EDMONTON — A month into the Mike Babcock era, we’re still waiting for a more telling exchange than the one our Elliotte Friedman had with Leon Draisaitl the day before training camp opened.
Friedman: “What’s the most honest thing Mike Babcock has said to you so far?”
Draisaitl: “I hate your changes.”
We’ve all hated Draisaitl’s line changes here in Edmonton — but only for about 12 seasons and 856 career NHL games. Yet, it’s Babcock who watched some summer video and brought that back as his first take as Draisaitl’s new coach.
Blunt. To the point. And when it comes to things hockey related, usually right.
That is what they told us we’d be getting when the Oilers pulled Babcock out of coaching purgatory this summer, and so far, the advanced billing has been spot on.
It’s become a funny place over the years, Edmonton, where the level of deference to the top players has existed on a sliding scale with how good those top players are. No one’s top players are as good as Edmonton’s, and as such, at times they were allowed at times to run amok.
A decade without a Stanley Cup provided grounds for reflection, however, and so Connor McDavid, Draisaitl and Zach Hyman somewhat orchestrated the hiring of Babcock, pulling him out of enforced retirement for a job and a paycheck he certainly does not need.
“You don't need it, so why do you do it? Because they asked me,” said Babcock. “When those kids asked me, they want to win, and I think they should. So I'm going to try to help.”
“Those kids” have stated plainly that they would be OK if they were held to the same level of accountability as every other player on the Edmonton roster. And that set the Bab-clock to ticking.
When would the moment arrive that a defensively derelict Connor McDavid would sit out a shift? Or a Draisaitl turnover would be punished the only way a coach knows how?
Whenever it was, the players promised they would be fine with it.
“It is easy to say in June. It might be a little bit different when it's November,” McDavid admitted in a phone interview on June 24, the day after Babcock was hired. “But we've all agreed that this is what we want. This is what we're looking for.
“I don't plan on having that happen to me very much. But when it does, it'll be deserved, and we'll move forward, and we'll learn from it,” he said. “It's time to have that happen in Edmonton. It’s time.”
Today, everyone has a “most honest” moment with Babcock. Or at least a theme they’re sensing from the new coach, as he begins to get a sense of how their game rates.
For Jake Walman it’s, “You’re too good a player to make that play.”
For Ryan Shea it’s, “Don’t over-handle the puck at the offensive blue line.”
And for McDavid?
“Obviously we like to keep that stuff in house,” he began. “But there have been times where it's been it's been me, and there have been times where it's been Leo. And rightly so.
“We're trying to build a game that works not in October, but come April, May, and June. That’s the focus. That's what we're striving to do.”
There are two points of view here. One from a team that has done everything except for The Big Thing, and another from a coach who refuses to look any further than the next game — which just happens to be against his old team, the Toronto Maple Leafs, on Saturday night.
But this much is certain: everything that happens in Edmonton will be observed through the lens of, “Can this kind of hockey win in June against a team like Florida?”
Yet, Babcock can’t coach playoff rounds in October — where it must be said, his team takes an 8-1-1 record into its meeting with the Maple Leafs.
“I try to win today. So the individual meetings I had today, the practice we had today, the preparation for tomorrow, what I'm doing,” Babcock said after Friday’s practice. “If you think I'm worried about something that's going to happen months from now, I'm not doing it. I'm just going to keep trying to get better and enjoy what I'm doing. I think I'm in a phenomenal situation.”
There have been signs of that the style of game Babcock hopes to install here is taking. But there have also been moments where the loose, easy-to-play-against Oilers have hopped over the boards instead.
The emergence of the former, and the disappearance of the latter, will be the gauge that we check on a weekly basis throughout the season.
“(Thursday) night against a real team (Carolina), there were areas of our game that that got exposed a little bit. Things that we can improve on for sure,” McDavid said. “But with that being said, I've liked a lot of things. Guys are being aggressive, competing and playing hard, and that's all you can ask for at this time of year. So we'll clean the stuff up as we go.”
There isn’t much room for improvement, when you’ve gone to Game 7 and Game 6 of two Stanley Cup Finals.
But somehow, it feels like a chasm in Edmonton.
One that they’re paying Babcock to navigate.
