EDMONTON — The Edmonton Oilers’ second season as a recovering Stanley Cup finalist has been… well, let’s just say they’ve taken it one day at a time.

They've learned how to get to April 15 in a comfortable playoff position, without expending too much energy along the way. How to maintain the level in everyone’s personal game to stay at or near the top of the Pacific, then find a team game when needed after the Olympic break — but not necessarily before.

How to be good enough, while saving your best for last.

Because if there's one thing they know, it's that you can’t play playoff hockey in December. Not if you plan on playing it in June.

“The expectations are to win the Stanley Cup,” Zach Hyman said Wednesday. “We lose in the final, we lose in the first round — we’re going to be pissed.”

When you’re in the middle of a Stanley Cup window, it’s all about the 16 wins from April to June. The 82 games before that, they’re crab cakes: the appetizer before the main course.

And the more playoff hockey you’ve played, the more that becomes ingrained in the DNA of an NHL team.

“Playoff experience,” began Hyman. “When you don't have it, you don't really think it's that important. And when you do, you realize it is important.”

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