EDMONTON — It’s all about timing, and hockey players can spend a career chasing the right opportunity.
You join the Edmonton Oilers in 2010 and end up as a building block on which a team finally gets built – a decade after you’ve moved on. Or you can crack the Vancouver Canucks roster in 2012, only to realize that they would never match the pedigree of that 2011 team that lost to Boston in seven, and ride that Sky Train towards wherever the Canucks are today.
It’s like Goldilocks, but the hockey version. And today, as Zach Hyman enters his ninth NHL season and third as a member of the Edmonton Oilers, his porridge seems like it’s at just the right temperature.
“You look at the winners the past five years, teams that have been knocking at the door and had been there consistently for a number of years,” begins Hyman, in a sit-down interview during training camp. “We’ve had learning experiences over the past two years, at least since I’ve been here. We lost to Colorado in the Western Conference Final, and they ended up winning. Then we play Vegas hard in the second round — I thought the series could have gone either way. It’s a tight series, and they go on to win.
“So you lose the Cup champs two years in a row,” he summarizes. “We thought we had a chance to win last year and we fell short. But having said that, you know, we’re returning the majority of our guys.
“It’s an exciting time to be an Oiler.”
You never know how a season is going to go, or what might transpire through two months of punishing playoff hockey. But all we have today is what we see on paper, and what our experience tells us about teams like Tampa Bay, Colorado and Vegas who have tried and failed more than once, then — finally — tried again and succeeded.
They all started a season with the same hopes, dreams and dues paid that Edmonton packed onto the plane to Vancouver on Tuesday, and eventually, they all achieved The Goal.
You can’t say the Oilers haven’t travelled the long road to get here, even if we’re never sure when that road turns from grave to yellow bricks.
“We have a lot of really skilled players who have gone on a journey of (many) regular seasons. Some of them are in Year 8, Year 9 or Year 10,” said head coach Jay Woodcroft. “As you go, they maintain their skill but they gain experience. You pick up some scarring along the way, but I don’t see that as a bad thing. Until you live and breathe those situations, it feels different.”
Woodcroft’s summary?
“I like the look in the eye of our group.”
Hyman was asked which year he felt closer to the Stanley Cup: The Western Conference Final sweep by Colorado two years ago, or that Round 2 loss to Vegas last spring?
“A year ago for sure,” he said. “Vegas was a great team, obviously. They won the Cup. But we were right there with them, more than we were the year before against Colorado. The feeling in the locker room after the Vegas loss was different than after the Colorado loss.
“There was a missed opportunity last year. We will all come back hungrier, knowing that we’re right there.”
McDavid left his team with a postgame speech after that loss to the Golden Knights, and we’ve asked several players what was said. None recited the script, but over this training camp, we’ve pieced together the gist of McDavid’s message (and we paraphrase):
“The window to win is short. No one knows when it can slam shut. No one else is watching this summer, but you. So do your work, and come back here ready to win a Stanley Cup. Because that’s what I’m going to do.”
Asked on Tuesday if this was the best Oilers team he has ever played for, McDavid nodded.
“I certainly feel that way,” the captain said. “It feels the most mature; everybody’s kind of in their prime. There’s no wondering what the game is going to feel like out there. We know that everyone in this group has played lots of years in this league…
“I think our group’s in a good spot, but it doesn’t mean a whole lot until the game starts.”
The games start for this Stanley Cup hopeful Wednesday night in Vancouver.
There can’t be anything more to learn here, after a series of painful playoff losses.
The window is open. The time is now.
