EDMONTON — It’s been an odd departure for Stan Bowman, as he restarts his career in the cockpit of an Edmonton Oilers team that barely has its wheels up 22 games into the season.
Bowman wasn’t around for the Cup run that fell one game short, so he gets no credit there. But he does have to answer for the Stanley Cup hangover that has caused his new team to muddle its way through the opening quarter of the season at 11-9-2, posing many questions about the Oilers’ ability to finish the job in the spring of 2025.
“We want to win the division, and that's something we've been clear about,” Bowman began, a couple of days before his club buried the New York Rangers 6-2 on Hockley Night in Canada. “We’re not where we want to be, but we’re within striking distance of that.
“Over the next 20 games … I'd like to see the things we've done well to sustain.”
Bowman wasn’t even hired on July 1, but today he generally manages a roster largely shaped that day by team President and CEO Jeff Jackson. It was Jackson who signed UFAs Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson, who was in place while the Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway files were being mishandled, who traded Ryan McLeod and who presided over the decision to let free agents Warren Foegele and Vincent Desharnais walk.
But it is Bowman who now answers for a team with a $3 million, Bottom 6 winger in Skinner, an ageing Arvidsson with a mystery injury that seems prolonged, a blue-line that is severely depleted and a forward group that is learning to operate with far less footspeed than it possessed 12 months ago.
He has two superstar centremen, and a group of Top 6 wingers in Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman aside from Skinner and Arvidsson who have combined for 11 goals in 80 man games played.
Their average age is 31.5 years old, and two of them are currently injured.
Does that make him nervous?
“Nervous is not really how I'm looking at it,” mused Bowman. “But more like, it's weird. We've got such poor production from those players, and if you look at the numbers under the numbers (the analytics), we're doing a lot of good things. We should be scoring a lot more goals.
“I'd be a little bit more worried if we were not generating much. We are, but we're getting chances that we're not converting, which has never really been a problem.
“It's not a tiny sample. It’s 20 games,” he warned. “I kept saying in the beginning, this is going to even out. It's going to have to, because we're doing so many things well. But it hasn't yet. So certainly in the next 20 you have to see those guys start converting.”
Two nights after this interview his team scored six against the Rangers, a total that included five even-strength goals and a shorthanded snipe by Darnell Nurse. The powerplay has climbed to 27th in the NHL rankings, but that is a far cry from the wagon this unit has been for the past many years.
“Special teams have been disappointing, although they're trending better. But we're not where we need to be in those two areas, and that a big part of the game,” Bowman admitted.
Edmonton had 60 goals at five-on-four last season. Through 22 games this season they have eight.
A year ago when Edmonton had a similar record of 11-10-1 through 22 games, they had 20 five-on-four goals.
“It's the same guys,” he said. “You can't blame it on new guys.”
Bowman has watched opposing penalty kills go to school on what has worked for an Oilers powerplay that has been the league’s best over the past six seasons. The Oilers will have to adapt, which doesn’t happen overnight when you’ve been as good as they have for as long as they have.
“Your habit is to do what works so well, right? But those plays aren't there anymore,” he said. “They're smart. They're good. They'll figure it out.”
With the deletion of three defencemen off of their Stanley Cup blue-line — Broberg, Desharnais and Cody Ceci — the goal has been for this D-corps to get Edmonton to the trade deadline, where they can upgrade.
There have been nights where it is unclear if the quality is there to still be in contention come March with this group, while on other nights they’ve been just fine. The Oilers are middle-of-the-pack in goals against per game (3.14), but the fact that Edmonton ranks 23rd in saves percentage at five-on-five takes some heat off of the defencemen.
With even average goaltending, the Oilers would likely be in the top third of the league defensively.
“Maybe on paper (the D-corps) doesn't look great, but when you look at actually the way they perform they’ve done a pretty good job,” Bowman surmised. “We don't give up a ton of opportunities — and our overall team deserves a little credit for … helping our D out.
“I think our D has been fine.”
In the end, Bowman presides over a team that appears to be finding its legs after a slow start, with 60 games of runway still left in the season. It is not the time for the GM to rattle the pots, nor is it appropriate to praise a team that has appeared disinterested through the opening 22 games of Bowman’s tenure in Edmonton.
“I wouldn't say I'm panicked. But I'm also not pleased,” he said. “I’m sort of in the middle, where I think we can do things better.
“We haven't played our best, but we're still in contention.”
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