January 9, 2024 by Mike Dirsa

It was the worst times, it was the best of times, it was the age of heartache, it was the epoch of disbelief, it was the epoch of credulity, that the Edmonton Oilers were going to win the Stanley Cup, it was the season of extreme darkness, it was the season of light, it was the fall of despair, it was the spring of hope, it was all in the same season. Who would have thought Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities could be used as a metaphor for the Edmonton Oilers 2023-24 season?

On November 11, I wrote my last article about the Oilers hitting rock bottom. At that time, the Oilers had just come off a loss to the lowly San Jose Sharks who were being deemed by some, the worst team in NHL history. Coaches Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson were on the hot seat and the team was in the depths of despair. Days later the Oilers let Woodcroft and Manson go and hired Kris Knoblauch and Paul Coffey to replace them.

After the new regime took over the team has a record of 17-6-0, including two losing streaks of three games, one winning streak of eight games and they are currently riding a seven-game winning streak. Heavy Hockey’s Dash in the Park has stated on the EST hangout with Matthew Iwanyk and Joaquin Gage and on the OilersLive show with Michael Hebert, that he thinks the Oilers could go undefeated in January.

Really, since Knoblauch has taken over as head coach, the hurdles the Oilers have faced have been largely due to other worldly goaltending performances from Andrei Vasilevskiy, Sergei Bobrovsky and Ilya Sorokin. Looking at the month of January there really isn’t an upper echelon goalie the Oilers will potentially face until their last game of the month against the Nashville Predators and their goalie Juuse Saros.

Though Saros has had some suspect games as of late. It has been such a rollercoaster ride this year for this team. The team is on an upward trajectory right now but being a long time Oiler fan, I get a little nervous dealing with success knowing it can easily go the other way. But what has changed and why are they having success now that they weren’t having to begin this season? Back in December Ryan Lotsberg wrote a piece on the changes to the Oilers under head coach Knoblauch and I think systems changes have played a role as well as Paul Coffey’s defence whisperer voice.

Related: Changes Under Knoblauch

I also think Knoblauch is holding players accountable with their ice time. Evander Kane has been given a reduced role lately playing on the third line while Ryan McLeod and Warren Foegele have been promoted to playing with Leon Draisaitl. Briefly Knoblauch experimented with splitting up the top line of Connor McDavid, Zach Hyman and Ryan Nugent Hopkins but unlike prior Oiler coaches quickly reverted back to having the top unit back together when splitting them up didn’t lead to having a successful second line.

I find myself being thankful I was not the General Manager of the team, because back in November I would have been willing to part with a lot of the team’s futures to try to improve the teams goaltending. Staurt Skinner and Calvin Pickard have both played well in this stretch and helped this team stabilize and go on a tear. Down in Bakersfield Jack Campbell who was sent down earlier in the season to find his game playing with the Condors has not found consistent traction. While Olivier Rodrigue has played his way into leap-frogging Campbell for playing time and into the conversation from many Oiler fans that he should be called up to the big club. Personally, I would like to see Rodrigue get into a couple of games before the trade deadline to know how his game translates to the NHL.

Another thing that I think contributed to the team being on the upward trend is most of the team is healthy. Knock on wood if you’re superstitious. At the start of the year McDavid, Draisaitl, Mattias Ekholm, Sam Gagner, Evander Kane and Ryan McLeod had injuries that either took them out of the lineup or they played through but affected their performance. I know Draisaitl’s injury was never made public, but he wasn’t able to hit the net on his patented one-timers on the power-play so I’ve ran with my theory and now you can, too.

Another player that was hit with an injury this season was Dylan Holloway but on Wednesday he came off of long-term injury reserve and was loaned to the Condors. As much as some fans were hoping for Holloway to rejoin the Oilers and help make a good team better it is a nice change for the team to not have to rush a young player into the lineup to be competitive. Holloway can go back to the AHL and play big minutes and be put in a prominent role. As a fan I am looking forward to the second half of the season and watching this team climb the standings and make their push for the playoffs.

A conclusion to the Campbell story is something to keep an eye on. Last summer I really was hoping he would find his game and be able to help the team win games but after preseason his game fell off considerably and still hasn’t been able to find it on a consistent basis. Packaging Campbell with some picks is something I think may be done at the deadline to address other needs, but I could also see a buyout in the summer. It’s a lot more fun to be an Oiler fan now than it was two months ago.

The ending of Dickens novel provides a sense of closure an optimism to an otherwise tragic ending which seems like the Oilers season in reverse just like my adaptation of the title.