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Wednesday, March 28, 2001
Edmonton a formidable foe
By George Johnson
Special to ESPN.com
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Ken Hitchcock doesn't mind admitting he's a bit uneasy about the possibility of facing the Oilers in the playoffs. And he's convinced the prospect should have Joel Quenneville, Scotty Bowman and Bob Hartley slightly unsettled, too.
|  | | The Oilers have one of the game's best passers in Doug Weight. |
If you can possibly manage it, the wise thing to do is give those Edmonton Oilers a playoff pass.
Too fast, too young, too much upside – he believes – to fool with.
"Not that I'm all that keen on it, but we might just wind up with another Oilers-Stars rites of passage series," sighed the Dallas coach from his office at the Dr. Pepper Star Center practice facility. "Every time we've played them in playoffs past, no matter how long its gone, we've felt like we need a week off to recuperate.
"In fact, every game between the two teams has been fierce; there's a tremendous amount of energy and passion involved."
Whether the Stars, Blues, Wings or Avalanche draw the Oilers in the first round, it'll be a tricky -- and potentially dangerous -- proposition. With Tommy Salo, the Oil possess better goaltending than any of the other bottom-four seeds. They seem better balanced than the L.A. Kings, Vancouver Canucks, nosediving Phoenix Coyotes, or – given the last few weeks as a reference point – perhaps even the stuttering San Jose Sharks.
Edmonton doesn't appear to be equipped with enough undiluted scoring touch or the requisite amount of long-range playoff experience to make an extended run, but through a seven-game series, especially one right off the get-go where most of the major upsets occur, coach Craig MacTavish's bunch are capable of upsetting an applecart and turning the playoff chart upside down.
"I believe this Oiler team is certainly more well-rounded, has more facets to it, than the ones that pulled those first-round playoff upsets a few years ago," Hitchcock said. "They've got far more composure on defense. It's no longer simply run-and-gun and count on the goalie (who at that time was Curtis Joseph). Their younger players – Brewer, Comrie, Horcoff – are playing with a great deal of poise.
"What you're seeing is the maturation of a hockey club."
Piggybacked by that franchise-best nine-game winning streak, the Oilers have left San Jose in their rear-view mirror and are crowding the travel-weary Canucks for fifth in the Western Conference. Quite a step up the ladder for a team that every April seems to be left no alternative but to scratch and claw in order to wriggle into the eighth and final playoff slot.
"Pardon me, but it kind of makes me laugh when I hear how much respect the Dallas Stars have for us, when all they do is beat us," countered MacTavish. "We play them tough, sure, the games have been close, but they're still an upper-echelon team and until we're able to play them more competitively in a playoff series, you can't make any comparisons.
"That said, I definitely think we're bridging the gap, creeping closer to Dallas and those caliber of teams."
Since he inherited day-to-day control of the team from Kevin Lowe, who moved into the executive offices to take over from Glen Sather as general manager, MacTavish has put his imprint on a team known for talent and speed, but also unpredictability in its play.
"In my mind," the coach said, "our depth up front is the biggest difference from the beginning of the season. Last year, we really only had one line that could score (Doug Weight, Bill Guerin and Ryan Smyth), but in the last while, the offense been more spread out. Danny Cleary has started to develop, Shawn Horcoff adds a lot of speed and energy to the fourth line.
"Last year, we had a strong first line and a good checking fourth line, but now we've flushed out the other two lines. There's more balance."
There's also a nice mix of styles on defense. There are the skating-puckhandling style D-men (Tom Poti, Janne Niinimmaa), the slam-bang body belters (Igor Ulanov) and the machete-like, take-no-prisoners, stay-at-home stylists (Jason Smith).
Add a Tommy Salo at the top of his game, and the excitement hasn't been this high in northern Alberta in years.
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Sometimes you hear people dismiss the regular season; hear that it isn't very important. Well, the teams right now are so close, the line is so fine, that having that seventh game at home is crucial. Against a team like Edmonton, you're bound to end up needing it. ” |
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— Dallas coach Ken Hitchcock |
The Oilers are solid at home (21-10-6), passable on the road (15-18-4) and, tellingly, highly successful within the tough Western Conference (27-14-11). Weight has ranked among the league's scoring leaders virtually all season.
"We've made some really significant strides this year with our hockey club," MacTavish said, who deserves some Jack Adams consideration for his debut as head coach of an NHL team. "We don't think that's going to take any steps back now. We're still a young team, so in these last eight games we feel we can do nothing but improve.
"We like our chemistry, our emotion and the technical side of our game. We're happy with where we are."
One prohibitive opening-round Western favorite isn't going to be so happy come mid-April – in a position to face the young, fast, confident Edmonton Oilers, a team on the rise with nothing to lose and everything to gain.
"Whoever gets 'em," says Hitchcock, "I can guarantee it's going to be a battle."
George Johnson of the Calgary Herald is a regular contributor to ESPN.com. Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories
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