Edmonton Oilers head coach Tom Renney says playing against some of the NHL's heavyweights on this road trip is akin to visiting "a murderers' row" for his overwhelmed team.

But it's not like his players can slap a Do Not Disturb sign on their hotel room doors and refuse to come out and play.

The Oilers, last in the NHL's overall standings with a 23-38-8 record, were beaten 4-1 by the Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday before being whipped 5-0 by the Washington Capitals -second in the East -on Wednesday. They meet the Red Wings, who sit in second spot in the Western Conference standings, in Detroit on Friday and the Pittsburgh Penguins -fourth in the East -on Sunday afternoon. That's four tough opponents in a six-day span.

"You can start to look at your players with contempt," said Renney after back-to-back losses to the Flyers and Capitals. "But these guys are trying. That said, it's not like the coaches can put their arms around the players' shoulders and just say, 'Good job, guys.' ''

These games on this road trip would be a yardstick for the young Oilers if they had all hands on deck, but they don't. There's no Ales Hemsky on the wing, no Taylor Hall up front, no Ryan Whitney on the blue-line, and now no centre Sam Gagner, who's gone for the season due to a severed tendon in his left hand. Teammate Ryan Jones accidentally sliced Gagner's hand with his skate blade when Gagner was sitting on the bench during Wednesday's game in Washington. The Oilers are going to battle with water pistols these days, but you play with the weapons you're given.

Renney has his charges playing too high up on the depth chart in the injury-riddled and mistake-ridden lineup, others having to provide instant offence on a top line when they're not ready for it, like rookie winger Jordan Eberle.

Others are playing hurt, like defenceman Kurtis Foster, who was shown on having his hand bandaged against the Capitals during Wednesday's TSN broadcast.

Then there are others like young blue-liner Alex Plante, who was thrown into the deep end against Flyers stars Jeff Carter and Danny Briere on Tuesday, and against Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin in Washington. He's not ready to swim with the big fish. That's why Plante is back in the minors, with Jeff Petry coming up from the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League in a player swap for Friday's game.

This season has been a teaching tool for the Oilers, but putting a bright Grade 10 kid into a masters program in biophysics can also be way too much. The Oilers, as we see them today, are 30th because they're not nearly deep enough with NHLready players night in, night out, They're not nearly big enough up front and their team defence continually leaves their goalies exposed.

There are also some players like Ryan Jones and Eberle, especially now, up front and the pugnacious defender Theo Peckham who have had to play larger roles than they should. Throw in the fact they don't have Whitney to make the 60-foot passes to the forwards. And when Hemsky is out, the team is missing its only real world-class forward. Add it up and you get 54 points, with just 14 games left in the season.

You learn more about your players during tough times than in good times, of course, which the coaches will file away. But it's also painful to watch, like in Philadelphia, when the Flyers directed 17 shots at Devan Dubnyk's net in the first period and the Oilers fired one at Sergei Bobrovsky. Or in Washington, when the Oilers kept handing the puck to Ovechkin and Co.

On Friday night in Detroit, who does Renney put out against veteran stars Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg? Who can they match against big Todd Bertuzzi and the even bigger Johan Franzen?

"We knew back in September, when we looked at the schedule, that this stretch of games was going to be really interesting," said Renney, who stands behind the bench trying to look at the big picture, not a one-game snapshot.

The Oilers coaching staff is trying to get something out of every game, but being competitive helps. Renney admits the coaches have to be better, too. They're not off the hook.

"You don't want to get your butt handed to you because then it doesn't matter what you're trying to teach," Renney said. "If you're just getting hammered, what are the guys supposed to say, 'OK, coach, what are we learning from this?'

"But this does give the coaching staff, with this combination of people to appreciate, what the very best teams in the league look like. In the debriefs, we'll talk to the players about deficiencies because they'll be exposed, but it's also giving us a chance to play different systems and tactics that will help us be competitive later on. We'll have footage that we can put in the library, so to speak."

Eberle, who has 36 points in 55 games, has struggled the last two outings. But so did fellow rookie Magnus Paajarvi for several weeks earlier in the season. Hall went seven games without scoring his first NHL goal in October and another seven without scoring in February.

"I think Jordan's learning what the length and width of an NHL season looks like ... the size, the strength, the competence of the players you're going against and the length of it is the 82 times, with practice and travel. There's a lot to figure out for a young player," said Renney.

"What's making it tough and unusual for Jordan is we're down in numbers. There's more on his shoulders and that's not realistic."