So what is the Edmonton Oilers identity as we’re into the second month of the NHL season, apart from being one of the two fastest teams based on skating speeds along with Saturday’s opponent here, the Colorado Avalanche?

All good, but so far they’ve got wheels while their results are pedestrian.

The Oilers are losing games, and not 7-5. That would at least be a track meet.

They’re losing 3-2 and 4-3. They’ve won four games in regulation in their 15. They have scored more than three goals exactly two times.

Yeah, it’s early. Yeah, the Oilers have been to the last two Stanley Cup finals, certainly a feat, and to use a hoary cliché, it’s a marathon not a sprint. But, right now it’s tough to clearly pinpoint the Oilers identity.

They’re not high-flying.

They’re not hard to play against for a full 60 minutes.

They’re not an overly tough team. They don’t have a lot of players who make opponents mad. At least Evander Kane filled that role, when healthy.

What needs to happen is this: look engaged for an entire game.

They’re 6-5-4, which seems about the same record as half the league right now in an NHL where the motto is faith, hope and parity. But Oilers captain Connor McDavid is tired of hearing it’s a long season and they’ll get it together, even as the Oilers have played seven of their first 10 on the road. Should we only start getting nervous when it gets into, say, December?

Nope.

“We’re 15 games in, it should be long over. We’re in the meat of the season,” said McDavid, who is playing the most minutes of any NHL forward (23:39) because he’s getting an extra minute of penalty-kill time with Leon Draisaitl.

“We’ve got two home games here (the Avalanche, and Columbus on Monday), then we go on the road for a long one. It’s time to get going,” he said.

No argument from defenceman Mattias Ekholm.

“It’s been a pretty common theme this season. We can put 20 together or 30 or 40 minutes in some games but I’m not sure I’ve seen 60 yet,” said Ekholm.

Actually, there was one, in Game 2 against Vancouver here, but that was a month ago.

“We have times in games when we’re feeling it … I mean teams will spend time in our end but we have to limit it more, the high-danger chances. It seems we’re either on offence or the other team gets a glaring scoring opportunity,” said Ekholm.

Blowing leads happens over 82 games, but it’s happened way too often in 15.

“I’m always concerned. But you have to look at every game individually. Probably the best start since I’ve been here, jokingly enough. There’s no panic in the room. Our history is we’ve been able to close out games,” he said.

But.

The parity in the league means there are few easy nights, for anybody,

“I know the league’s getting better. You see all the kids who’ve had skills coaches and extra skating five days a week since they were eight years old. There’s a lot more even talent in the league. I mean we just played St. Louis and lost. Being out on the ice I couldn’t believe they had lost seven straight. It’s weird, it just seems to be so tight to start the year,” said Ekholm.

Having the 8-1-5 Avalanche on the playbill might be the tonic they need. They’ve only lost one game in regulation in 14. They’ve got Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar, two pillars on the upcoming Canadian Olympic team with McDavid. This should put get the Oilers on notice, right?

“Yeah, for sure. It’s got our attention. It’s a great challenge. It’s a team playing really, really well,” said McDavid, who will see a lot of Makar at even strength. And maybe a head-to-head with MacKinnon, which would leave Draisaitl to maybe do some damage on a second line with Vasily Podkolzin and Jack Roslovic.

The Oilers, as we all know, keep letting two-goal leads get away. Happened in St, Louis Monday, happened in Dallas Tuesday, the latest in not closing the deal.

“We probably have to be a little more desperate, more urgency,” said McDavid. “We’re putting ourselves in good spots but we’re not closing things out and that’s something we’ve been good at. Hasn’t been the trend this year. It’s something we have to figure out.”

They’ve managed to win twice but lost four others. When does the team have a come-to-Jesus moment? Like, enough is enough.

“I guess when you’ve done it six times,” said McDavid. “It’s a fair question. It’s something we have to talk about, we have to clean up.”

Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch knows why it’s happening. But knowing it and fixing it are two different things.

“I don’t think there’s any one theme. It’s staying engaged, the importance of every shift, how we react to turnovers … the urgency in getting back to the net. In a couple of games we’ve lost, guys got beat,” said Knoblauch.

Like when defenceman Miro Heiskanen tied it in Dallas in the third period.

“If it was playoffs we’d have a different level of urgency but we have to find that in regular-season,” said Knoblauch

And their team speed?

“We’ve got to start using it, get through the neutral zone. That’s been a big problem for us and we have to break the puck out, moving up the ice the whole way,” said McDavid, the game’s fastest skater. “The game’s felt disconnected and when that’s the case, the game feels hard.”

Knoblauch isn’t so sure about struggling to get through the middle of the ice.

“You can always be better going through the neutral zone but we’re actually No. 1 in the league in controlled entries,” said Knoblauch, who does want more from his back end, getting the puck moving north. They’ve scored six even-strength goals as a group and passing needs to be better.

“When you’re good five-on-five, it’s mostly spearheaded by the back end,” he said. “They have to be able to make plays, break out the puck. And scoring off the rush is most often because the defence is joining in. Either leading the rush or joining as the fourth man. We want the defence to get involved. We had more drills today with the defence skating.”

This ‘n that: Knoblauch said Mattias Janmark is a possibility for either Saturday or Monday, when the Blue Jackets are here. If he comes off IR, then the Oilers will have to make a player move because they are at the max of 23 players. It could be Curtis Lazar going on waivers. Janmark, who has missed the whole season, would theoretically start on left wing on the fourth line, which might mean rookie Ike Howard comes out … Winger Zach Hyman (wrist surgery) might still be a week away, maybe some time on the seven-game Eastern road trip which starts Wednesday in Philadelphia … Defenceman Darnell Nurse was playing with Alec Regula at Friday’s skate, which means Brett Kulak with Jake Walman on another pairing … Nurse and Regula played together in Game 2 as a pair when Regula got drilled by Kane and suffered possible concussion-type issues … Stuart Skinner will be in net.

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