Do you remember a few days ago, when worry about Connor McDavid’s five-on-five offense was reaching its peak? He was at 1.07 pts-60 in the discipline and that’s scary monsters and super creeps area of strange. Today, he’s at 2.05 pts-60 at five-on-five, and things are looking closer to fine. McDavid is second on the team this morning. No. 1? Zach Hyman, 2.80 pts-60. It’s cheating of course, just one game. Still, Hyman’s impact is major league.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN NOVEMBER
- At home to: Chicago (Expected 1-0) Actual 1-0
- Road: Blues, Stars (Expected 1-1-0) Actual 0-1-1
- At home to: Avalanche, Blue Jackets (1-0-1) Actual 1-1-0
- On the road to: Flyers, Blue Jackets, Hurricanes (1-2-0) Actual 2-1-0
- On the road to: Sabres, Capitals, Lightning, Panthers (1-2-1)
- At home to: Stars (1-0-0)
- On the road to: Kraken (0-0-1)
- Expected Record: 6-5-3, 15 points in 14 games
- Actual Record 4-3-1, nine points in eight games
- Season Record: 9-7-4, 22 points in 20 games
Tonight is the win I’m predicting for the last portion of the road trip. The Oilers are heading south on the I-95 after tonight, and there’s going to be some rough roads ahead.
I wrote about the Oilers issues at The Athletic today, hope you can read about the defense and other things that need to improve. I wrote about Ike Howard’s first game in Bakersfield, it’s also worth the read.
I think the coaching staff is figuring things out, the Hyman addition is huge and I expect Nuge will help the third line upon return. Matt Savoie’s impressive run, plus Jack Roslovic staying hot has really helped. I’m still online with Vasily Podkolzin-Roslovic as Leon’s wingers, and do hope the coaching staff stays Hyman-Savoie with the captain.
The key for the defense (in my opinion) is backing off Darnell Nurse’s five-on-five minutes and increasing the minutes given to Mattias Ekholm and Evan Bouchard. Nurse is at 19 minutes for the month of November, Jake Walman 18 and the Ekholm-Bouchard pairing is at 17 minutes. Need to fade the second pair and increase the top duo’s minutes. I have no answer for you in regard to Brett Kulak’s November, beyond the small possibility he has time traveled and landed on the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Stuart Skinner’s five-on-five save percentage in November is .884, that’s down from .900 in October. Pickard’s October (.872) was no great shakes, but his November (.792) is a career dilemma.
The Condors forwards are absolutely riffing now. Fun to see.
On the Lowdown today, we’ll be joined by Rachel Kryshak, CTO of Betalytics and ESPN contributor at 12:40; Jason Gregor pops in at 1:20. We’ll chat Oilers, Grey Cup, Olympics and more. Noon to 2pm, Sports 1440.
Can the Edmonton Oilers’ inconsistent defence get back on track?
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6812000/2025/11/17/edmonton-oilers-defence-stats-standings-2025/
Thanks. I love the detail here.
man the downvotes here can be silly sometimes
🤷♂️
I don’t think Skinner or Pickard are amazing goalies but I don’t know why people want to go shopping for another victim before fixing this god awful team defence.
Anyone ever consider the team is burnt out from the success the past 3 seasons. 3rd round, 2 4th round post season exits ?
The eighties oilers didn’t burn out. They were on fire the whole time. If the last three years has burnt them out, they didn’t have much resilience to start with
There were a lot of bad teams in the 80’s to beat up on. The depth of talent and parity in the league right now is a completely different animal.
are going to pretend that the 80s had the same demands on players as today? Oilers teams were coked up like crazy.
Bad news…and more bad news on the out of town scoreboard.
The Ducks scored with 4 seconds left in the third to tie the game with Utah 2-2 and then Bennett Sennecke scores in OT for the Ducks win.
The Ducks burn off one of their games in hand (now 19GP) to retake the lead atop the Pacific from LA.
Utah now in a tie with 5 other teams with 22 points
GP:
ANA 19
LAK 20
SEA 18
CHI 18
VGK 18
Utah 19
MIN 20
EDM 21
Interesting that the 12-6-1 Ducks have played 12 games on the road and only 7 at home with a big homestead ahead.
They might be for real.
4 regulation wins in 21 games is something special.
NHL head coaches are hesitant to fire their assistants mid-season especially compared to their Big 4 sport colleagues but Coach K might have to consider letting Mark Stuart and Paul McFarland go before Stan Bowman cans the lot of them! This cannot continue.
Well everyone that is good is already employed. Only chance is to poach someone from a lower league
Darnell Nurse with another doozy.
SCF/A 7/18
Highdangers 2/9
Goals 0/2
Coach Stuart played him 21 minutes at evens and to my eye played him behind 29/97 more often than usual cratering those shifts.
The stats suggest doing that. I wonder if the coaching group is getting too caught up in the numbers and micromanaging because
My patience for watching this team is waning. Tuned out the third period to watch the Raptors get a close win. Waiting game after game for 97 + 29 try for a furious comeback after falling behind getting pretty tiresome.Time for a new script…..
Took a breather after that game. Looked at standings. Despite a terrible start in terms of flow of play and solid hard working hockey, Oilers still only 2 back of Pacific lead. They have had a horrific schedule and lots of new guys and plenty of rookies as well. So perhaps we can trust in a turnaround..
This can go 1 of 2 ways ….
OPTIMIST – possibly you
REALIST – possibly LT
PESSIMIST – possibly Harper’s hair
Im fighting cancer right now so I have no choice but to try the optimistic route. Not always my chosen path.
Sorry you are in this cancer battle right now and wishing you all the best. Stay optimistic!
Wish you the best I hope you are able to enjoy the outdoors for nice walks.
Keep the faith and fight the fight. Praying for healing.
grab the book “deathwise” ..
not sure about your journey ; but wish you the best obviously
I will check it out
So sorry to hear that.
I too am facing that battle but find that committing to enjoying every day to the fullest with little regard for the future keeps me going.
I wish you peace.
Best wishes for a full recovery for both of you.
Also sorry to hear. I wish you the best as well, and true peace
Take care man. Keep fighting the good fight.
I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope you know many here care and are thinking of you in support
The sky is not falling because they lost to Buffalo.
The Sabres suck but its the NHL – there is very little separation between last and first and bad teams beat good teams nightly (not that the Oilers have been that good of a team).
Sabres beat the Panthers 3-0 not long ago.
The Oilers will soon have played 16 of 24 on the road with two eastern trips.
They were 3-1 in their 4 games before this.
Tonight sucked.
Wed likely will be much better.
Oilers are in 5th. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th places teams have all played 3 less games. The team in 1st also has a game in hand.
It’s not as rosy as your post is trying to make it out as.
All the tiebreakers are also a developing worry.
The first is wins in regulation;
Ducks – 8
Blackhawks – 8
Vegas – 7
Utah – 7
LA – 6
Kraken – 6
Wild – 6
Blues – 6
Canucks – 5
Oilers – 4
The Oilers also have a -12 goal differential which is worse than any of the real contenders.
Not really trying to paint it as rosy, just that there are things to be hopeful about even in the face of frustration and worry.
Last time we lost like this to Buffalo we got an alltime rant this side of the Rockies.
Imagine we wont get the same tomorrow but I can predict the dog photo.
The dog’s butt might be appropriate.
Everyone has their own tastes, we try not to judge….
Heh heh
Why so glum, chum? We are only just barely past the 1/4 pole there’s lots of time to fix this. You have to keep the faith.
Not your best troll work, nothing I just said was me being glum.
I’ve been cheering we could win the Avco Cup then Stanley Cup since a young B.J MacDonald scored his first 20 Goal season for us. Every year I’ll continue to think we have a shot at the Cup as many teams have caught lightning in the bottle and at least made it to the Final over the years. I hate when my team loses other folks it doesn’t bother them. I never could understand why fans like my Wife never get pissed after a loss she just laughs it off no matter how lacklustre they play.
It takes all types. I’m like you, but if everyone was that way, perhaps things would always be too intense
Was that the burnt toast rant?
Woof. This team has some serious issues.
I am not sure they are going to be able to dig out of this mess for the third season in a row.
It is pretty embarrassing that the McD era Oilers have not won a single conference title or presidents trophy.
Every year they are determined to make things as difficult as possible.
I imagine Coach Q is behind the bench with Coffey by Christmas.
That would be shocking since he is the coach of Anaheim. Unless there is another coach Q you are referring to.
I was referring to coach QIamanidiot.
He might have more answers than Knoblauch.
Too funny
If any of the Oilers coaches in the past few years actually understood how you overwhelm the opposition using 29 and 97, I wonder how much more this team would have accomplished.
You don’t put them together. You double-shift both of them on separate lines.
Shifts are shorter. Linemates fresher. Still a ton of icetime. No breaks for the opposition.
A bunch of long, draining shifts where the opposition gets a break after is not useful.
This is the way.
I miss that show
While watching the game I was struck how sloooowwww the Oilers play compared to teams like Colorado.
The only exception is when they whip it around on the PP.
Am currently watching Utah at Anaheim and the pace of the game is much brisker than what we just saw in Buffalo.
This speaks to effort or coaching or both. The Oilers have speed and people bring up recorded speed bursts by Oilers players but they certainly don’t play uptempo as a 5 man unit.
Yeah…it’s really not about skating speed but more about how quickly they make decisions and move the puck up ice.
In fact, unless McDavid is carrying the puck himself, the attack is ponderous.
This is true. When the breakout is consistently predicated on either a stretch pass or one guy (97 / 29) skating it out you are going to look slow. Peewee hockey 101, you can’t outskate good passing and this team does not break pucks out like a 5 man unit – which makes them slow.
St. Louis executed a master class at this when they won the 2019 cup. No one would mistaken that group for being fast (O’Reilly and Schenn being key parts), but they were very good breaking pucks out – and back checking to take the middle of the ice away and played fast.
Yep.
On more than one occasion tonight, Hyman went flying out to centre ice hoping for a long bomb but every time Buffalo knew exactly what was coming and the puck went back the other way with pace.
It’s weird. Seems opposite to how a team with these players should look like. Thinking too much is my take
Could be.
But when you think of the entire makeup of the top 6 forwards there are often 2 or 3 players who likely would be bottom 6 on many good teams.
So here we are, a full one quarter into the season and this team has played 2 or 3 good games so far? Really nothing but luck that they are over 500 in point percentage. Got dominated by one of the worst teams in the league tonight. At this point, firing the coach has to be thought about. It’s time for the GM to do his job. Fire the coach and get a goalie.
I guess it’s good the broadcast wasn’t available in my region. I’ll watch the condensed game. Sounds like the Oilers are still working on their effort. Normally I’d be happy for the young goalie Ellis from NS but wish it wasn’t at the Oilers expense.
Edmonton Oilers @ Buffalo Sabres, 2025-11-17
Looking at NST it’s pretty ugly:
All strengths in favour of BUF: SCF 38 to 20, HDCF 16 to 6, expected goals 3.63 to 2.59
5v5 in favour of BUF: SCF 35 to 17, HDCF 14 to 5, expected goals 2.9 to 1.96
How many games before the coaching staff wakes the eff up? Shit isn’t working and I don’t believe McDavid and Draisaitl should ever be outscored by literal nobodies on the Buffalo Sabres. Embarrassing. This is far worse than DOD based on how terribly underperforming this group has been. Something needs to change and it can’t be the personnel. They are full value for this goal differential and are not even a threat for a playoff divisional spot.
It is very embarrassing. We are back to Hitchcock’s strategy of play McDrai for the full game.
Easy. this is no where near the DOD
McDavid can’t drive his own line and he drags down Drai when he’s put with him.
That is the astounding truth right now.
Most of it is the 2-way game – McDavid is a liability defensively.
He’s never been good defensively. He’s never fully committed to it. Inconsistent backtracking, big loops in the D Zone, Simply not covering oppositon in the slot, leaving D Zone early are all a part of his game. Always has been. Doesn’t seem like any coach has demanded this of him. As LT says, who’s coaching this team? People call him the best player in the world?
So unimpressed with Knobby. Third season, he should be running not walking with what he has. Too safey? Thinks he’s the grandmaster of tactical usage of players? He has guaranteed money, time to roll
No disrespect, but the players are high level jocks, not intellectuals, even if a few are. Not that intellectuals can’t play pro sport, just it’s the wrong fit usually
Which is why Maurice and others, after decades in the NHL, chooses a KISS system. Rod the Bod doesn’t, but he can’t win when it counts. Maybe a few more games grace but getting spanked by the Sabres is not on
I’m not sure any coach has really had full autonomy here. Eakins has revealed as such. Knobhob surely doesn’t have the clout to demand that in that room.
Sometimes you just run into a well run franchise ……
🤣🤣🤣
gold Jerry, gold!
My peeps here, which are all of you, do tend to be in a short term fish bowl a lot of times. I will say I am often there as well when I get frustrated
Kulak has done the team well at times in the playoffs, sometimes reg season, but he is a career 3 pair that can step up at times for a reason. Or he’d be a top 4, right?
That he is under performing so much, if he isn’t injured or sick, speaks to something else. He didn’t ruin himself bringing the harvest in. OR DID HE!!!!!!
Kidding
We are getting to the point where the team is what the team is. This is not about a wake up call any longer.
There is something with the defense that just seems to be what they’re being coached. And it’s taking forever for the new guys to find chemistry.
But right now, this just isn’t a good team. Period.
Seems like the ask (coaching) to me
Absolutely wretched
Looks like McDavid might have cut the back of his leg when he fell after that backwards hit. Insult to injury
…and he’s back!
He’s back. Phew
If they aren’t wearing cut proof after Kane….
Buffalo last in the East, Skinner .846 so far tonite
Lazy narrative to put this loss on Skinner. It’s on terrible defensive play and generating next to nothing on offense
Lazy narrative a few nights back when Pick was savaged when team d was to blame. Cal caught in a shooting gallery with 6 shots off the posts that nobody thought someone should have been checking instead of being lazy on defending.
Sometimes you have to make a save or two to keep you team in the game. If it’s not Goaltending like a few posters are hanging on too then why did Bowman lock all the D up for so long yet neither Goaltender?
Might have been money better spent to lock up Skinner for Frederic money rather than Frederic
Skinner is the biggest reason why they beat Carolina on Saturday. Not saying he guilt free, but the Oilers defensive lapses are mostly to blame. Same thing has been happening in Toronto (only worse). Be thankful we’re not Toronto right now.
The worst part of this game is coach killing his top players in a wicked stretch of games trying to come back from 3 goals down. Not. SMART.
Your comment, except the Oilers are a Transformer:
100%.
I get playing them together after a successful kill, but that’s it, that’s all. He had the twins playing together in the 2nd period at o-zone faceoffs… stupid. And btw I do not blame Skinner (although far from great) for this loss, I blame our coach. He constantly has the forwards breaking down the ice, leaving a dman behind his net needing binoculars to find someone to pass to, again, stupid. Sit the coach.
Very dumb. They were getting crushed anyway, by half of Buffalo’s AHL team. Should have cut their ice at minimum to send a message, not to mention load management.
Knobber must just have 1 playsheet given to him from the suits above. Baffling
New plan; The best way to defend the man with the puck is to let him shoot, then he no longer has the puck and isn’t a threat.
<Wide open undefended puck carrier shoots the puck straight it>
Okay, uhh, time for another new plan.
Mcdavid in the high slot and defers to Nurse.
That wouldn’t be my preference.
I expect to much more free time this spring…
The Avs fell off the perch pretty hard after their Cup (which sickens me as the panthers are. Awful and hard to admire). But they are back. The difference being the age of Nate and Connor and Leon. Not over but times a wastin
walman likely hurting after that wicked high stick but that was so lazy by him. Had his man then just let him go and covered an empty side of the net.
Remarkably brutal game.
Over the past two years, through a rough twenty games, both the 23/24 and 24/25 teams rebounded by game 21, or had begun the process.
You couldn’t have dreamed of a better game for the 25/26 team to start the same journey back into contender status. An injured, terrible team, a goaltender starting his 4th career game, and a rookie going against Connor.
Unacceptable, and again (AGAIN!), the coach needs to be seriously questioned as to if he should continue.
Why?! WHY?! Every year we have to go through this. At some point, they won’t be able to bounce back. I have an ever-rising fear that its this year.
Sabres are one of those “Bad” teams that have our number. I called this game a loss regardless of team injuries
That’s not true. Split the series last year
The leadership on this team was embarrassed tonight by a half AHL squad
This 3rd period comeback is disguised as questionable effort and poor execution
3D chess
Kulaks play is abysmal right now
Oilers a complete tire fire in their own end. Bottom 6 and 3 rd pair are brutal. Stu forced to make several saves to start 3 rd period. Disappointing.
too bad we couldn’t have locked up Frederic for 12 years ….
Haha- Bowman may have if it were an option.
Kulak is just awful right now.
He has been such a steady D man over the years. You have to wonder if the D coaching change is somewhat to blame? His game is atrocious right now. He might have to sit.
Do teams ever bring in consultants mid season to give an outsiders view to say wtf are you guys doing?
You’ve got bloggers in their basement pointing out obvious D zone coverage errors yet they persist
A little I got it you take it by that line. Terrible in our dzone
Just got in from my team’s games and listened to the 2nd period on CHED. Buffalo seemed to have complete control of the game – never heard (thru the 3-1 goal) the Oilers possessing the puck.
Not sure why, this team never plays a good game in Buffalo.
Jack Roslovic is a silky wizard.
If he keeps scoring he’ll get a good look by the USA Olympic Team Committee. Depending on injuries by the shoo-ins I would gather they’ll take the recent hottest players as this is such a short tournament. This would indeed be a rags to riches story if he makes the squad.
Roslovic has all but zero chance at the US Olympic team.
Tage Thompson and Cole Caufield are bubble players – he’s many many tiers away.
17.63M US career earnings. Riches to more riches
That’s pocket change for a player of Mangiapane stature who seems to of had one 22 million dollar season excluding his others.
What an absolute chicken$hit Krebs. Didn’t want anything to do with Podz. Then linesman comes in and he starts throwing and throws a few extra while on ice again after linesman jumps in.
I do love that after krebs got a couple in, the linesman let ’em go. (A completely unfazed) Podkolzin handled it about as well as I thought he would once he had the green light.
True dat!
Pod is a sleeper. Tried to see how many fights he’s had but it wasn’t as easy as I am willing to try for. The thing I did notice is he will fight bigger players, and in Oiler lore at least has dropped them
That right there, makes him an Oiler classic for me. Pouzar realm. “Me married, no need pretty”. Thank you Dys
hockeyfights dot com will have them all.
Its run by Nation Dan of Oilers Nation.
Looked there, didn’t want to figure out the deal
krebs is 5’10” and not a fighter
Drai without McDavid is a massive outscorer at 5 on 5 this season.
McDavid is negative without Drai.
McDavid needs Drai, it appears – its shouldn’t be so.
Was the same last year also. McDavid still a little irresponsible and inconsistent defensively.
I wonder if 93 can do enable him when he’s back. Go back to 93-97-18
29 can have 28 and 92/22
Bottom 6 can be a well paid black hole.
Lousy job by the linesman there……
Kyle Flemington should know better after 375 NHL games as a liney
This is a very disorganized, out of sync team. Not sure what the coaches are coaching but it’s not working.
Hyman/McDavid/Drai may get a couple of goals but are likely to leak one or two as well.
Jack is right – we need a bottom six goal tonight.
Hyman needs to finish that – geez.
Kane would’ve gotten a major for that somehow.
This league is bullshit.
Mental note – if you wish to teach a player how to club someone in the face, just have them wave near the puck on the way.
Yep he’s been red flagged by these new aged Refs that don’t even have their names on their backs. These prima donna’s are immune to criticism.I’m glad I didn’t have a job like that.
Officials should be discussing – someone must have seen that – should be 4 minutes.
Looks like a follow through but man those should be reviewable. Talk about not having control of your stick.
Yup… this is the Oilers.
4th line and 3rd pairing on the ice after a goal against – not ideal – coach does it all the time.
Captain in the box with a bad o-zone penalty for one goal and completely running around for the 2nd goal.
Time for Connor to do his thing and outscore the mistakes made.
Follow that with save game mode starting superline halfway through second. I would not like playing on this team if i was any other player.
Like mixed nuts lines, imfrequent shifts and playing low risk prevent and getting off ice amytime the one line is ready to try again.
Like gotta not be great mentally to perpetually be impacted negatively into disjointed remainder of game not overly trusted to help score or anything. Like that would make for a hard season surely.
Roslovic can shoot the puck! Nice subtle play by Mangiapane to drive the net and lift dmans stick
Yup, great pass by Drai by Mangiapane with a positive impact play drawing the d-men to him.
You know, this Roslovic might not be too bad.
Great pass and what a rip by Jack.
Kulak/Nurse pairing…… wonder if it’s a one off shift but it took the face-off (not icing).