Anything less than a Stanley Cup next year won't satisfy Oilers' Draisaitl

EDMONTON — “Cup or bust.” 

Of the many words we heard during the final media availability for the Edmonton Oilers this season, Leon Draisaitl most succinctly described where the Oilers are in their franchise arc. 

“Come back next season, make the changes we need to make,” he said. “Yep, Cup or bust.” 

Ah, changes. 

When the best offensive team in the National Hockey League can not find its way past the second round, you don’t need to be a detective to ascertain where the improvement needs to occur. 

There was a time when the leaders on this team had to embrace a stronger defensive game, in order for everyone else to follow. Today it is about fine-tuning that priority, and it is a team-wide issue. 

Too many leads blown. Too many goals against that required less than extraordinary effort. 

Too many games that could have been theirs that ended up as someone else’s, for a bunch of reasons that really don’t mean much today. 

“You’ve got to find a way where you win 1-0, or 2-1,” said Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm. “You just hold on to a game and win it, because in the (Vegas) series I felt like the games we won we had (to score) four or five.” 

Ekholm was a brilliant acquisition this season, and will be at the heart of any success that ensues. 

“When it comes to the playoff time and what I can bring,” he said, “hopefully we can learn from this year that we're going to have to be OK with a 0-0 game going into the third.” 

For some, it is a mindset that can likely be changed. For others, it’s time to upgrade. 

If Kailer Yamamoto is going to contribute as little as he does on offence, then general manager Ken Holland needs to find a much bigger, stronger and more responsible player who can contribute just as little offensively, but help lock things down when the time comes. 

If Cody Ceci is going to be billed as a defensive defenceman of second-pairing pedigree, then let’s question if he’s delivering in that role. Does Darnell Nurse need a partner with higher offensive upside who shades Nurse towards a staunch defensive game? An outlet guy who Nurse can give some pucks to, rather than the other way around? 

The Oilers can be the Oilers for an 82-game regular season, where you seldom play the same team twice in a row and overtimes last for five minutes and are three-on-three. But come playoff time, the game changes. 

Edmonton needs to be able to win at that game now. It’s all that stands between them and a Stanley Cup. 

“Sometimes as a team we find a way to lose games, to beat ourselves,” Draisaitl said. “Sometimes we get beat by a better team, sure, but we have to find a way to learn how to not beat ourselves. We’re an attacking team … but sometimes we have to find a way to lock it down. Find a way to not beat ourselves.” 

“There were times in that series where we gave them opportunities,” Zach Hyman added. “Those are the differences in a tight series.” 

Edmonton allowed one goal in each of its two wins over Vegas. In the Oilers' four losses, they averaged five goals against per night. 

That’s not a sign of a stable defensive team. Nor is it a sign of a team whose goaltender can steal them a game. 

But Jack Campbell and Stuart Skinner are going to be your tandem here. The fix is to either get this roster to play better in front of them, or acquire more players who can. 

We’re not talking about acquiring Top 6 forwards or Top 3 defencemen here. This is bottom-of-the-roster stuff — guys who augment the core group that is ready, finally, to win in Edmonton. 

“Leo and I have been here our whole careers,” began Connor McDavid. “We've been through some bad years, some disappointments. Another disappointment this year. But at the same time, I look at the culture that we’ve built here, and where the organization sits today. 

“I think our core here has really built something from scratch, really from the ground up. We take a lot of pride in that, and to see it through with the guys that we've been with the whole time — like Nursey, Nuge — is what it's all about, right? That's what it's about.” 

This was a bitter ending to what seemed the fulfilment of a dream. One moment the Oilers were in a best-of-three to move on, the next, they’re sitting at a podium staring at a bank of cameras and a bunch of scribes. 

But, the more it hurts, the better the lesson. 

They have to make sure this hurt is not soon forgotten. 

“It is progress – maybe doesn’t feel like it today. But it is,” McDavid said of the experience. “We’re a better team than we were last year, and we have everybody coming back. It’s just more experiences, really.”