to throw the veteran defenceman under the bus.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to single Darnell out,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cI think he\u2019s part of a group of probably seven or eight guys that all are very good players and they\u2019ve played well at stretches this year.\u201d<\/p>\n The message is that it is a team-wide issue and not one player\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say he\u2019s in a long list of guys that are very important players to our team and we believe in them, but we need all of them to dial in the commitment to playing maybe a simpler game,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s top to bottom. It\u2019s not just Darnell.\u201d<\/p>\n Stan Bowman had all the praise for Evan Bouchard<\/p>\n If there\u2019s one bright spot in all this, it\u2019s Evan Bouchard\u2019s continued development. Bouchard leads all NHL defencemen in scoring and has become a legitimate two-way force.<\/p>\n Bowman couldn\u2019t say enough good things about Bouchard\u2019s growth this season.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m continued to be, not surprised I guess, impressed with Evan\u2019s progression to be an elite all-around defenceman,\u201d Bowman said.<\/p>\n The GM pointed out that most casual fans still think of Bouchard as just a power play specialist but that\u2019s outdated.<\/p>\n \u201cMost people who don\u2019t watch him that closely if you were to ask them \u2018what do you think of Evan Bouchard?\u2019 \u2018Oh, he\u2019s good power play offensive defenceman\u2019 and he definitely is that,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cBut he\u2019s shown the ability this year to be great at a lot of things, not just offensive things.\u201d<\/p>\n Bouchard\u2019s playing big minutes against top competition, contributing on the penalty kill and still putting up points at an elite rate.<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t play 25 minutes without being a guy that can play against everybody,\u201d Bowman noted. \u201cHe probably doesn\u2019t get enough recognition for his all-around game because he started out mostly as an offensive defenceman. But I think in the process of becoming an all-around player, he hasn\u2019t lost the offence. He\u2019s just gained the other parts of his game.\u201d<\/p>\n What to expect at the deadline<\/p>\n Bowman confirmed the Oilers are looking at both forwards and defencemen with a preference for a right-shot D-man to balance out the left-heavy blueline.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have more lefts than rights, so yeah, I think in this simplistic way, yes,\u201d Bowman said when asked if he\u2019d target a righty. But he also cautioned against being too rigid about it. \u201cSometimes if a better player is a left shot that can play the right side, then\u2026 but yes, ideally you\u2019d like to have three lefts, three rights in your pairs.\u201d<\/p>\n