Sometimes in life, as shown here by Ziggy, you just run out of gas. Edmonton’s second periods lately have been murdering the game results. I think fatigue was the culprit last night, your mileage may vary.
For prospect nerds like me, there was a late sliver of goodness, as goalie Olivier Rodrigue made his NHL debut. Looked good too, gotta say. The first stop was a dandy, the only GA a fluke and no chance for the rookie. Who knows if he’ll have a career, but there’s a story to tell about this fellow.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN MARCH
- On the road to: CAR (Expected 0-0-1) (Actual 1-0-0)
- At home to: ANA, MTL, DAL (Expected 2-1-0) (Actual 2-1-0)
- On the road to: BUF, NJD, NYI, NYR (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 2-2-0)
- At home to: UTA, WPG, SEA, DAL (Expected 2-2-0) (Actual 2-1-1)
- On the road to: SEA (Expected 0-0-1) (Actual 0-1-0)
- At home to: CGY (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- Overall expected results: 7-5-2, 16 points in 14 games
- March result: 7-5-1
- Oilers in 2024-25: 41-26-5, 87 points in 72 games
I had last night as an overtime/shootout loss, but the Oilers were not close to good enough against a mid-level team. This is the kind of game one would fret over if the schedule wasn’t ridiculous and the team down a couple of HOFers due to injury. Burn the tapes, next stop home and the Godless Flames.
THE NUMBERS
Every line Zach Hyman played on did well, if Mattias Janmark and or Connor Brown could hit the ocean the Oilers would have been up 2-0 early and maybe we see a different game. The only completely reliable pairing was Nurse-Walman and as mentioned earlier the second period can go to hell.
This team has a helluva lot more to give than we saw last night, I don’t believe it’s fair to rip them a new one when the second half of the btb was thought to be an uphill climb before they boarded the plane.
OLIVIER RODRIGUE
I like to do pre- and post-Christmas splits for AHL players. It’s amazing how often an young player spikes once getting used to the pace and physicality of the league. Here’s Olivier Rodrigue in 2024-25:
- Before Christmas: 15GP, 2.60 GAA, .925 SP
- After Christmas: 25GP, 3.32GAA, .879SP
- Overall: 40GP, 3.05GAA, .899SP
I don’t know if Rodrigue will have an NHL run, but in the two previous seasons to this one he finished top-10 in save percentage. He started this season well, and fell off when the team was decimated by recalls, trades of foundation defenders and injuries. I’ll be cheering for him. He is the fourth Oilers draft pick from 2018 to appear in the NHL.
At noon today, a special edition of the Lowdown hits the air on Sports 1440. We’ll be joined by legendary ballplayer Joe Carter, who will be in Edmonton on April 5th for a special gala presented by the Riverhawks. There will be a fireside chat with Joe, batting cages and pitching machines to test your skill, silent and live auction items and more. Click on the link for tickets.
Steve Lansky and Tyler Yaremchuk will also drop in and it’ll be a fun Friday despite the snow and last night’s Oilers loss. I’m at Lowetide on twitter, in the comments section here and on the Sports 1440 text line at 1.833.401.1440 directly. We can be heard at sports1440.ca; iHeartRadio, Radioplayer Canada, it’s available post-show on apple and spotify, and we tweet it out on X.
Edmonton Oilers’ anticipated spring signing season gets underway
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6235118/2025/03/28/oilers-joshua-samanski-signing/
What’s going on right now?
Why is the game stopped?
2 Mutts is saying Leon will play tonight unless there is a set-back at morning skate. Also say that McDavid’s return is scheduled for April 9 against STL and that we will travel on the California trip.
If third place in the Pacific is inevitable, I’d like to see 3-5 games of rest for those who need it.
Fredy n Kane can take our forward group to another level, but the overall team defence needs some attention. Hopefully some blanket rest before the playoffs could help?
In all honesty, I’m just as exasperated with Skinner, but show me an Oilers team focused on a playing a solid defensive game. Last playoffs? Random games this season?
This is a team defence problem, whether systems or personel, long before we call upon our goaltenders.
Isn’t this the same coaching staff as last year? I’d like to see some more mediocre defense before we fetch the pitchforks. At this point it’s sub par, maybe even embarrassing. Even Hellebuyck couldn’t mask this team’s issues.
Why do guys need rest? They had 2 weeks off a little more than a month ago.
Incredible to reflect that the Oilers haven’t even won the pacific division title let alone a President’s trophy or Stanley cup during the McDavid era.
It’s actually crazy. And honestly, they have never been that close.
Do we really think two forwards who have been injured for months/weeks will really make a big difference?
Kane has not played in nearly a year. What are reasonable expectations for this player?
Petrov gets the Condors on the board, down 2-1
Philp with a great goal, power rushing down the left side and taking it to the net and goes under the bar for the 2-2 goal.
Savoie sends Caggiula in on a breakaway – pretty finish for 3-2.
Keppen get the puck at the side of the net and beats Cooley upstairs, 4-2.
Dineen finds Philp back-door and its 5-2.
That’s 5 unanswered on 16 shots in the second.
Summarizing!
O’Reilly opened the scoring on the PP to extend his point streak to 10.
Nicholl added an assist in a 6-1 win.
Day stopped 29 of 33 but Flint lost 4-3 in OT.
Clattenburg returned to action but was denied soup. He did get into a scrap barely a minute into the game though.
Berry was also not a resoupient.
Gregor says Drai will take the morning skate tomorrow. Not a for sure that he’ll play but a good chance.
I’m sure there will be plenty opining that he is being rushed but none of us have any idea on that. What we do know is that he’s been on the ice with the team for a number of days now. He was at morning skate on Wed.
Leon with his 50th and winning goal against the Flames will get folks off the ledge.
Brian Burke said if he was ready to go one day he’d keep him off a few days longer. I agree
Maybe he was ready to go 3 days ago and they have kept him out longer?
That sounds like the logical take with Leon having been skating with the team since Wedn.
Team D and Dmen in particular played terrible last night. An odd ray of sun may have been visible but I’m not gonna track it down.
Not gonna make excuses either. Many posters and commentators have been whining, sniveling and bellyaching re: roster. Time to quit in my opinion. Have heard all a week ago, why the rehashing known news endlessly.
Hoping for better Saturday night!
I’ll whine, snivel & bellyache as I please.
There is short term and long term discussion. The recent games, performance etc, which I understand we are seeing real time performance in the here and now. Pre season and post season is irrelevant as we have immediate concerns to solve and immediate positives to recognize. The roster is the roster, make do.
There is projecting forward discussion on goaltender decisions over the summer for example.
There is history as in how we landed on this roster. Im fond of this one right now as after a game 7 Stanley, changes were made. But the mistakes are hard to understand. Who dropped the ball on Broberg? Why did Holloways say the Oilers never really showed up at the bargaining table? Who was in charge during the GM transition? Who signed Josh Brown?
Why did Jackson start signings with no input from a new GM, and seemingly without coach input, as coach did not see value in new signings. Others that left over the summer, were they sent out or did they quit based on what? Looking backwards, there seems a lot of mystery.
It is expectations, fans are expecting a lot. But please join with recognizing the good, balance is needed.
I think Jackson was set on Bowman and waited for PR reasons. It has been said Bowman was a part of the signings etc pre hiring but I’m not sure. If the league found out he risked another banishment and who knows for how long
But it was not handled well, going into free agency without a GM wasn’t good. Skinner and Arvi may yet turn out to be good moves, we’ll see. The only move I don’t get was Holloway, Bro was already gone but they should have traded him preemptively
Jackson didn’t make his moves without input from people in the org and maybe the coaches. They must have been down on DH and along the lines of Schwartz choosing Campbell over Kuemper, I wouldn’t be too impressed if I was Jackson. I’d be looking for new people, maybe Bowman will end up there
Holland was a lame duck for a year as soon as Jackson was hired and Wright was fired it’s not hard to connect the dots from there. Of the hundreds of goalies with a better resume than Delia who had ties to bowman ends up getting signed as a free agent. I really believe Armstrong was doing a solid for Holland on the offer sheeting of Broberg who was the main prize and ultimately ends up with a horseshoe up his butt on the Hall like year Hollywood is having. All I care about is the multiple cups we are going to win in the next 5 years starting with this year.
If Schwartz had input on choosing Campbell then that is all the more reason to have fired him 2 years ago. I feel like they didn’t do their homework on that one, on ice and off, and it has cost us big time. One of the many frustrating things about the Holloway mis-read is that all reports out of St. Louis is how he is a gym rat and highly focused on improvement. How did the coaches et al. not notice and provide input to management on this. We are paying Campbell more to not play for us than what we would have paid Holloway this year. It feels like the team/ GM didn’t think it through and made decisions on emotion rather than taking an objective approach i.e. its Hollands guy and screw you for being greedy, you don’t get to win a Stanley Cup
A lot of us around here LOVED Jackson’s interim GMing. Many wanted to make him the permanent GM.
The St. Louis thing really came out of nowhere, and few could have predicted even at the time how badly it would turn out for us. And seriously, who expected Ryan McLeod to be on a 50-point pace ever in his career, let alone this year? And we were all happy with Kenny’s grindings on Nuge and Kane. Sometimes the stars just align against you.
I think the roster (other than in net) is incredibly deep, and built for the playoffs. So many guys having down years (e.g. Nuge) seems like bad luck.
I think Kenny is maybe the guy that we miss. He made some mistakes, all GM’s do, but he built a team within 2 goals of a Stanley Cup. We fired him to hire a guy that inherited the core of the Blackhawks dynasty from Tallon, traded Panarin for Brandon Saad, and left the Blackhawks facing a decade of darkness
Bowman assisted Talon in building that team and also re-tooled the roster for 3 Stanley Cup.
He won the cup 3 and 5 years after becoming GM and had his team finish 1st in the division 7 years after becoming GM.
The narrative that he had no real impact on the Hawks prolonged success seems quite, well, false.
Not trying to be the contrarian but who did he add to the top 6F or 4D for cups 2 and 3. The hawks had a core of a top 7 or 8 that were all in place before Bowman and that’s what carried them. He didn’t bleed too much from 09 to 13 but not sure that’s a sign of a top gm.
Its tough to understate how decimated the Condors are, both up front and on defence. I want to add “personal leave” to the above list as Josh Brown has been gone for weeks on a personal issue and Dermott never joined the Condors after re-call, due to a personal matter. Don’t quote me on this but I think Dermott’s had to do with a family matter – I can’t remember, I heard/read it in passing a few weeks back.
Condors defence last game was:
Dineen/Carrick
Attard/Kannok-Leipert
Mayhew/Brady
Jarventie, Frederic, Brown, and Dermott…all Bowman acquisitions who are not playing hockey. It is becoming quite a thing with Stanley.
Jarventie (July 15) Brown (July 1) and Dermott (Oct 8, 2024 – reclaimed off waivers Feb 26 bcs he could be assigned to the Condors who needed D) were not signed or traded for by Bowman (July 24)
Bowman didn’t sign Brown
Don’t ask. Don’t tell.
With some players, it does seem like some dissatisfaction has crept in. No idea what, maybe nothing.
Everybody forgets about Alec….I understand he is not a Regula topic around here, but he too is a Bowman acquisition.
and he is a free player, that will be signed to a low end QO accepted deal, that has a chance to play. From accounts, he will be ready for camp and trained up. I would think he’s likely waived but would slide through in October with the masses.
32 thoughts podcast today is worth a listen. I will respect LTs 24 hour rule and only recommend a listen. Specifically the Oiler talk of course, I felt like it shines a light on J Skinners usage this season.
Hopefully I didn’t take that too far. I only want to give context on why I felt it interesting. I’m sure many already have listened.
I think you cannot talk J eff S without talking Kris K. It will be a thing over summer.
Did he do well because he inherited a good team? Did he manage to motivate them or diploy them properly? Why are mistakes repeated over and over? You can see it coming.
It also shines a light on the Oilers methods this season. Friedman did a bunch of interviews in town earlier in the week (including Drai) and, from accounts, everything they do and their process is to be ready for the playoffs – their season record and even “home ice” is not their goal.
This is a veteran team that finally ran out of gas in game 7 they also had the shortest offseason in club history. It’s all about starting the peak in game 1. This is collectively the best and deepest D in 20 years. Give skinner a 7-10 off to work on tracking the puck and smoother lateral movement and he’ll be fine.
The Oilers probably didn’t deserve the goal as punishment for Brown being, well, less than smart waving his stick 3 feet above his head but I still didn’t see him actually touch the puck.
Oh well, officials obviously saw a touch on replay.
Reason for my post is that, from what I saw, both disallowed goals by the flames last night were entirely egregious. Those were more “judgement calls” than a black and white “did the stick touch the puck” but my goodness I don’t understand either.
Would be very annoyed if I was a flames fan.
I detected a slight touch by Brown on 2 of the angles. Not much, but maybe enough to mess up Dunn who was trying to pull the puck down with his glove. His reaction was instantaneous, & i believe authentic.
Meanwhile the GI calls/non-calls that went against the Flames & Habs respectively were hard to defend individually & impossible when compared to each other. Then there was that one against the Islanders earrlier this week which was beyond ridiculous. Good to know playoff spots will be decided on garbage calls like these.
Since most of the referees-Linesman-replay officials are Canadian is it possible that they overcompensate to not seem biased and give teams like say Nashville the coin flip when it’s say 45%-55%. Your memory is like a elephant wasn’t it a few years back when we lost like 16 in a row replays?
I think 15 or 16 was the number.
my conspiracy theory du jour(mostly in jest, but snarky jest) was “southernmost team gets the call”
It’s time for AI officiated games.
Gary probably thinks AI is ‘AL’
That call changed the whole complexion of the game.
Meh – very tough scheduling with the very late game the night before and having to travel across borders, etc.
Combine that with how depleted the lineup is and, well, shit games happen.
Dont get me wrong, I wish it wasn’t an ass-kicking but it is what it is.
Of most concern is that Walman and Nurse decided to take over from Ekholm as the very good dman playing and awful game.
Yeah, it is a “move on” type game. I think everyone is just projecting forward to playoff readiness. (or lack of)
It’s actually unbelievable how many GM sins McDavid, Drai and Bouchard have covered up.
Five successive GMs have just bled talent but somehow this team is still a cup contender. Inconceivable.
I think a lot of folks don’t get how much of the success they have had is because of this, and in spite of what you mentioned
I think the org has left Cups on the table
100%. There were so many better options when Chia and Holland were hired.
The owner very clearly likes Hockey Men though.
Literally every other generational talent has won a cup faster than McD. What’s the difference? Reasonably competent management.
I don’t disagree that there’s been blunders, talent bled, and potentially cups left on the table. But I would absolutely consider Ovi a generational talent, and he didn’t win until he was 32. No guarantees, but genuinely possible he wins another at 39 too.
Oops. ^^^this^^^
Yes that’s how I see it. The first mistake was Burgers in 2014. A rep hire even with zero NHL experience and old boy all the way. And of course he just rep hired or easy hired repeatedly until he bungled his way out of control
Rep hire Holland was classy about getting the pipe, but that’s what happened. Not being renewed after only five years means his work was seen as lacking by those above him. I can’t argue
Burger interviewee Zito taking 4 years from overhaul to Cup will pain me for a bit
The much hyped candidate search that preciptated the Zito interview went straight into the trash bin the moment Ken Holland threw his hat into the ring.
You make me sad Sir
This team might not win one at all. Barzal/Erikkson-Ek draft pick, Holloway, Broberg, Hall – too much talent has left the building in exchange for magic beans.
Don’t forget, they could have also acquired Aho or Carlo after the Boeser/Eriksson Ek/Connor pick. And then they also could have had McDavid’s teammate, DeBrincat, the following year. Quite a lot of misses. Not saying they would have been able to keep them all. But certainly a lot of misses at key opportunities.
The NHL making them, and only them, give up picks randomly when they didn’t have to, also hasn’t helped.
Alex Ovechkin says hi.
Oops. You are right. But the general point stands.
Teams with generational talents win cups early and becomes increasingly more difficult the older they get for cap, asset, and performance reasons.
Ovechkin 11 years. Yzerman 15 years. Bossy never. Price never. Bourque 20 years. Thornton never. Oates never. Dionne never. Lindros never. Bure never. Phil Housley never.
The list goes on and on. No need to exaggerate.
Zito or Nill could have been running this team. I favor Nill over the water bottle lunatic, but either beats the alternatives.
Honestly, sticking with MacT would have been better than Chia et al.
That is the disappointing part of the Oilers story. Talent wasted. Most only have two feet to shoot yourself in. At this point, the Oilers have no feet, hands, arms, or legs for that matter!
53-93-18 shows promise.
Then again, lately any line with 53 shows promise.
I’ll resist the urge to go on a rant about how this was delayed by the coach rather than some sort of game evolution.
Maybe he’ll finally get to play in a playoff game.
Ya, “maybe” is right, it is now entirely possible our beloved Oilers won’t even make the playoffs. How it’s even possible we could be passed in the standings by the Blues should frankly be embarrassing (on SO many levels) for our management team. Currently in 3rd place in the Pacific, we are just barely in… then followed by the 2 wildcard teams within 2 points of us… YIKES!
Next up the godless Flames (spits)… LET’S GO OILERS, GET IT TOGETHER!
That’s a pretty pessimistic take. The Canucks are 7 points back with 10 to play, the odds of them passing the Oilers are very low.
The Blues can’t “pass” the Oilers in the standings as they are in a different division. Only a Pacific division team can push the Oilers into a WC spot / out of the playoffs.
Agree, however I did use the word “possibly”… I am not trying to predict anything, other than pointing out our very unstable position in the standings is at risk of sinking further if we don’t get our sh*t together. I continue to be hopeful our goalies can find their game, our bottom 6 can find the net more often, and our Stars can quickly get healthy and back on the ice. Oops, I misread the wild card standings.
At the 4 Nations break the Blues were 17 points behind the. Oilers. The margin is now 2 points
That’s meaningless though.
To you, maybe.
Nevermind the Blues if we don’t get our shit together the Senators will pass us in the wild card race.
Anything is possible but its also entirely improbable that they don’t make the playoffs.
To me it’s pretty straight forward. It’s pro sports and there is only one objective – to win, and to win championships. There is nothing else, there is no other objective other than to make money, and that is directly related to the former
There are only two players on the Oilers that are untouchable to me. And it’s on Mr. Bowman to do anything he can to maximize them. It goes without saying that thinking about the future is a large part of that, seeing that both untouchables have years ahead of them of high level play
The Stars defeated the Godless 5-2 while being outshot 48-19. Apparently goalies aren’t voodoo to all teams
Perhaps the Oilers need to invest more in their understanding of the position, given they haven’t been able to assess them since somewhere around when Sather left, excepting one crazy season
I’m not complaining or criticizing, just expressing the need for getting things right, and as soon as possible. It doesn’t get mentioned in the goalie debates, but J Schwartz was asked by Holland who he liked between Kuemper and Campbell, and we know who he picked. Big time mistake. That’s a job ender, isn’t it?
The main thing coaches do at the NHL level is manage people. X’s and O’s are the easy part. I wonder if the Oilers have enough time for KK to learn high level NHL coaching, or if he’ll even get there, because I’m less convinced as they go
Win only mentality went out the window as soon as it’s run as a for-profit company.
Both works out pretty well. Ask the New York Yankees of the entire 20th century.
People forget how many teams failed and moved out of NYC. It isn’t the market. It is that winning thing. That then brings the money. Sustainably.
The 80s Oilers almost created it here too – but their owner wasn’t actually good at business.
Yankees rich enough to pay luxury tax.
Because they built a winner, brand and following that makes them rich. And has subsidized the league at many times.
BTW – I said 20th century. CBT arrived in 1997.
Current guy seems to have trouble being good at sports ownership regarding the on ice stuff. Maybe they got it right this time fingers crossed
I’m hoping one of the kids has it in them to be all about the titles.
I think Dad is, just didn’t have the chops to hire the right fella to run his team or know when to pull the plug. Burgers was in way over his head in an actually competitive environment. Team Canada is much easier to do
Nah. Too many other business ventures and things to distract. I commend him for raising the value of the franchise, but it has never looked like a team with a one-track mind to the titles the way a Steinbrenner or Auerbach team did.
I suppose not
If nothing else, the Oilers owner has shown the complete willingness to spend as much as possible in the name of winning.
Prospectiance!
62.5% of the remaining NAmateurs take the ice tonight.
London begins what ought to be a deep playoff run as they entertain the Sound of Owen. The Knights had almost twice as many points as OS in the regular season (112 vs. 59) and won all six matchups this season, the last a 9-1 drubbing.
O’Reilly enters the postseason with a 9-game point streak in which he has 10 goals and 8 apples.
Nicholl finished the season with a hatty and an assist to give him 57 points for the year, almost tripling his 20 points from yesterseason.
Flint opens on the road vs. Kitchener. The Rangers outpointed Flint 100-63 and won 3 of their 4 meetings this year, but every matchup was decided by one goal, and all but one went past regulation time. If Day can rediscover his October form, the Birds of Fire can pull off the upset.
Clattenburg has missed the last six GP.
Berry rounds out the sched as Muskegon begins another 3-in-3 weekend at home.
London (O’Reilly, Nicholl) @ 5 p.m.
Flint (Day, Clattenburg) @ 5 p.m.
Muskegon (Berry) @ 5 p.m.
All times are the same time and are also Hinton time.
Really happy you see the step forward for both O’Reilly and Nichols. Looking for them to be a dominant 1C/2C in the O next season.
I don’t think this team will be healthy enough for the playoffs. Are we really expecting Kane and Fredric to jump into playoff hockey after months/weeks off? McD and Drai must have pretty serious injuries if they are not playing during the playoff dogfight. Ekholm has a nagging injury. Not good.
Goaltending is non-existent.
Silver lining is that the boys probably feel less pressure this year than the last few.
The Ekholm injury saga is eerily familiar to what happened to the guy in my username. Might take him the offseason to recover, or maybe full recovery doesn’t happen at all.
It’s not looking positive. This team just hasn’t been able to get any traction this year. These injuries are just the latest. Jeff Skinner finally shows a little chemistry with McDavid, then 97 gets injured. Will they be able to rekindle that when Mcdavid returns? Or will Knoblauch bury Skinner with Janmark and Brown again?
It’s a big ask to have these top players injured this time of the year then come back to instantly be at the top of their game when it matters.
This team has a reputation for playing its best when their backs are against the wall, so there is hope they can pull it off
Man, I’d be shocked if either Kane or Frederic are in the team.
Kenny likes to take chances on aging players having one last fight on them. The current management seem to like trading for injured players that have a worse condition that we were originally led to believe…
Team could really use some young fast players on value contracts like let’s say Holloway and clouder
Just like in Cannonball Run, pull the rear view mirror off because that’s in the past. What’s more interesting and less painful and depressing than picking the same scab off every day is what can be done in the future? Because lots can be done by a good GM (hopefully that’s Stan) in a quick hurry. I’m encouraged that he called up Rod and not the marginal vet
Mcleod was dealt in a hockey trade, after two disappointing post seasons. Excellent regular season player, yet his inability to raise his physical level to match the post season play around him spelled out the end of his time.
Nailed it. Sometimes you can see it coming by what players say or significant plays. Taylor Hall said the stench of the season or something and I thought he’s gone, Eberle backing away from a hit that lead to GA IIRC, and McLeod saying playing on the perimeter is ok out loud while getting pounded in goal share. Hasta la vista baby
The D was pathetic last night. Picard not good either. Brown and Janmark have brutal hands lol. It is uncanny how they can’t score with glorious setups. Sure they were missing studs, and probably tired.
picard has not been good in his last few appearances nor has Skinner. It is troubling. Skinner has had 1 really good NHL playoff style of game in the last while and just seems to be so inconsistent. We are all hoping he goes on a run like after Xmas last year and the playoffs, but he hasn’t put a string of games together like that or even close to it this year.
If the D falls off like last night the goalies are made to look even worse.
I really don’t see this goaltending Tandem especially with Ekholm not 100% getting past LA in the 1st round. Hope I am wrong and Drai, McD, Ekholm, Kane and Frederic all come in and play great and we shine
Acknowledging that there are lots of reasons for this loss, I think it’s probably fair to point out that this game wasn’t a great sign. They do have to win SOME of their last 10 games to get into the playoffs.
A score affects close loss to a great team and a slaughter at the hands of a weak sister opens up a lot more possibilities on the loss side of the column then even a week ago.
They have more injuries than at any point in the McDavid era and they have virtually no goaltending. I’m currently at a place like most that “get healthy for game 1 of the playoffs” is all that matters BUT if we lose Saturday night to Calgary all of a sudden….
If their roster looks something like this for the rest of the regular season they almost certainly will take losses to the Kings, Kings, Knights and Jets. They will be underdogs against the desperate Flames and Blues. They may need to go 3-0 against the Sharks and beat the Ducks.
If their roster looks like this for the rest of the regular season, they’ll not make the playoffs.
I can’t get to the place where I can accept that guys in their early thirties have big problems with energy levels if they aren’t playing with injuries that inhibit play
Not all teams lose just because of the schedule. Every team loses games, but the Oilers seem to follow the BTB narrative or whatever like a script
There is a leadership aspect missing. There are enough good players to play any team to a decent level tired or not. It’s between the ears with this group. Too many passive types and a passive coach
There’s a leadership aspect missing, all right. No McDavid, no Draisaitl, no Ekholm…
The thought that Oilers without those guys sjpuld be expected to roll over Seattle despite a severe rest disadvantage doesn’t pass muster.
Then there’s the fact that Oilers had exactly 3 guys in the line-up with 30+ points. The Kraken had 8.
True, for me there is always seems to be a reason why not. The oldest team in the league has other guys that can set the tone. It just seems to me that in too many games they aren’t prepared to go or can stay in the game mentally for 60. It gives me concerns about the coaches which is what I was pointing at
Maurice has the Panthers playing better and they have played more than the Oilers seeing two consecutive finals. Their team core isn’t that young either. A top team needs leadership from players and coaches that is strong enough
Prior to last night they were 6-3-1 in their last ten.
Prior to these back to backs, they were 4-0-1 in their last 5.
I think they have proven capable of winning “some games” even before players come back in the lineup, no?
3-0-0 with 29 + 97
0-0-1 with 97
1-2-0 without either