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After 19 games, the Oilers have more wins than only the Arizona Coyotes and Buffalo Sabres. Connor McDavid has nine goals and 22 points, but the rest of the players have looked slow, have had difficulty scoring and cannot seem to find any consistency in their play.

In particular, the off-season trade for Ryan Strome (three goals and eight points) hasn’t been a success; going the other way to the Islanders, Jordan Eberle has seven goals and 14 points.

“For me, it goes back to where our mindset was in terms of managing expectations,” Chiarelli said. “We fell behind the eight ball at the start for a number of reasons. Execution was one of them, and now you’re in that recovery mode and you lose runway. So that’s where we are right now.

“I’m not putting blame for our record on (the pressure of meeting expectations), but I think it’s something that we needed to address and we did. And maybe we didn’t do a good enough job of it.”

Chiarelli said the recent trade for Mike Cammalleri, a 35-year-old veteran, should help the team. And there might be more moves coming. But he also stressed that he hasn’t given up on the current group.

“Do we need more help? All the teams in the league need more help,” Chiarelli said. “But at this point, these guys have to figure it out also.”

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This general managers’ gathering was held at Le Windsor, the site where 100 years ago the league was officially formed.

It was a chance to reflect on the past, but also to look at the future of the game. Though general managers were unanimous in their message that the game is in a good position, the 31 caretakers of the league still looked at how slashing penalties were being enforced, the coach’s challenge and several other topics.