from Tim Campbell of NHL.com,

It's been a tough season in Edmonton, going from 103 points and two rounds in the playoffs last season to having little chance to qualify this season. You said recently that expectations for the Oilers ran really high after last season and that you had a difficult time getting that under control. How did that affect the organization and the team?

"Expectations certainly were extremely high and rightly so. This organization hadn't been in the playoffs for many, many years and we got into the playoffs and played very well, one goal, one game away from going to the conference final. So that expectation came and it came not just from within the city of Edmonton, it came worldwide about where the Edmonton Oilers were. We talked a lot about it but it's very difficult to get your hands around that and maneuver that expectation when it's coming at you in so many ways. We absorbed that and you've got to talk to the players about how it really affected them. Here, we're worried about it and there wasn't any way to get right in front of that and control all of that. It (began) in Vegas (at the NHL Awards and NHL Expansion Draft last June) about where this team was supposed to be."

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