Horcoff No Fan of Heatley Trade Saga

Edmonton was the one club that tried hard to swing a deal to land Ottawa's disgruntled Dany Heatley. Heatley wouldn't waive his no-trade clause to join the Oilers, however.

As you might imagine, that doesn't sit too well with Edmonton players such as center Shawn Horcoff, the Oilers' alternate captain.

"When you first hear about something like that, there's some excitement, because any time you can add a 50-goal scorer, it's going to help your team," Horcoff told FanHouse in a phone interview Tuesday. "But then the names of some of our players who would go over there started to come out, and the fact that (Heatley) elected not to come here.... That puts a sour taste in your mouth.

"The fact he didn't want to come here, that's unfortunate. It's frustrating to hear that a player doesn't want to come here."

The Oilers offered to Ottawa: forwards Andrew Cogliano and Dustin Penner and defenseman Ladislav Smid. Horcoff wasn't eager to see them depart, and he felt for them as the Heatley controversy dragged on.

"These are teammates you battle with every night," he said. "Their names are dragged through all this and they have to wait for a month to find out what's happening. It could have been handled better. It's frustrating for everyone involved. Nothing good has come out of it for anyone."

"These are teammates you battle with every night. Their names are dragged through all this and they have to wait for a month to find out what's happening. ... Nothing good has come out of it for anyone." Horcoff is still feeling the sting from the way Edmonton's season ended last year, another upsetting time. The Oilers appeared to have a playoff spot in hand with three weeks to go, but they wound up being the flip side to the stirring stories in St. Louis and Anaheim. The Blues and Ducks made late pushes, and Edmonton disappeared.

On March 20, after an overtime win over Chicago, the Oilers had four points on ninth-place St. Louis. They were one point behind Colorado for the sixth spot. Then, Edmonton dropped eight of the final 11 games, and the Oilers were eliminated before the final weekend. Horcoff pointed to the team's problems getting early leads, along with special teams play, as some of the team's problems in the final few weeks.

The Oilers -- Stanley Cup finalists in 2006 -- now have not made the playoffs in three seasons, and Horcoff wants nothing more than for that to change.

"It's a mindset, and it's preparation," he said. "Confidence, and you have to have the game savvy to pull off close games. We all know how close the West is, there is no easy game. Every game is tight. Every game is a playoff game for everyone. So you have to do the little things, you can't do any cheating. It falls on every individual to do what he can do best, and then do extra."

This summer, Horcoff's been working to improve his endurance. He said he usually concentrates more on gaining explosive strength, but he said he didn't feel as if the endurance was there all year, "so I changed things up this summer," said Horcoff, who scored one goal in the team's final dozen games. "It's more a philosophy."

Head coach Craig MacTavish paid for the Oilers' collapse with his job, and now Pat Quinn is at the helm. Horcoff said he does not know Quinn well, but he knows associate coach Tom Renney well, and Horcoff's assumption is that Quinn has a similar style to the way the Oilers operated under MacTavish: up-tempo, an emphasis on puck possession.

Also new to Edmonton is goalie Nikolai Khabibulin, who signed a four-year, $15 million deal in July.

" I've heard great things about Khabibulin and how hard he works. I know he'll be strong, he'll be relaxed, he'll bring some confidence, and he's at his best in the playoffs," Horcoff said. "That's the most important thing for every team in the playoffs, goaltending."

Now the Oilers just have to get back there.