from Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun,

Going into the Oilers first home playoff game in 3,929 days, it was an enjoyable exercise Tuesday to take a tour of the room taking the temperature of the team that goes into Game 1 against the San Jose Sharks with a nine-game winning streak at home.

“What one word, one adjective, would you use to describe your feeling going into this series?” was the question your correspondent chose.

“Excitement,” said Cam Talbot.

“Nerves come into it a bit but I think for me it is more excitement than anything else. Everyone has been part of big games before and we’ve been playing playoff hockey for the past two week jockeying for position. I think if we just approach it as Game 83 of the regular season we’re going to be O.K. We don’t want to change anything going into it. We’ve been playing some good hockey of late. There’s no reason to change it just because it’s the playoffs now.”

“Excited” said coach Todd McLellan.

“It’s been a long time for our group, our organization and the city. We want guys to be relaxed and enjoy it. I know it’s going to be really noisy and a really exciting environment for the players to play.”

“Confident,” said Pat Maroon.

more