Top Shelf: Surging Oilers still have a lot to prove

Oct 28, 2014 - 6:56 PM Philadelphia, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - When the Edmonton Oilers began this season on an 0-4-1 slide, it appeared the perpetually rebuilding club was doomed to suffer through another trying season.

Edmonton's four-game winning streak has calmed those fears a bit, but a long road back to respectability still lies ahead.

Since making the Stanley Cup Finals as an eighth seed in the spring of 2006, the Oilers have yet to return to the playoffs. Until Edmonton proves it can hang with its fellow Pacific Division foes, it may be a while longer before the young but talented club experiences its next postseason.

Edmonton's five-game skid to begin the season came entirely against divisional opponents. The club allowed 25 goals during the span, but it has seen the results improve thanks to a string of home tests versus Eastern Conference teams.

The Oilers began a seven-game homestand with a shutout loss against Vancouver before rattling off consecutive victories against Tampa Bay, Washington, Carolina and Montreal. Edmonton has outscored the opposition by an 18-7 margin over those four victories, and the disparity between his club's play within the division and outside of it has head coach Dallas Eakins trying to make heads or tails of his squad.

"It may be a confidence thing, I'm trying to figure it out," Eakins said after Monday's 3-0 win over Montreal. "It's easy to sit here and say that word 'heaviness' in our division, but I'm starting not to buy that. Maybe it's a confidence issue and we're going to look at that."

Shutting out the Canadiens is one way for the young Oilers to gain confidence. Like Edmonton, Montreal is a speedy team without a great deal of size, but the Habs rode that skill set to a berth in last season's Eastern Conference finals and were off to a 7-1-0 start in 2014-15 before getting blanked by the Oilers.

The Oilers blocked a ton of shots to frustrate Montreal's offense and goaltender Ben Scrivens was able to do the rest, stopping all 29 shots that reached his doorstep. That type of gritty play is something that's been lacking in Edmonton, where nearly a decade's worth of down seasons has packed the roster with highly drafted players who boast skill and finesse but may lack the intangibles needed to grind out victories.

"It's a huge testament to those guys, they're fearless out there," Scrivens said. "It's kind of crazy, I have all the gear, it kind of makes sense for me to block shots, but those guys are laying themselves on the line and putting themselves in danger and we have to respond to that."

By winning its last four games, the Oilers already have put together a longer stretch of wins than they did all of last season. The trick for Edmonton is to prove it can churn out wins and points on a consistent basis, something that the Oilers obviously haven't done during their lengthy playoff drought.

The next step for Edmonton is getting a win against some teams from within the conference, and Eakins' club will get two chances to do so before its current homestand ends. The Oilers will face the Central Division's Nashville Predators on Wednesday before welcoming divisional foe Vancouver on Saturday.

While winning both of those games would be nice, it still wouldn't prove Edmonton can win consistently outside its own building. Only the Buffalo Sabres had fewer road victories than the Oilers last season, and Edmonton's 0-2-1 start away from Rexall Place isn't a good sign for 2014-15.

The one silver lining for Edmonton during its recent downturn is the recent disappointing seasons always leave room for improvement. During the Oilers' lengthy rebuild, the high points have been few and far between, as Edmonton has suffered through five last-place finishes and only two seasons of 80 points or more since reaching the Cup Finals in '06. Finishing a full 10 points behind any other team in the West in 2013-14 didn't exactly bode well for this season, either.

With a recent history like that, making the playoffs isn't even necessary to declare this season a success. After all, trying to prove their recent winning streak isn't an early season mirage should be challenging enough.

Veteran forward Boyd Gordon, who unlike many of his teammates isn't one of Edmonton's vast group of homegrown prospects, perfectly summed up what the Oilers' goals should be in the coming weeks.

"It's one of those things where we don't want to let it slip," Gordon said. "We want to keep building and keep moving forward."

Forward progress hasn't been a hallmark of the Oilers' recent past, but if they take Gordon's advice and keep it simple, there may be hope for the future at last.