ACCOUNTABILITY?! Post-Game Fan Reaction: Oilers vs Rangers

You know, I really did think the team was on the verge of just completely turning it around. We had accountability the other night against Utah. Darnell Nurse had a horrific first period against the Utah Mammoth and then he was benched for quite a while. Actually, over half of the second period, he did not see the ice. And the Oilers, they worked their butts off and they came out with the victory. Tonight, the Oilers are up 3-1 against the New York Rangers. Heading to the third period, Evan Bousard makes two horrifically bad plays, is not defending well leads to at least one goal against and then another goal against in overtime. But the fact that Bousard after the tying goal was put out there immediately on the power play immediately put out there on his next shift at five on five. You want to talk about accountability, the leadership group, it starts internally as well on the ice, off the ice, Chris Knobblock, whoever is running the defense, which is Mark Stewart actually. Why? Can somebody tell me why Evan Buchard kept playing when the New York Rangers tie the game? It was his giveaway that led to the game tying goal. A lazy giveaway at his own blue line, not getting the puck out. And the whole third period, that was the story in the third period, right? You know, the Rangers are going to be pushing. They are a desperate team. absolutely desperate for any kind of offense. They struggle at scoring goals. And it really stinks that we’re going to be talking about Steuart Skinner after this game, too, because he played a great game until the third period, which sucks, right? Cuz like you’re just looking for a 900 save percentage. He almost gave them a 900 save percentage, but we can’t even get a 900 save percentage from Stu because every single mistake ends up in the back of the net. So, as much as I’m hard on Bouch, I’m also hard on Stu tonight. It’s unfortunate because they wasted a fantastic performance from Darnell Nurse. He had two goals. He really did redeem himself after that game against Utah where he was benched. But I’m just shocked. I’m absolutely dumbfounded. Absolutely dumbfounded that Evan Bousard kept getting regular shifts after the 3-3 goal for the New York Rangers. Just does not make sense to me. Just does not make sense in my own head. There’s no accountability. There’s just no I guess there’s just no accountability in oil country. I I I don’t know what to say. If if guys deserve to be benched, bench them. Leon Dryidle had a pretty bad night, too. Actually, uh I want to take a look. I’m I’m gonna show you guys something and gals and and kids and whoever else is watching. I’m going to show y’all something here. This is where the expected goals for percentage at five on five tonight. You have Frederick and Seavoy at the top of this list. Then you have Emerson, Henrik, Kuak, and Ster. And then you see the 50% marker here. Uh-oh. Well, where’s Edmonton’s best players? Where are all of their top players? Did the their top players where the leadershipship group? They you want to be accountable. Your play on the ice has to be better than that. And clearly tonight, it was not. And credit to the New York Rangers. Again, Rangers fans, I’m not trying to take credit away from you. Uh the Oilers are just pretty good at beating themselves sometimes. But the Rangers, they did push in the third period. They definitely uh deserved at minimum a point. I’m shocked that the penalty that was called uh late in the third period was not a 4-minute double minor because uh Rosik was clearly bleeding all over the place. I’m not sure how the ref only calls a two-minute minor. I don’t know if it’s because he was kind of cut on the inside of the lip. Did the ref maybe think he bit his own lip to try and draw it? I I don’t know. I don’t know what goes on on the ice. I don’t know what the logic is. But when Frederick and Seavoy are your two top expected goals four percentage players on the night, you’re probably not winning many hockey games. their best players all the way down here. Now, Nurse, again, this is where expected goals for percentage you can take with a grain of salt. He had two goals. He made up for his maybe not so great possession metrics. Uh but Nurse made a few great plays. He had one really good play in overtime. A great defensive play to break a play up. Uh it’s it’s not good, man. It It’s not good. Uh we we can’t see. Hold on. Let me let me Here we go. Evan Buchard led all Dmen time on ice. And then look at look at Connor and Leon. 2514. Uh Connor played 2433. Leon 2514. Ster 847. Isaac Howard who had an assist tonight and who I thought was actually playing pretty good overall. Uh yeah, he took a penalty. He’s he’s he seems to take one tripping penalty a game. I don’t know what that’s all about. He played less than 10 minutes. Isaac Howard is playing less than 10 minutes on a team in a game where they’ve dressed only 11 forwards. Can can somebody please tell me how that makes sense? And it’s it’s the same old story that we’ve been talking about all year long. Look at how does Bard get more ice time than nurse man? Like I it’s the same story all season long. It is the same story all season long. Chris Knobblock’s ice time allocation, the lack of accountability when players are playing poorly. Thought we saw it against Utah. Guess not. I guess that was just a a 40minute thing where they they hold each other accountable for 40 minutes and because they won they can all feel honky dory and feel really good about themselves. 3-1 lead heading into the third period. What do the boys think that you just won the game? You got to play another 20 minutes. I don’t understand. I This team is aggravating. That you’re aggravating. And some of you who are watching, you’re probably going to think I’m being a little bit too hard on them. You’re going to say, “Hey, they still got a point. you know, they came back and won against Utah in a game where maybe they they shouldn’t have been able to. Tonight, the Rangers come back against the Oilers in a game that maybe the Rangers should have been able to. Things even out, blah blah blah. I I get it. I I get it. This is why I’m not fully crashing out, but I will I will crash out at some point this season if if this No, I I can’t I’m not I’m not I’m not going to go there. I’m not going to go there. Uh we’ll take a look at the edge visualizer because there are a couple things that I do want to talk about that were good news. Matthew Seavoy uh getting lost in all of this frustration as an Oilers fan. He scores his first ever National Hockey League goal in the right place at the right time. I did predict that Seavoy would get a goal tonight. And I also predicted the Oilers would win in overtime, but clearly I’m just bad at making predictions. Maybe I should just predict the Oilers to lose every single time because they seem to win every time I pick them to lose. Matthew Seavoy with his first ever National Hockey League goal. We’re going to take a look at that on the edge visualizer. Uh but we’re also going to take a look at Darnell Nurse’s first goal on the edge visualizer. I thought Pud Coulson by the way played a fantastic game. Probably could have had three or four goals on his own. I thought he played fantastic. Wman across to Nurse and then he shoots it five hole through Shurken. Shurken opened up those legs a little bit too much. Nice shot from Nurse. Wman with the assist. Rosik with the assist. Jack Rosik another real solid player tonight for Edmonton. He has been all over it. Him and Dryidle had numerous chances in the third period to put them away and they weren’t able to convert. I would maybe look at putting Rosik on the power play at some point. No offense to David Tomasek, but the way Rosik skates and his tenacity to get in on loose pucks and his speed, I I would I wouldn’t mind Rosik on the power play. Matthew Seavoy, he gets credited with a power play goal assisted by Adam Henrik on a night where Henrik was honored for his 10,000th game played. Uh puck was moving around. Dry Cidle has it. He plays it to Henrik. Henrik with the shot, rebound. Henrik goes down, shoots it again, and it goes off of Matthew Seavoy’s leg and into the net. That made it two on Edmonton. And then just two minutes later, Darnell Nurse, he throws a random puck onto the net after Ike Howard retrieves it. Nurse walks in, plays it across to Howard. Howard shot initially uh goes Oh, no. He actually just passed it to Nurse. Sorry, I thought Howard shot it. Nurse, he played it. He shot it right towards Cirin. They did review the play to see if that puck did cross the line. and it was on top of Shusturkin’s uh goal pad and the pad had gone behind the red line, the puck with it of course that made it 3-1 Edmonton and then the breakdowns in the third period. We can we can go through it here. Um the first breakdown you had Stcher in the neutral zone uh or sorry not Stetcher that’s that’s um Kie skates it through the neutral zone. Uh Steuart Skinner made the initial save here. Uh you don’t see the initial breakdown. It was a shot from Wman. Wman with the bad pinch here. Walman’s got to know there’s three forwards deep. Wman, he’s trying to pinch and keep this play alive on a This is a very high-risisk play from Wman. Probably shouldn’t be doing that. Uh a rare poor read by Walman and then the Rangers bring it in on the two-on-one. Uh Kulie drives the net and then Schneider gets the rebound. Uh Nan Hopkins did not pick up his man on the back check. Thought that after the initial save that h we’ll just grab the puck. No worries, we don’t have to follow the trailer. Braden Schneider with his first goal of the season. This is the goal that frustrated me. This is the goal that frustrated me. Rangers bring it in. Evan Bousard. Now he hold on. We’re going to restart it where we see where Bousard is with the puck here. Let’s let’s just slow it down. Bousard. Look at them. Look at Look now there are three Rangers in the neutral zone. You have two Oilers forwards. You have a third here. They’re being covered. Now the right play in my opinion and I haven’t played high level hockey. Maybe the right play here isn’t to try and throw it in the neutral zone or off the boards because look at the pressure. There’s a twoon-one here. There are two Rangers players on top of Frederick Tomasek. Yeah, he’s loose, but even if he gets the puck, he’s going in one. The It’s best to reset. Bousard should be playing this puck across to Echome. He should be skating backwards and and waiting for his wingers to get into a better spot. No, Bard tries to immediately throw it on the right boards and then the Rangers walk in and it wasn’t even a screenshot. Like look at where this shot is taken. And sure, you can credit Radish. Maybe he’s a bit of a sniper this season. That’s his fifth goal of the year. That’s pretty wild to me. Uh this is a shot that you need saved. Bousard with the boneheaded giveaway. And then Steuart Skinner. These two combined for so many goals against right now. Stu and Bard. It is absolutely aggravating at the moment. Uh the where that shot was taken and how hard the shot was. Stuart Skinner’s got to make a save. It just goes over his pad. I guess in between the glove and the pad, Steuart Skinner looked like he was late reacting to the shot. I didn’t think Ekome got a piece of it. I didn’t think he blocked Skinner’s view. I don’t know. Maybe there’s an angle that I didn’t see where Ekome is blocking Steu’s view, but that’s got to be saved. And then this goal in overtime, by the way, horrible, horrifying effort by Leon Dryidle and Evan Bousard. Right. Again, credit to JT Miller. He uses his speed. He gets in. Now, Dryidle tries to make a play. McDavid. He can’t get to Miller either. Now, in hindsight, maybe McDavid stays on Miller here, but Miller’s got to come in. Dry Cidle, as long as Dry Cidle is skating to cut this angle off, and Bousard is watching the middle, the Rangers shouldn’t have a play here. But Miller walks in. Dryidle does not cut the angle off in time. And then Bousard, yeah, he’s watching the pass, but look at where Lafrenier is. He’s way up here. Bousard at minimum should be able to cut off this angle. You have McDavid that might be able to. Again, it’s a defensive breakdown that there are three players here on Edmonton that are not doing nearly enough. Dry Cidle and Bousard are the two that I did not like on this play. Especially Dry Cidle and then Miller, he’s just allowed to walk in. He just walks in. It’s a high dangerous shot. It’s at the top of the blue paint. He uh he he beats Steuart Skinner. And again, do you want to save there? Yeah, absolutely. I think Steuart Skinner definitely wants a save there. But Booard and Dry Cidle, you just make it so easy. If you already know your goalie struggles in certain aspects of his game, why are you making it that easy for the New York Rangers? It’s it’s completely unacceptable from so many players tonight. They’ve pissed away a point. They pissed away so many points in October from just not they’re not playing good enough. Evan Bousard was minus three tonight. He is now a team worst minus 9 on the season. Is plus minus something that I truly care about? No. But when you are the outlier compared to the rest of your team, that’s when I kind of will look at it. I will look at plus minus properly if you’re a big outlier. And right now, Evan Bousard is clearly a detriment to the team when it comes to the five on five play. Too many giveaways, not enough offense being generated. Yes, Buchard had three assists against Utah. Consistency, right? I’m not asking for him to score every game, but we’re just we’re looking for players that just aren’t going to give them the easy play. Make other teams work for it. The Oilers had to work for everything tonight. And anytime the Oilers play anyone, they make the Oilers work their asses off for every every inch on the ice. And the Oilers think that it just comes easy to them. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know if it’s a mental thing. I don’t know if it’s just a group that just assumes that they can coast on talent when they don’t have enough talent to just coast on talent alone. That’s the what was that quote from from the Mir Colin Ice movie with uh with Kurt Russell? Uh something about you don’t have enough talent to win on talent alone. This is this is a group where if you’re Chris Knobblock, man, and again, maybe the players don’t take Knobblock seriously because when you bench one player, but then you don’t bench another player, well, then how do the players see what’s happening there? Bard, you think he cares about making mistakes when he’s just allowed to keep going out after shift after shift after shift? Obviously, Buchard’s frustrated. He knows. Like, it’s not like Bushard doesn’t know that he’s making mistakes here. And if he doesn’t know that he’s making mistakes, there’s a that’s that’s a whole other conversation. But just stop making the mistakes. Pretty simple. Pretty simple, folks. That is my postgame fan reaction. I wish that this could have been a victory chain night. I wish I’d be wearing one of my jerseys, but I was so mad. No jersey tonight. I’m wearing I’m wearing the Jay’s cap. I’m wearing the cap of a team that clearly shows that, you know, it takes a full team effort every single night to get the job done. The Oilers right now, they’re too individualistic. They’re too inconsistent. And this is a group that has no real no real sense of urgency at the moment. And again, uh, credit to the Rangers. It’s a good comeback. GG’s Rangers fans, you you got uh an extra point on us this season. The Oilers took three out of four points. Rangers probably deserve to win that first game. Uh, the Oilers completely pissed away this game. And I’m I’m I’m honestly glad that we’re not playing the Rangers anymore. for the Oilers. They got to lock in here. Their next game is Saturday night. That’ll close off the three-game home stand. If they win Saturday, you go 20 and one on the home stand. That looks good on paper and you can build on that. For now, I will be frustrated tonight, but I am excited for the Jay’s game tomorrow. Uh, make sure you hit the like button. Make sure to subscribe to the channel if you’re not yet subscribed. And as always, fight like a kid, fight like Ben. Let’s go Oilers. And tell them that you love them. Can’t forget that. We’ll see you soon, Oil Country. Take care.

The Edmonton Oilers give up three unanswered goals after holding a 3-1 lead in the third period to the New York Rangers. Evan Bouchard was -3 and is now a team-worst -9 on the season. Connor McDavid was held pointless after potting two goals the other night. Stuart Skinner was good until he wasn’t. It’s the same old story over and over and over… Will there be any accountability? Austin Hockey breaks it all down in tonight’s Fan Reaction. #oilers #edmontonoilers #nhl

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29 comments

  1. Believe it or not, wearing the McDavid jersey & a hockey stick would be a pretty decent and original Halloween desguise here in Spain. But after such a poor team performance (keeping aside Podkolzin, Roslovic and a few others), I will have to look for a better Halloween option. Any idea guys? 😅

  2. The ref said there wasn’t enough blood to call the double minor please show me in the rule book where it says this
    I’m with you I was so freaking mad when Bouchard didn’t miss a shift and was rewarded with PP time we had 7 D dressed perfect opportunity to bench a guy without taxing the other D
    Leon keeps talking about winning the selke then you get that effort in OT

    Mangiapane needs to be taken out of the top 6 when it the last 3 or 4 games have you even heard his name on the broadcast the guy is a complete ghost
    I said this in the offseason Mark Stuart should have been the guy not resigned after last years brutal PK which was is number one assignment the D is complete garbage this year. Yes some of that’s on the players but it’s a complete shit show every night
    And when are we going to get a coach with a set of balls in the Connor and Leon era we have watched this year after year with no accountability for the top end guys but the young guys have to earn their ice while the core can do whatever they want with out any consequences
    Next year I’m not going to start watching games until around November 15th I’m to old and don’t have any patience left to watch this shit show for the third freaking year

  5. Oilers bad habits. Had pucks in deep first two periods and chased hard; looked great. Third period, many stops at Ranger blue line, success dumps out dried up, Dry and McD once again giveaway machines .. same old same old. Does Knobby ever take those guys to task? Been going on for years.

  8. Bouch is waaay to comfortable. He can do whatever and never be benched or traded. He doesn’t even hustle. Stews stats would probably be way better if we actually had a defensive defender

  10. Chicago is the perfect opportunity to cut the ice time of McDavid, Draisaitl, and bench Bouchard. Knoblauch NEEDS to send a message. Unless of course, he's not the one running the bench. Then we have a very different and concerning problem.

  11. There’s lots of blame to go around, but I can full heartedly say I absolutely hate this coach.

    Ridiculous to be pushing our top guns 25+ mins a night, that is NOT sustainable, I hope knob gets fired, he’s nothing more than a little league coach being carried by a good team. Not good coaching.

  12. Ah, yes. The Bouchard – Skinner show, strikes again.

    I feel bad for the back of Skinner's neck is all. All that red lamp exposure.

    Maybe next time, Stu. Just laugh, and hey, maybe next time………….

    It's sad that it's taken this long for people to start calling out these two bums properly. Sad, yet, amazing. 🍻

  13. I hope the blame isnt put on Bouch for that overtime goal. If you watch the replay, McDavid pushed up to the neutral zone and Miller flew by him, McDavid didnt even bother tracking back. Draisaitl skates up to cut off Miller's path, but he just okie doked Drai and I believed Drai could of recovered. I would primarily place the blame on McDavid for not tracking back. He was roaming near the blue line, hoping Miller loses the puck.

  14. No offense, Austin, really, but you've sat here and defended these two from rightful criticism, for the past 9 months or so now. Commenters in your videos have called out these two guys for some time, and you kept pseudo-shielding them, trying to claim positivity.

    You've called out "the media" for singling out Bouchard in the past, when he is a God awful player who costs more goals than he scores, and stacks points on the backs of better players.

    Try and be more objective, bud. If people are calling out players, maybe give them another look, because now, it looks bad on you that you're calling these guys out, after defending them so long.

    Not trying to be abrasive, so read this in as calm a tone as possible. It's something I've noticed over the months since the playoffs started last year.

    Skinner, is terrible. There is no in-between on that anymore. He's not a rookie, or developing goalie. He is, what he is at this point. Bouchard, on any other team, would have half the points he does, and twice the minus in his +/-.

  16. Stu makes a mistake, wow, everyone points it out right away. We are expecting near perfection from him, every game … meanwhile, no one cared much that our offense is not scoring.

    If we expect a 900 SV% being an average goalie, let's look at the stats

    Skinner: 896 SV%

    Opponent: 899 SV% (based on 35 goals, 348 shots)

    It's almost the same.

    Our pricy defensmen are sh*tting all over the ice, Stu is expected to mop up all those diarrhea … and every little mistake, he takes the fall.

    While our offense is not much better. Is this the output we expect from the two best player in the world? At least be fair.

  18. Bouchard plays the game on his terms – he won't exert himself, won't go in the corner, won't engage with an opponent physically, won't sacrifice himself, won't fight, won't go the extra mile. Won't put himself in danger – that's for other guys to do – not him. It's a recurring pattern of behaviour.

  26. The Oilers were up 3-1…not Bouchard up 3-1……and the Oilers are accountable as a group…. not as individuals….end of game. Oilers need a better System focus to shut games down..

  28. I’m pretty sure both goalies get unfocused every time they see Bouchard in front of them, as he’s lazy and is more content to stand at ease while others have to launch to try make an effort, goalie stats should be looked at to see the difference between Bouchard on ice when opponents score being nothing more than a Pylon that opponents get past like he’s not even there,…and when Bouchard is not on the ice….

  29. Bouchard is not worth a third of his salary, no effort to involve himself, and he only gets slap shot goals because he has two f the best setting him up….people say he’s still young, but when will he show he’s grown up, after another 2, 3, 4 years when his salary is $12 million per?…there’s more goals scored on Skinner and Pickard when he’s on the ice!…there’s the problem!

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