The Edmonton Oilers are optimistic they can bounce back from a disastrous 2006-07 campaign that saw them finish dead last in their division. (Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press)

Know the feeling of waking up from a bad dream? Then you know how the Edmonton Oilers feel on the eve of the 2007-08 NHL campaign.

To call last season nightmarish is to underestimate the horrors Edmonton had to endure. After all, this wasn't just some fleeting bout of nocturnal terror. Not unlike Bill Murray's character in Groundhog Day, the Oilers woke up each day finding themselves faced with the same troubles that left them staring at the ceiling the night before.

On the heels of their surprising run to the 2006 Stanley Cup final, where they dropped the seventh and deciding game to fellow upstart Carolina, the Oilers fell into a mind-numbing funk late last season that plummeted them to the basement of the Northwest Division, well out of reach of the playoffs.

Stripped bare by the stunning trades of linchpin defenceman Chris Pronger and heart-and-soul forward Ryan Smyth, not to mention a slew of injuries, the Oilers mustered just two wins in their final 20 games. When the dust settled, they trailed the league with an average of 2.34 goals per game, and only four clubs finished with fewer than Edmonton's 71 points.

"It got pretty bad," alternate captain Shawn Horcoff, who saw his own scoring total drop by 22 points last season, told CBCSports.ca during this year's training camp. "Let's be honest — this is our job and our livelihood, and this is what we do. When you go through a stretch of games like that where you're not winning at all, it makes it very frustrating."

Such, though, is the nature of the New NHL that Edmonton has reason to believe its long civic nightmare is over. After a regenerative off-season of aggressive free-agent moves, cleansing trades and prime draft choices, it's morning again in the City of Champions.

"I like where our team is at right now," said Horcoff. "We've got a lot of young guys, a lot of new faces. "We're still getting used to each other out there, but we're off to a pretty good start."

"We're looking forward and we're really excited to get things going."

Extreme makeover

While pre-season optimism is about as rare a commodity in NHL dressing rooms these days as fresh rolls of adhesive tape, Horcoff and the Oilers have good reason for their collective sunny dispositions.

The summer remodeling project began at the June entry draft in Columbus, where Edmonton general manager Kevin Lowe parlayed his stockpile of three first-round choices into London Knights playmaker Sam Gagner (the sixth overall pick), Calgary Hitmen defenceman Alex Plante (No. 15) and Tier II Jr. A sniper Riley Nash (No. 21).

Shawn Horcoff thinks the Oilers' off-season moves have the team heading in the right direction. (Jerry S. Mendoza/Canadian Press)

Gagner's development is progressing ahead of schedule, and he'll start the season on the big club's roster along with promising forwards Andrew Cogliano, a 2005 first-round pick, and Robert Nilsson, a 2003 Islanders first-rounder with 57 NHL games under his belt.

"A lot of our young guys, like Cogliano, and Nilsson and Gagner, have come in and shown the skill set they have," Horcoff said. "I think it's a bright spot for the organization and the fans, and everyone should be excited about the future."

After the fruitful draft came the start of the free-agent season. But rather than make a splash by throwing big money toward the Daniel Brieres and Chris Drurys who topped many teams' wish lists, Lowe opted to go the trade route, dealing aging captain Jason Smith and talented but defensively challenged forward Joffrey Lupul to Philadelphia for slick blue-liner Joni Pitkanen and veteran winger Geoff Sanderson.

Lowe then looked to the free-agent market to further bolster his team's anemic attack.

Denied in his bid to land 43-goal scorer Thomas Vanek when Buffalo matched his seven-year, $50-million US offer, Lowe scooped up power-play ace and Elk Point, Alta., native Sheldon Souray with a five-year, $25-million contract. The Oilers GM then snagged the young gun he had coveted by prying restricted free agent Dustin Penner from Anaheim with a five-year, $21.25-million offer to the strapping forward, who notched 29 goals as a rookie last year.

"They're fitting in great," Horcoff said of Lowe's imports. "They're great guys, easy to get along with. We look upon ourselves as one of the more close-knit teams in the NHL."

Cup is half full

While Lowe probably overpaid for the new guys, the fact that he was even in a position to do so is encouraging. Since the NHL revamped its revenue-sharing scheme and instituted a salary cap two years ago, small-market cities like Edmonton have become players on the free-agent market, creating a leveling effect among the 30 clubs.

"When I first came in the league, teams like Detroit, Colorado and Dallas were stacked. Their third-line players were 30-goal scorers," Horcoff said. "You really had to hope for a down night from them and for everything to go your way to beat those guys in a seven-game series.

"But now it's not like that so much. Teams aren't as stacked — they rely on drafting and young players to come in and play well. So that's given us a better chance to compete for the Stanley Cup."

That may be wishful thinking, as Edmonton probably needs to improve by at least 20 points to qualify for the playoffs. But for the first time in a while, the Oilers can dare to dream.