Babcock Explains Early Key to Oilers Success Revolves Around One Word

Mike Babcock knows that every game for the Edmonton Oilers is a work in progress. Each game builds upon the last and if the good habits start forming at the start of the season, there's room at the end to adjust when things don't exactly go according to plan.

He called it "sustainable" hockey and said, if you're not doing the things you need to do now to win, what's the point in doing them at all?

Babcock spoke with the media ahead of Thursday's matchup with the Anaheim Ducks. He said he doesn't buy into narratives about first-game jitters after a road trip or any other hocus-pocus that can affect a team's effort level. This Oilers team is trying to embrace and maintain the right habits to be strong no matter the situation. 

"We're only like a quarter of the way there, but if what you're doing now isn't a brand that's going to win in the end, why are you doing it? So that stuff makes no sense to me," he said.

Get the hard lessons taught right away, seems to be his motto. And that includes everyone, even a dynamic superstar like Connor McDavid. 

When asked how he sees the best player in the world and whether watching him up close ever gets old, Babcock explained that it's not the typical stuff that impresses him.

“Well, what he’s doing is the things I ask, and those things that you people that cover the game don’t care about, right? Like, I want him to stop on defence. I want him to be on the forecheck in the right spots. I want him to track right. I want him to get skin when he’s coming back and slow people down. So those are the things that he’s getting better at, where we need him offensively in the middle.”

That's not always the easiest thing in the world to commit to. "It's every game that requires a lot of skating, a lot of work, and you gotta compete for pucks. Those are things you can sustain..." said Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. "It's fun playing like this because you frustrate the other team."

It's not a difficult concept to understand. Outwork, outhustle, and outchance your opponent while staying committed to a tighter, defensively sound game. There's room for dynamic offense, but only if you look after the other facets of the game.

"Now I'd rather get it all implemented, and then if you want to have some loose games there about game 64, no, I shouldn't have said that because...But my point, you know what I'm saying. We got to get it built in. We got to understand how to play. Everyone's got to know the exact -isms in it, and then you all look better."

Jason Dickinson offered up a simple explanation for the mindset this Oilers team is starting to inhabit. "If you work hard through mistakes, you're gonna end up probably on the right side of it more often... Even when your execution's not there, your work ethic is, it's usually gonna bail you out."

Babcock's message is simple: play a brand of hockey that might be hard to learn, but it's easier to sustain once you learn it. Focus on the details. "...when you get away from your details and your focus, none of you look very good. So that's what we're trying to do."

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