Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle have gone on record countless times about their respect and admiration for the fans in Edmonton, how they are overwhelmed by the passion, grateful for the loyalty and how they even understand the uncomfortable episodes of tough love.

But they respectfully disagree with the how the majority of fans in Edmonton viewed and treated Justin Schultz during his last few weeks as an Oiler.

They don’t think he’s a useless player and they definitely don’t think he should have been booed in his own building.

“I hate when our fans do that, to be honest,” said Hall, as the Oilers returned to work the day after Schultz and Ted Purcell were traded to Pittsburgh and Florida respectively.

“You understand that they pay a lot of money to come to the games and they have a right to cheer or boo whoever they want, but I certainly have personal feelings towards Justin as a guy and you don’t want to see a teammate go through that.”

Schultz was playing poorly to begin with, nobody will argue with that, but when the fans turned on him it only chopped away at his confidence and added to the pressure, making it even more difficult to turn his game around. By the end, it had become a death spiral he simply couldn’t pull out of.

At least not here.

For his friends on the team — Schultz was a popular figure in the room — it was tough to watch.

“You feel bad,” said Jordan Eberle. “That’s something I’ve never seen before. Justin is a player who goes out, he’s getting hit, he’s making plays, he’s putting his body on the line, sacrificing. And when the crowd starts booing him it’s a weird position to be in.

“We’ve all been through stages in our career where you’re struggling, you don’t feel good with the puck, you don’t feel confident or at your best. Obviously he was in that stage and when you add that (booing) on top of it it’s obviously not going to be a good result.”

It wasn’t. As Schultz went from bad to worse the booing got louder and his confidence dissolved like cotton candy in the shower. The kid must have felt like every home game was in Anaheim.

It’s not like players in Edmonton aren’t used to being booed, but there’s a difference between venom being rained down on the whole team and a player being singled out, made to feel he’s not wanted, during the pre-game introductions.

“As players, being booed by your own fans is embarrassing,” said Eberle. “They’re supposed to support you, but you’re obviously not giving them what they need, so it’s tough. When that happens and it’s directed at the whole team it hard enough, but when you get booed individually it’s even worse.

“Obviously the fans were getting on him and that’s not going to help anybody, it can hurt you.”

And did.

“No guy ever comes into the room and says ‘I’m getting booed tonight, that’s going to help me out a lot, I’m going to be a lot better for that,’” said Hall, who’s been around here long enough to know that fans in Edmonton aren’t exactly known for hiding their emotions.

“That’s just the way it is. We play in a passionate city, a city that loves their hockey … sometimes a little bit too much.”

Fighting through that was more than Schultz had in him, but his former teammates don’t think he’s done yet. They still believe he can become the player every team in the league was trying to recruit just four short summers ago.

“Confidence is everything in sports and when you don’t have it you’re a shell of the player you once were,” said Hall. “Schultzy is a great guy and I think a change of scenery, maybe a little bit less pressure, could be good for him.

“If he gets his confidence back it’s really going to let his skill shine through. And he’s one of the most skilled players I’ve ever played against. Every year we’d come into camp and he would be the best player on the ice.

“The skill is there. He’s a great worker, he’s just lost a little bit of confidence. But I think he’s going to get that back and prove a lot of people wrong.”

Follow me on twitter.com/sun_tychkowski

rtychkowski@postmedia.com