Oilers hit rock bottom after 9-1 loss to the Avalanche | Oilersnation Everyday with Tyler & Liam
Welcome to Oilers Nation Everyday with your hosts Tyler and Liam. Penalty kill looked good. Let’s get into it with the lead. [Music] Uh, the listen, the Oilers were right there until Mar scored, then Mar scored again, then Brinley scored, then Drury scored, then Parker Kelly scored up until that bunch of five goals there. [ __ ] Edmonton, Adam. Uh, the six was the dagger. The 6-1 goal was the dagger. Um, damn it. Right after Conor McDavid scores on the power play to make it 5-1. I will say, like, all joking aside, McDavid scores on the power play, it’s 5-1. They get another power play. You’re like, “Okay, they do some weird [ __ ] sometime dies.” And then just like instantly off the face off short-handed goal. And it was like, “Oh, okay. We’re good. I uh left my seat at that point and never returned.” The short-handed goal honestly was kind of funny. It was It was It was kind of funny. Like I mean it really sucked, don’t get me wrong. Um but just the fact of like a pass to the point isn’t strong enough to get to the guy new Bushard he’s just flatfooted and Parker Kelly looks like a prime Yokim Nyard just with his skating. Yep. And then Calvin Pickard. My god. That was a crazy safe attempt. He literally just flailed on the ice. Uh Pat, I know we said no goals, but if somehow you can find that one, I’d like to relive it. Okay, the Parker Kelly one. Oh, that was You got to get the whole clip though, and I’ll talk about in a second. First, I need to let everybody know that we are coming to you live from the Sports Closet studio. It’s their 25th anniversary, and they’re giving away four tickets to a game and a $1,000 Sports Closet shopping spree. All you need to do to enter, make a purchase of $100 or more in store or online. No limit on the amount of entries per person. Entries close November 30th. the show. Also a presentation of bet365. Download the app today. Use the promo code nation. Whatever the moment, it’s never ordinary at bet365. Um, so that Parker Kelly goal I I’m going to show you this. Okay. Right before it starts, it’s Oh no. For some reason, hockey night in Canada was doing like a dramatic shot of the Wayne Gretzky banner. Oh no. And then it just immediately cuts to the ice and Parker Kelly goes down and scores. Um, you’re right, Calvin Pickard. Just dude, like come on. That was so bad. And like whatever. [ __ ] Everyone was so terrible on Saturday. Like you can’t come out of a 91 loss and be like, if it was if this guy just played well, they might have won the game. It’s like, no. Literally from Conor McDavid all the way down to Calvin Pickot on the lineup. It was horrendous. Worst game I’ve ever watched as an Oilers fan ever. And I I think that was it’s gone down now as the the worst loss in Rogers Place history. Uh yeah, the last time they gave up nine in a game was back in 2022. March of 2022 against the Calgary Flames. They gave up nine. Oh yeah. And they that was um I think they ended up scoring like six though. I think you’re thinking of the playoff game. Oh, was that a different game because it was a one yesterday. I think that game was in Calgary though because they they posted something about a 10-2 loss against Buffalo, but that might not have been since 2009 at home. They’ve allowed uh I was at that game against Buffalo back 09. Yeah. What do you remember? I just remember being 12 and being like, whoa, this probably isn’t good. No, that’s not good guess. Nope. Um anyways, worst loss so far. Decent point. Have they hit rock bottom? We don’t know that yet. Rock bottom. Pat, did you uh bring in the Photoshop I created? It’s a right of passage that we do this at some point in November. Um I sent it to Pat like while the intro was playing, so if it takes him a second to pull it up, that’s fine. But like, is this rock bottom? Potentially. To be fair, you never really know if it’s rock bottom till you start going back up. Yeah, we don’t know the depths of this hell. No, we don’t know the depths of this hell yet. I I do truly believe this actually probably is rock bottom because I don’t think you can like how many games in a season have nine goals from one team, you know, like probably less. I can get you an answer to that. Less than 10, I would imagine. Yeah, I I can get you a very sad answer for that. Yeah. So, I I believe this is I think the clearly needed a wakeup call and we’ve been asking for it. And the one thing, my biggest takeaway from this weekend, I actually have two, but we’ll get into one a little bit later. Chris Nlock just did not hold back in his postgame stuff. No, we’re going to play some of those. If you listen to it, it was very like he called out some players. It was other players who he like paused on answers. is and we’ll get into all the clips, but I listened to all three of them. There you go. Hey, we’re that we’re this much closer to Gavin McKenna. That would be rock bottom. That would be rock bottom. But also a way to come back up cuz then Calgary wouldn’t get him, which would be hilarious. Well, it’ be Well, I don’t know if that would be hilarious. It would mean that we finished last. We miss the playoffs. Or even funnier outcome, we miss the playoffs by like a point and win the lottery. That would be awesome. That would be awesome. The conspiracy theorist would be out in full force on that one. Yeah. A lot of comments today and we will kind of get to him as we go on. But I have an answer to your question. How many times if you had to guess, how many times last year do you think a team scored nine goals in a game? I is it more or less than 10? Cuz my first thought is eight. Only twice last year. Okay. Wow. The Rangers beat the Islanders 9-2 in April and the Penguins beat the Habs 9-2 in uh December. I thought they would make was I thought there would be a couple of games that just like got out of hand and ended like 97. Wasn’t there a game like that where you got super crazy? Uh 20 years ago 25 games last year ended with eight or more. So I wasn’t like there’s a ton that were eight last year and just only a couple that were nine. uh games where there were seven or more goals and this is including the start of this season. 95 games since the start of last season. Seven or more goals. Alex is in the chat. Oh my god. Let’s move on. We can’t over analyze this. Like buddy, we haven’t barely said anything yet. Nine minutes. Um don’t even talk about the others in the first nine minutes. I hate to I hate to put it to disappoint you, Alex. We have a 90-minute show. We are onetenth of the way through over through analyzing this bad boy. Yeah, we will get to uh the G. There is a game today. There’s a game today, which is probably a good thing. Lord, man. Oh, that is Dave Pegnod 1:00. Pñota. Pñota. There you go. 1 p.m. Yeah. Um, didn’t even prep questions for him. I think we’re just going to like freestyle a little bit here. Talk goalending, all that stuff. No quality stop meter today. No, I don’t I don’t think we need to do that. Ste getting a little thumbs down maybe. Yeah, Stew thumbs down. I think that’s his fourth thumbs downs of the season. Someone in the chat said they were at the game. I forget who it was. They’re like, I was at the game before I even sat down. It was three nothing. That would sit down. That I was going to say that means you didn’t sit down until there were uh two minutes gone in the second period. What are you doing? You watching the Jays like Jay the other day. I was going to say if you had tickets to the game, didn’t get there till the second period. What are you doing? Oh, I have a major beef with Jay. This is the last thing we’ll do and then we’ll get into like some serious hockey talk here. So Jay had a bunch of us go to the game with him. Our boss Amy’s in town. Ryder and Lisa, we did a little night. Like I know where Jay’s season tickets are. So when he says no, we’re just sitting in my seats. I go, “All right, I know exactly where to go.” So I’m standing there and because I did pregame show, I like rolled into the rink like as the anthems were being sung. So yeah, I got there pretty quick. Um it’s also like an 8:20 puck drop, so it was a late one. It wasn’t too bad. Um, so I’m standing in the little hallway outside of Jay’s section. Oh, TV. Damn. Right as we switch to the two shop. Right as we switch to the two shop. Um, so I’m sitting in the hallway for Jay’s section. I’m like, you know what? I should just double check that I know where Jay’s or that I’m in the right spot. So, I pull out my phone and look at where my ticket is and I’m like, “Oh, I’m the section over. He must have had to, you know, to get six in a row bought in a different section.” So then I kind of walk over to the other section and then I look at what seat number I am and I’m like, “Oh, dang. I need to go back to the other side.” Um, so I’d already walked down the stairs and then I was like, “You know what? I don’t want to disrupt all these people.” And so I’ll just go back up the stairs and go to the other side of the section. Yeah. So I go up the stairs and obviously people look. So, like I’m looking like an idiot, like running down the stairs, running back up, go to the other side of the section, run all the way down, get to my row, and I look and I’m like, “Wait, none of like Jay, Ryder, Lisa, Amy, no one’s there. No one’s in the seats. There’s two empty seats, but no one else that I’m supposed to get at the game with is in that row.” And I’m like, “Okay, I’m [ __ ] up now.” So, I start running back up the section, and then I hear Jay be like, “Tyler.” And I turn and he is in his normal seats. So, I sit down next to them and I’m like, “Guys, I am so sorry. I so messed up. I had no idea. Like, I just couldn’t read my ticket. My brain was flustered.” So, I sit down in the seat. Everything’s normal. And then Jay leans over to me and goes, “Hey, you’re in someone else’s seat. When they show up at the game, you need to convince them to go sit in the seat that’s on your ticket.” He does this a lot. He does this a lot. It’s the He goes, “Yeah, I couldn’t get six in a row, so I just got four in a row. bought two more a section over and when they come down the stairs just tell them to go sit over there. And I’m like, why are you putting this on me? First off, why wouldn’t you tell me that? Cuz I’m meeting you guys at the game and my tickets at a different section than you guys. So, I was not confused at all. I was going to the right spot. And then these people come down and the guy next to us was like, “Well, I’ll get up and move. I’ll go sit in those seats to make it easier for you guys.” He was nice. And then Ryder and Lisa are like throwing me money and they’re like, “Give him give him 20 bucks.” And the guy’s like, “I don’t want 20 bucks.” And then this other couple comes down and they’re like, “You’re in my seat.” And I’m like, “Yeah, but like someone’s got to go sit.” It was mayhem. And then eventually it was a nice young couple and they were like, “Yeah, we’ll just go sit in the other section.” And we sorted it out. Holy [ __ ] Jay. He just That’s Yeah, it’s a lot. Brutal. He put me in a brutal spot. That’s the suicide pass of like social moves. He died in Florida when we were down there. Yeah, we had to move with like Florida fans. Um, luckily they were accommodating to it as well, but it’s just like you just run into one bad person and then your whole plan is foiled. Yeah. Anyways, um, that was my experience and then I sit down and the Oilers get [ __ ] stomped. So, let’s get into the game a little bit. It’s our game recap for our friends on or for our friends at Greta. Drown in your sorrows after watching your team get absolutely thumped in prime time hockey. Greta’s a pretty good spot to do it. good food, the bar, the arcade to take your mind off things as well. Ryder and Lisa are commenting, “Can I have my 20 bucks back?” I absolutely gave them the money back. I did not keep that $20. I don’t if if I didn’t keep it, I don’t have it anymore. Hand up. Night was kind of a blur. On that note, um maybe it’s good that I managed to forget most of what happened that night. Um it’s just a disaster from the jump. And full credit to our colleague Capri St. Pierre who uh Oh, yeah. who wrote on Oilers Nation like maybe the Oilers just need to get embarrassed and I talked on pregaming that day. It made sense what Capri said. As much as I was not going into that hockey game being like, “God, I hope the Oilers lose really bad.” And I did say it needs to be decisive either way. Either the Oilers need to go and win and we needed to sit here on Monday and be like, “There you go. That’s our Edmonton Oilers. That’s a hockey team that can skate and compete with the best of them. that’s a legitimate Stanley Cup contender. We either had to say that and the path to that at least in my head was like, you know what, maybe Connor and Leon do sit there and go enough with the [ __ ] Like this is an is a marquee matchup for us. We need to play well. Mhm. Um the other side of it was like if they lose 9-1, I think that really causes them to look in the mirror, right? And they go on and they get thumped and they lose 9-1. And I think it did cause them to look in the mirror a little bit. Liam, we even saw yesterday at skate Conor McDavid looked pretty pissed off at some of his teammates. This is not a team that is in a very very good mood. Um, and understandably so. Like I think we could look back on this and see it as a turning point. We better I mean if we don’t if that asskicking doesn’t wake them up for tonight, we have actually major problems. If they lay an egg tonight and play poorly, we are having a very interesting show tomorrow. Yeah, I wrote about it yesterday too on on annoyers nation. You can you can check that out. And at the bottom, I I said exactly how you just wrapped it up there. I was like, we’ll know a lot about this team by the way the coaches lined them up, the way they respond to a bit of adversity and just the whole game in general. And like is this a mustwin? probably to be honest, but not in a sense of like standings or anything like that, but in a sense of like show your fan base like how embarrassed you were on Saturday night because we did not see it. There was no hits. There was barely anything going on and like there was certain moments we was like looking at us like does anyone actually care what’s happening to them right now? To be fair, like that’s the vibe we had coming into the game was like it looked like on most nights this year they do not care if they win or lose. But that that night should have been the night where we saw something different. You know what I remember two three years ago when they were getting their ass kicked by LA and Heyman fought and Polari fought and everybody wanted to drop the gloves. How many like Brett made a really good board for pregaming that I forgot to get to. You know the Oilers are the only team in the NHL without a major penalty. That means no, like granted no dirty hits or whatever, but like how are you the only if you’re the only one without a major penalty, no fighting majors, a hit that crosses the line, that says a lot about your team. I wish there was a way to track scrums per 60. I watched Toronto Utah. I talked about this last week. I watched Toronto Utah last week. Those are two teams who should not give a [ __ ] about each other on a Wednesday night. I think it was there were three, four scrums in the third period alone. is there is that lacking big time. The Oilers are currently this was I wrote this before games yesterday but they were 29th I believe in hits and 31st in hits per 60. Yeah. And you can take that two ways and be like wow that’s the Oilers have possession a lot which is true. Mhm. But also too, if you’ve seen the games, you know there’s been moments in this season where they have lacked so much intensity and the frustration of like giving up losses uh leads. Sorry. Like that should spark something in anybody. There was nothing like I I’m trying to recall like even thinking of scrums recently. I can think of at the start of the season when Howard slashed Wolf and it caused a bit of chaos and maybe there was one against Vancouver as well and New York aside of that the opening three games is like when you should have your most juice they’ve just lost it every single night and I just don’t understand it and the quote that really got me came from Trent Frederick as I pull this up quickly here but he essentially said um here it is uh who wants to fight a guy that has one goal in 15 games. I wouldn’t. What do you mean? Like when did when did fighters become goalc scorers all of a sudden? Like you are Trent Frederick. You are known to have an attitude. You’re known to like here we talked about his physicality. Here’s an idea. Just go [ __ ] grab someone. That’s exactly what I wrote in there too. If anyone watched the game before, you would have seen Nikita Zadorov kill Scott Lawren. Absolutely dummy him. A huge hit. And Bobby McMahon went in to he certainly didn’t go in to drop the gloves but he engaged with him and Zadorov gave him no choice but to start fighting him and he just went for it. Max doi tried to do the same with someone else. Darn could do the same thing too. Anybody could do it this anybody like I don’t big tough Viking softest guy on the team. Softest guy I know he is but there’s so many guys it’s just like come on like show a bit of passion and that’s and we talked about the other day with Bard and the incident against the Blues. It’s like people can you can forgive the puck moving stuff. You make errors ever. Like if you’re not showing effort, what are you even doing here? Like it’s basic stuff. Like the three of us, Eli and you could we could all go into a game and show a bit of effort. We’d be terrible at everything else, but we could show that we were like wanting to be there. And I can’t believe I’m going to say this next line, but I’m going to say it. I’m happy Matias Yamark’s playing tonight cuz I know he’s going to go out there and he’s going to play hard for them at least. and he might inject a little bit of something into them. And it shouldn’t take a fourthline guy to come in and do that. You should be able to do that on your own. Uh Muick kind of actually made all the same points you did and he was like, “Hey, Reeves, Deloreier, Rebe, they don’t score. Ree Delore has not scored this year. Ree has one goal in nine games. He’s hurt. Reeves had has two goals on the year somehow.” Um but and Mulich, I love this line. Do something to make them react to you. Like, yeah, Trent Frederick, they’re not like, they’re not not fighting you cuz you have one goal, man. They’re not fighting you because you don’t do anything. Make them fight you. Go [ __ ] hit someone. Go cross check someone. Go slash someone. Go park yourself in front of the net. Like, do something and maybe someone will want to fight you. It’s even like I think back a little bit to game three against Florida last season in the cup final. That game maybe having a bit too I can’t remember exactly. There was a lot of fighting, wasn’t there, in that game, and people were like, “What is that going to do for the others?” Like, “Well, we’ll find out the next game.” But at least they tried to shake things up a little bit and do it. And it’s like, “How did you get away from that so quickly?” Like, how is losing? Like, I can’t believe the impact Cory Perry had on this team. Not in the sense that I didn’t respect what he did. He was a great player for the Oilers. Had a great season last year, Zoom, but you shouldn’t lose that guy and then lose everything. You know what I mean? Like I you still have a lot of the core here and I just cannot believe his his the impact he left has just evaporated. Like how did someone not learn something from him? You know what I mean? Like it just seems insane to me. They haven’t said it. Sorry. He’s like go get suspended. Honestly, I don’t think I think people would have taken that a little bit less game if you show a bit of passion. Yeah. It’s frustrating. Uh just looking here. 58 fighting majors. This courtesy of our friends at hockeyfights.com. 58 fighting majors this year in the NHL. Um, not one of them obviously from the Edmonton Oilers. Calgary Tampa lead the way. Eight and seven respectively. Like it’s ridiculous, man. This team shows no fight. They just they Oh, I forgot my Poppy. Damn it. In my bag. I should have told you that one’s on me. Anyways, it’s it’s really really irritating to watch. I was messaging with someone in the media circles who gave me the reply, “Flashbacks to08.” like that when you are playing at a level that is giving people who covered the team in 2008 that that can’t be a comparison we’re doing here. No, like we can’t be talking about a team with Luba Vishnowski on it being compared to a team that should win the Stanley Cup. Luba was good. He actually didn’t deserve that strike. Anyways, it’s ridiculous, man. That effort was is just pitiful. And like, do I want to sit here and blame the goalies? You’re goddamn right I want to sit here and blame the goalies. Steuart Skinner, stop one of those first two from Kale Macar. Calvin Pickard, play a breakaway like you’re an NHL goalie who has stepped foot on an NHL ice surface once in your life. They were both pitiful, but it goes way deeper than that. Every player on that roster was absolutely awful. There was not one guy who showed the slightest bit of heartbeat or give a [ __ ] And again, if they would have lost that game, if they would have lost that game 9-3, but had three fighting majors and showed like they were fed up a little bit, I I might have been cutting them a little bit of slack today, been like, “You know what? You got your teeth kicked in, but you fought.” Mhm. They just do nothing. Every game they lose is just somehow more and more embarrassing and makes me more and more disinterested in this hockey team. And like again, I I know no one gives a [ __ ] but like Oh, here’s the breakaway goal. Just insane. Just insane. That’s so bad. What are you doing? Come on, man. Like, again, it’s a breakaway. Yeah, that’s bad. But my god, like a standup like you’ve you’ve made a breakaway stop before. Like, I just don’t understand. Like, this is just I mean, it’s already 5-1. Who really gives a [ __ ] at this point? But this was the day. Hilarious to look at guys. Like come on. Yeah. Southpaw with a good comment. I want to get to some of your guys’ comments. So, we’ll start flipping through these. But he says, “I wish more guys hated losing than they do. They’d be there’d be more fight, but like it’s just such I do think they hate losing, but they just go about it in the most baby [ __ ] way possible. They slam their stick. They mope. It’s all of this. Like, it’s just I don’t know, man. It’s so deflating. And do I think they can be better than this? Absolutely. And I know like you had the line of like I wish they hated losing and like yes. I also wish they liked winning more. Mhm. They’re not a fun team to watch win. No. Cuz they score on the games where they score five goals, they put it in the back of the net and they have this like almost like this I’m too cool for it kind of mentality. You can give a [ __ ] and this starts at the top with Connor and Leon. you can give a [ __ ] about winning in November. You’re allowed to show some passion here cuz you know what? You’re the leaders on the team. Ridiculous, man. It’s so ridiculous. The uh So, I I should have grabbed this pad. Neither one more. McDavid did kind of talk about that a little bit. Okay. And he said, and I’m paraphrasing a little bit so you can look it up. The list put it on YouTube. Do it after this show though. Um he said he’s like, “We show we need to show energy in the games.” And he said, “That starts with us.” Sunny, I think he’s referring to obviously the leadership and he’s like even like scoring goals, hits, all this stuff is like we need to show more passion. So that is a positive sign. There’s a lot of stuff going on yesterday. But one thing I wanted to ask you about and I’m curious what the chat thinks too. So they always get smoked. 91 worst loss in Rogers plays history. Embarrassing brutal. Chris Nlock obviously talks, but then the players that come out and talk are Jake Wman, Andrew Mani, and Trent Frederick. I’m sorry. I couldn’t give two shits what any of those three have to say after a loss. There is one man I want to hear from. It’s Conor McDavid. Yep. How does the captain not come out and just face the How many times has he spoken after a loss? Once he did it against the New York, New Jersey Devils, sorry. New Hopkins has come out and spoke four times. He seems to be the one they throw in front of it. I think is was honestly my biggest takeaway from the game is that he did not talk. And it seems like a small thing, but it’s like you just absolutely erupted. Yeah. And you you were the only one who scored a goal and credit for you to that, but it’s just like, dude, where are you? Like I And I just feel like throwing those three players out there, it it was almost like they blamed the loss on those three guys that it was Frederick, menopi, and woman’s fault, and they all played a role, but you’re the captain. Come out and and talk about what is happening. And then the next day he came out and spoke and that’s fine but I don’t want to hear from you in the morning. I need to hear from you after that because NBlock came out and he was very honest. He’s been very honest in his three interviews post that loss. Conor McDavid buddy like you can’t sit around and let someone else do it. You wear the sea. You’ve done it for years here. Probably a decade. Close to a decade I would I would imagine at this point. Come on. You have to. I just I was thinking about it’s like Patrice Bers would have been out there. Mhm. Gabriel if that was Flick Gabriel Landers could be the only guy talking. Yep. You know what I mean? Like you think of any captain in the league and I’m not diminishing the leadership that Conor McDavid has and like I’m not I’m not talking about his whole captaincy. I think he’s a good captain but it’s in that moment like you should have been there for honestly for the city. Like it really matters to people and they want to hear from you. And I I just couldn’t wrap my head around how he didn’t come out and say anything. Sydney Crosby Tyler says in the chat too like Yeah. I just can’t understand it. Drew Dowy would have been there. Copitar like they would have been pissed. Yes. And answer the questions honestly like call guys out. Maybe that’s what guys need to and like again like I don’t know what he was saying uh what he was doing. Obviously, we didn’t see it, but yeah, someone put in the chat there. Mark M from uh Mark M. What’s that show called? From uh Severance. Severance. Um Mark, Spectre Attack Freddy and Mania in the No, he didn’t. He called them out for their dog [ __ ] play. Yeah, that is what you do. He’s a reporter. He’s asking them difficult. He’s even asked him difficult questions. He asked man, he’s like, “Why are you not getting involved in scrums?” And he asked Frederick why he’s not playing well. paraphrase in love. Is getting in scrums? No. So ask him about it. Is Trent Frederick playing well? No. So ask him about it. Like No called out Frederick today in his press conference. And Knobblock has said some interesting [ __ ] and he’s not said some interesting [ __ ] over the last couple of days. And we’ll talk about that. But like the same people who are like, “Oh, the media shills for and then the media asks tough questions and those people go that’s why is our media being mean to the players?” [ __ ] play well. Media won’t be mean to you. Yeah. Tyler uh T Dog. Sorry, not Tyler. Uh, I assume your name’s Tyler. Uh, Spectre had a great Spectre had a great article. He just was honest and this sometimes you just need a bit of honesty and it’s just like sometimes he’s a can be harsh. There’s no doubt about it. We all can be. But it’s okay. These players, they just lost 91. Face the music. Yeah, that’s all I got. Wrap it up. Um, I mean, let’s get some quotes, maybe. Well, sure. Let’s get some quotes. I mean, you kind of pulled them all. So, where do you want to start? Um, I think the best one to start with probably comes right uh let’s do the identity one from today cuz I think that was taken out of context a little bit. So, Pat, if you want to throw that one up of Chris Knoblock uh talking about the identity of the Edmonton Oilers, there’s a lot of money put into your defense on the back end. Do you think you’ve got anything close to what you expected at the start of the the season with your group on the back end? You know, I think we’ve um got off to a slow start. Um our defense group uh included and you know, there’s stretches where one guy was playing bit poorly and then the next guy and then collectively just not all giving everything they got. Not that they don’t care. That’s not that it at all. But just it’s a lot of it is the confidence on getting You know, we feel our strength. Obviously, Connor and Leon are the identity of our team. They are the when you think of the Edmonton Oilers, those are the two names that pop out, but uh right after that, it should be our our six defenseman that are playing each night because we feel that they can be among the best in the league every single night. You need to combine this with something else he said too. And I played this on pregaming the other day where he talked about how important how important the defense is to their offense moving the puck. He talked about how they’re the number one team in controlled zone entries in the NHL. And that is because their defenseman get the forwards the puck on their stick. So everyone who was ripping him being like if this is how Chris Knobblock views the Oilers then like we have a major problem. I don’t view it that way at all. I think if you read what he said, I think you can look at that and be like, uh, what the hell is he talking about, but he’s bang I mean, it’s Conor and Leon cuz everyone thinks Conor and Leon and understandably so, but the identity of this team is how well the blue line plays. Do they limit grade A chances? Do they get the star players the puck and get the forwards the puck? If those two things are happening, the Oilers are a really damn good hockey team. They are not a running gun team. They do not thrive on winning games 65. That is not how the Oilers are built. They thrive on, I think, the best hockey game I have ever seen the Edmonton Oilers play. Two years ago, 2024, game six against the Dallas Stars. Yes, Dallas had maybe three good looks in that entire hockey game. The Oilers got a beautiful goal from Conor McDavid early and defended the [ __ ] out of that thing. They kept everyone to the outside. Skinner made the stops he was supposed to and they held on and won the game. And it was weird cuz it was one- nothing, but it was also never in doubt. You knew they controlled the pace of that hockey game the entire time. And Jakeer played great at the other end and it didn’t matter cuz the Oilers played good enough defensively to win that hockey game. That’s the best they’ve ever looked. And why did they look good? Because of how their blue line played. And I know that was before Wallman and all of this stuff, but like you can go back to the way they played in the playoffs and what their best games were this last year. It is when they limit the other team. It look at Vegas. the back-to-back shutouts where Skinner was awesome, but like you shut out the Vegas Golden Knights back toback games and won a game one nothing in overtime because you defended really really well. And the identity of their team needs to be how well they defend and how well they prevent great a chances. They’re good at preventing shots right now. They are not good at preventing great a chances and dangerous way. This team is built for offense and puck transition. When we aren’t doing that, yeah, we’ll suck totally. The five on five offense is an issue, but the five-on- offense starts in your own end. How well do you get out of the zone? Are you controlled getting out of the zone? And are you not making greata mistakes that result in you having to defend for another 90 seconds? Because that all that shit’s happening right now. And it’s why Colorado is getting opportunities. They’re making way too many great A mistakes defensively and they’re not transitioning the puck. Well, they need to figure that out. Yeah. The second one we’ll get to Pat. Uh I’m sure people will sell away over this one. Uh Chris Knobblock answering a question from I think it was Mark Spectre just on if the team has lost belief in the goalending tandem. This is postgame. Uh two the first two goals of the game are two wrist shots, no traffic, both get through your goalie, one off the post, a good shot, one through your goalie, and you said your team sags after that. Is this team losing some belief here when it comes to the goalending situation? Um, I I don’t believe so. I think there’s been games where our goalending has been good. The chances and the amount of chances that we’ve given up um has not helped. So, I see a lot of bigger issues than um our goalending. Probably didn’t need to pause for 4 seconds. The pause is pretty The pause is pretty damning there. A loud pause. Um, Muick says, “I believe the team is playing scared with the goalies they have.” I They might be. It’s the first time I’m going to give any sort of like put any stock into that, but like they might be. This is eventually going to transition into our Spotify question. Um, but like I don’t know, man. It It’s hard to feel like you’re going to get enough saves to win right now. And last year, maybe their defensive play just covered for it really really well. Um, I I do think like again they’re making some really horrendous mistakes and I’ll get to a Woodley clip right away because I had him on DFO Live today and got to ask him about the Oilers goending and he is a he’s probably the smartest goalie analyst in the hockey world. The one that talks the most and he seems to say very reasonably and he’s got access to like some really really good numbers and all that. So, we’ll get to Woodley’s clip in a little bit, but do we maybe want to play Skinner’s comments first? Uh, oh, I don’t know if I sent that one to Okay, that’s fine. Sorry. But what I was going to say, I do find it interesting that this would be the moment it would turn cuz it’s not like they’ve both of them have been around like they’ve been on like a lot of runs of them and I just find it interesting that it would be 16 games into a season and all of a sudden it’s just gone the belief and like I think there is moments 100% when you watch a clip and you watch a goal star okay Like come on, they got to figure that one out. But like I just think there’s so much going on with everyone right now that it’s just they have to if they were defending hard and goals were going in I think I would believe that a little bit more but they just le like those Kale Macau ones it was mentioned in the question it’s like two open wrist shots is okay well the first one was kind of screened a little for the forward and he picked it first one he picked but the second one is like why is he what well yes stop 100% and will not deny that that needs to be a save even the third one that didn’t count on Landers. It’s like but why why is this guy just so wide open? Like where’s the defenders? And that’s the one side of it where I’m just I’m a thing I’m going to lay is just they’re probably need they’re losing the belief and we’ve all been in those situations where your goalie is just like not making that save 100%. But it’s like it’s not like you’re doing anything to help him out either. Is doing fair? I think it’s a very Yes. Like I mean we cannot you uh I don’t know if you don’t lose a game 9-1 just because your goalie sucks. I think so too. Like I they were so bad and I just think when you look through the games like I don’t think Skinner is a world beater by any means but help them both out a little bit. Like look at breakaway. We laugh but it’s like again like a clean breakaway. So I think we can talk about a lot of things till we’re kind of like blew in the face. Like we can sit here and [ __ ] about how they don’t play with passion. We can sit here and [ __ ] about how ugly it was on Saturday night and why aren’t the big guns doing media like all that stuff. I think everyone is kind of on the same page with that. And the one thing that’s maybe causing a little bit of an argument or maybe has people wondering might be why they tune into a show like this. They might the goalending is a more complicated question. Like I think everyone would agree Trent Frederick hasn’t been good this year and the Oilers need to play with more passion and they need to play with some desperation and the five-on-ive offense sucks and the defense gives up a lot of great opportunities, but the goalending is still a little bit of like where do they go from here? Is there a solution? All of that. So Pat, if you want to play the Woodley clip and then we’ll get into some other stuff, but here’s Kevin Woodley just on the Oilers goalending. Kevin Woodley covers the Canucks for NHL.com and talks a lot of goalies for Inggo magazine. And Kevin, I know you do weekly radio hits in Edmonton, so you are no stranger to having to talk about the goalending issues for the Oilers. So, let me start there. Um, give it to Oilers fans straight, Kevin. How bad is it right now? Well, I mean, this is a team that wasn’t built to rely on elite goalending to win games, right? Like that’s just not how it is. And right now, the way they’re playing, they need it, right? Because they’re they’re not the defensive juggernaut that they have been since Chris Knoblock arrived, right? Slow start to the season. And a lot of that is the types of chances they’re giving up, the highest danger chances, you know, not at a league worst rate, but middle of the pack rate, whereas they need to be a top 10 team. Um, you know, last year Calvin Pickard had one of the highest expected save percentages in the league. In other words, one of the easiest environments in the league, and he was good in it. This year, his expected save percentage is 865. So, I know there’s a lot of negative attention around Calvin right now, but no goalie survives at 865. like that’s just an impossible environment. And the the story I like to tell, the example I like to point to is Eric Comry. Um that last year in Buffalo, he cleared waiverss multiple times. Everyone said he wasn’t an NHL. Like I kept hearing he’s not an NHL goalie. He’s not an NHL goalie. He had a 858 expected save percentage. I never seen one that low. It’s like they fed him to the Wolves every time they knew they were going to get beat down and he had to bear the brunt. Goes to Winnipeg and for the past two years, last time I checked, pretty good goalie, right? So, um, environment matters and the Oilers defensive environment is not as good as it’s been and it’s not what they need given the goalending they have on Steuart Skinner. Um, I still believe he’s capable of being an above average NHL goal. He did that two years ago. Tough for him and that he hasn’t had an off season for the past couple of years. I know two summers ago it was a real struggle to sort of find that balance between recovering and starting to build on his game. And as you know, Carter, like that’s it. Like that’s where you make changes in your game is in the off season, right? Like so if you don’t have that time, where do you find the time to sort of make, you know, significant structural changes? It’s hard to do during a season. I think they are trying to make some changes in terms of how he plays. Um it’s been hit and miss. There’s been a couple of rushes where we see him sort of diving head first across the crease and everyone goes, “Oh, he had no chance.” And I go, “Oh, he didn’t give himself a chance cuz he was way too aggressive on the initial shot.” That’s an adjustment they’re trying to make off rush. have him sit three quarter depth, maybe mid depth, and let the play come to him. And we’ve seen times where it works. And we’ve seen other times where he goes back to, you know, like it’s like a golf thing. It changes the swing. You know, professional golfers change the swing under pressure back nine on a on a Sunday in contention at a tournament, the old swing comes back. And so, we’ve seen moments where some of his old old sort of style things have come back. And so, it’s a process. Can’t snap your fingers. It’s going to take some time. It would be nice if he was able to make that adjustment behind the type of defensive team they’ve been for the past couple of years, but they just haven’t been that to start this season. So, it’s it’s one more factor on top of a whole bunch of factors. I heard you talking Carter about like, you know, what kind of team are you? I do think and we’ve seen it here in Vancouver last when you change as much personnel as they did this off season, finding that identity, coaching staff, forwards, like it takes a little while to find that identity and it seems pretty clear they haven’t fully found theirs yet. that number he gave TV uh the number he gave on uh on Calvin Pickard an 864 expected save percentage. So that means based on the quality of chances that Calvin Pickard faces, an average NHL goalender would have an 864 save percentage in those situations. And listen, Kevin Woodley covers the Vancouver Conucks and talks goalending for Ingoal Magazine. He is a goalie expert. He has access to clear side analytics. If you listen to Jason Greger’s show, you know how smart he is and you also know how good he is at picking the next goalie who’s up and coming. He’s done it really, really well the last couple of seasons. Um he was on Kevin Lankan and when no one was signing Kevin Lankan in he was like mind-b blown. He was like why is no one giving this guy a chance he’s good. So like I do trust I trust his analytics cuz they were one not biased. It’s true numbers that he used the term proprietary data like it’s not available to the public. He has access to them. The fact that he’s sitting there being like Calvin Pigard has an expected save percentage of 864 means he is facing a lot of really really high quality chances that should be going in. Like the fact he goes 864 then when he’s talking about Eric Comry says 858 and goes I’ve never seen anything that low in my life tells you how poor the Oilers are playing in front of Calvin Pickard. Now Calvin Pickard has an 836. Wow. What’s he supposed to do? He has an 860 shot percentage. Well, right, but like he’s 30 points below average. He’s been not been very good. He’s not been good this year. So, like don’t take this as me defending Calvin Pickard that much cuz he has still been way worse than he should be. But it just goes back and it illustrates the point that the Oilers are giving up way too many high danger looks. You can look at shots against you can look at all of that stuff. They aren’t getting good enough goalending right now. Like I you cannot sugarcoat it at all. They’re it’s also a multifaceted problem cuz they’re playing really bad in front of their goalies. So what do you do? I think you have to switch out one of these two guys. Which one is it? It’s way easier to switch out Calvin Pickard. But now here’s a whole another issue. Connor Ingram might be unplayable. Yeah, the Big Phil Connor has played twice this weekend, won both games and Matt Tomkins got the wing column for both games cuz he played both games. They have given Connor Ingram eight straight days off. They played twice over the weekend and did not try Connor Ingram in either one of them because he’s given up five goals in three consecutive games in Bakersfield. He hasn’t looked like even close to a solution. And I know that there are other things behind the scenes with Connor Ingram. And you keep bringing it up that the quote where he’s like, “I don’t like when people watch when I play.” Like I’m paraphrasing a bit, but it’s like, dude, I I applauded the Conor Ingram move. It looked great. Not because I thought he could be like a onea type of solution for them, but because I was sitting there going, you know what, they went about it the right way. They saw a guy with upside that was available. They made Utah keep money. They gave up nothing to get him. They waited till he was in Bakersfield. But like, if this was going bad right now and they had acquired Connor Ingram at his full boat and he was giving up five goals a game in the NHL, never mind the AHL, we’d be sitting here having a whole another issue. So, we’re going to parlay this now into our Spotify question for U Noodle. Um, brought to you by our friends at OD Noodle, where you can take advantage of the value menu deal and add two green onion cakes, five spring rolls, or six wanttons to your order for just $2. Any signature premium box, takeout and online only at ood.ca. Um, and like yeah, like people say like Ingram is worth a shot. Austin Hockey, our friend from the Nation Vacation, Ingram is definitely a long-term project. Let him play all year in the AHL. give him camp next season to see if he can correct the roster. Like, I’m with you on that. And I even kind of said that. I was like, both your goalies, Pickard and Skinner, are free agents next season. Having a third guy like Ingram in the organization was definitely more of a long-term view, long-term move than I think a lot of people were uh were were talking about, but and this is something we’re going to throw Pña at the top of the hour when he pops on, but like who’s out there cuz I think they need to make a move. the move. Now, the obvious one would have been, you know, you were kind of hoping they could hang on till December and do an Ingram swap after he played really well for a month in Bakersfield, but now it’s early in November and Ingram doesn’t look good. And no, to the people, I don’t think you’re calling up Matt Tomkins. Sadly, that’s just not a solution. You could do something legitimately insane and just call up Sam Jansen and like see what he does, but like I think that’s also a stupid decision that would hurt his long-term development. I I’ve been saying this similar situation with Thomas. It’s like don’t put your guys in bad spots. Yeah. Like then just pulling up those guys. People keep pulling up the Colorado comparison cuz they obviously went out last season and got those two goalies in Blackwood and and Wedgewood. Obviously they just went and totally flushed it. And what’s interesting about that and again like I I didn’t like the Blackwood deal. I didn’t think the Oilers could pay that much for him. Like would they be in a better spot? Yes. I’m fully willing to admit when I’m wrong and I was wrong on the Mackenzie Blackwood thing. They should have went and got one of Blackwood or Wedgewood last year and swapped out Pickard. They should have done it in the moment. I didn’t want them to. I was wrong on that. Um, hand up. One for the haters. Haters had a point there. Um, but like who are they going to go get right now? Who can you realistically find on the market? That’s what I’m That’s what I’m thinking about. And I have I have one team. Okay. What if one of those three goalies in Carolina shakes loose? So, you have Freddy Anderson. You want to see what’s on my screen right now? Random busy bus down baby. Uh um what’s it his name? Kachchov. Peter Kachchov is how you say P3 Kachkov. Okay. 2 million. Brandon Busy is 4-1 this year with an 898 save percentage and a 2.6 goals against average. He is 27 years old and these this is the first time he’s been an NHL goalie. That’s why I I don’t think you can bring him in. 2.3 goals above expected is actually pretty good. He’s playing well and I don’t mean that in a in a way of you can’t. It just seems like a big bigger risk. Busy has a better goal saved above expected per 60 than Andre Bashki. Well, maybe he’s the answer. So like, but again, that’s also a team that plays incredibly structured hockey and hard defensively in the Carolina Hurricanes. So I’m not saying like I mean maybe it could be. I don’t know a lot about him. Those numbers are obviously impressive, but like it’s a team that plays hard in front of their goalender. Mhm. Like we have never seen Calvin Picket’s numbers this low. Yeah. Because the team has played way better in front of him. Here’s where I think Busy could be an option. I see we have a Kane’s fan somehow um in our chat who says there’s no way they’re trading him. Who would they trade? Who do you think they would trade? Well, here’s what makes that an interesting kind of thing here. They just got Kaden Primo back on waiverss from Toronto. And because Carolina was the only team to put a claim in for him, they were allowed to put Primu down in the American League. They’re carrying three goalies right now because Kachchov’s healthy. So Busy sitting as a healthy scratch. They also have a shitload of injuries on their blue line. They are without slaving Goss to spare and Chatfield right now. All three are on IR. So they’re calling up like Mike Riley is playing top four minutes for him right now. It’s a bit of a mess. Just trade Troy Deter for Brandon Busy and each team can solve their problem. Carolina gets a guy who’s a serviceable defenseman. Edmonton gets Busy. I wouldn’t even put Pickard on waiverss yet. I mean, someone says they might wave Busy. They might, but Edmonton also might have to wave Troy Stcher. So, just swap them. Swap Ster for Busy. And there you go. Yeah, I mean, maybe that’s simple as that. Like, I do think there is something right now to like I think this team might just need a different goalie. I think they might just need to be looking at someone different than they’ve been looking at the last two years. Sure. And if Busy’s going to come in and be average, keep in mind 898, but he’s faced some good quality chances. That is above league average. Yeah, it is. Let’s this let’s get this idea out of everyone’s head that everyone has to be a 910 to be a good goalie. Yeah, it’s not the case. The league average right now is 8.97 for a save percentage and 2.8 goals against average. Both goal or his goal is ultimately below both those numbers. Uh actually goals against Skinner is ahead of league average. It’s you’re not getting 910 just on the market. You have to see these a little bit differently. I again like I hate safe percentage. For me it’s about goals against and if you have goalies that are giving you less than three goals a game or three or less a game then you have a good chance to win. Calvin Picket’s not doing that for them. Skinner is doing it more often than not. Saturday uh obviously not. I’m but I’m now fully in the camp of change for the sake of change. You just need to get someone maybe. Yeah. I think that’s I think that’s hard to argue against it at this point. And here’s so and I think D your frustration is like very warranted. Um and they said like I’m not listening to this because there’s no goalie that the Oilers can afford that that they can get. And like I know people are saying like Ian trade uh Kulak and picks for Kachchkov. I don’t Carolina is not trading Porachev. You don’t need to do that. But also like he’s signed signed to a great contract. He’s 26 and he’s shown flashes of being a legit starter. like they’re not trading Kachchkov and someone I just see BBJ wait no Saros you can’t afford Jussi Sorrowos this year like you can go you need to unfortunately and people are going to hate me saying this you need to band-aid it for this year that’s why like just get busy and see if he’s good for a month and then maybe Skinner finds his game but like you’re it’s band-aid solution time for a month until you can go get Sorrowos in the summer and I’m fully convinced they’re going to get Saros in the summer that’s your that’s your one I am so locked in on that I think they will get you in the summer. That’s not me being like I’m not an insider. I’m an outsider. But I just think like they’ll do that. And some of the names people are throwing out here like go get Morazzic. $4.2 million. You’re you can’t you cannot trade Steuart Skinner for Peter Morazzic at 50% retained. Like I can’t even begin to describe how terrible of an idea that is. Cam Talbot. Cam Talbet’s the starter in Detroit because John Gibson isn’t playing well. Thank god. So like you can’t go get him. UPL is available. You can’t afford them. How can you get to the 4.75 million of UPPL? You have to trade multiple pieces off your roster and the cap just doesn’t work. Someone put in the chat that and they put a couple in comments there so I’ll address them this time. I think it was Ari. God damn it. There’s so many people talking right now. Thank you for watching. Uh they put in there basically like if you’re not trading Stuart Skinner then you’re not getting a solution essentially like trading your backup goalender is Stuart Skinner’s cheap. He doesn’t make any money and also too he is giving you if he if he had another goalie and you could kind of maybe relieve a little bit from him might help him out a little bit. I just again like unless you’re getting a clear upgrade on Skinner then sure like I think I can be part of it but like I just I want to see that guy and it’s again like we went through it the other day. Yeah. Of how many teams in the NHL need a goalie? Unfortunately, the Oilers are one of three, which also means that many other teams probably don’t want to move on from the goalies. And as uh Muick said, why not one of the guys we talked about for the season, Daw, DPro, but so again, this is where I think people who were critical of the goalending have to split their hand and be like, I was wrong. Like everyone wanted Ingram, they’re clamoring, Ingram’s the solution. Ingram’s the solution. Ingram can’t stop a puck in the American League. Mikey Deep DPro could have been had on waiverss and he is a 929 in the American League this year. Last year in 40 games he had a 927. Every year he’s had a good save percentage in the American League for the most part. Like it’s interesting that he made it through and uh I can’t believe he made it through. There was another guy from Washington. What was his name? Uh yeah, I forget his name. I can’t remember his name too, but he made it through and people were talking about him before. Uh Klay Stevenson was his name. Yes, that was the one. I don’t know how he’s doing admittedly, but look it up. The others went out and they got Ingram and that seemed to be their solution. Stevenson struggling in the American League. Okay. Thank good Thank goodness. But like again, your chance to get Boston ain’t trading a DPro now cuz they have him safely stashed away in the American League where they want him. Your chance to get DPRO is on waiverss. So, I don’t know. Someone said get Flurry out of retirement. Good lord, we can’t be doing that. Um, they they need a different look. I’m fully willing to recognize that. Skinner needs to stay though. It has to be someone to play with Steu and like people saying go get Elvis Mlickens. Yeah, but like how are you even if Columbus for whatever reason goes, “Yeah, we’ll keep 50% of Ms. Lickens and give you Skinner or and give us Skinner.” I think again that’s like a lateral move. Mickens is so inconsistent. I think another side of like the Colorado thing too, how they were able to take advantage of Mackenzie Blackwood is San Jose wanted to be terrible. Like those bad teams now, if I’m not mistaken, thinking off the top of my head a little bit, like don’t really have a goalie that would be out there that you can just kind of like snag and like should have taken the opportunity. Sure. But like St. Louis, I would you even want Jordan Bennington? I don’t know if he’s fallen off a cliff and again like so many of these like people you want to talk Bennington it’s a non-starter you can’t afford Jordan Bennington he is $6 million St. Louis is not keeping money and trading like who what’s the line our our old friend would say like when when NHL GMs are drowning no one throws them a life raft you throw them an anvil you sink them like even Carolina trading you a Brandon busy might not happen there’s a better chance some team tries to block them and claims them on waivers so you don’t get them you know what I mean like no team’s just going to sit there and be like god I feel bad for Stan how can I help Stan I don’t like seeing the Oilers waste years of Conor McDavid like especially Doug Armstrong well yeah no chef H. It’s bad right now. I fully recognize it’s bad right now. And could Stu Skinner do what he usually does and rattle off six weeks of actual good hockey in the middle of this season and calm us down for a minute? Sure. I still You need a new backup. Like, God, I love you, Cal. You You have two options. I think you can put your hand up and say, “My knee hurts.” My knee Yeah, my knee would hurt after that game. Picker can go, “My knee hurts from that Parker Kelly breakaway.” I can reach. That’s why I looked so bad. Yeah. Or you can go on waiverss. In which case, I don’t think he would even report to Bakersfield. Andre Dustin Wolf cost 850,000 this year. He’s better than what we have. Yeah, he’s also on an entry level deal. Also, Ascarov. Devin, enough. Ascarov is never coming here. What are you talking about? Ascarov. Austin. 31 GMs know the Oilers need a crease upgrade which makes the deal even harder. Stan is going to have to add a lot for a clear starter. Like and I totally get where you’re coming from Austin. I’m not like discrediting. They’re not getting a clear starter in season. They’re not like it’s just not there. That guy’s not there. Your option is to take shots on guys like Brandon Busy and pray to God he’s Andrew Hammond 2.0 and then just don’t sign him next summer. But you know what I mean? Like that’s that’s it. That’s what we have. San Jose’s goalending is better than us. Yeah, cuz they gave up a first round pick plus to get Yus Lavascarov. I don’t know, man. I mean, it’s better right now, sure, but like I think I think this will all balance itself out eventually. I think the Oilers goalies as a com as a duo are playing the worst we’ve seen them play. Yeah, we’ve seen Skinner play better. I I feel like we all agree that Skinner has showed us better. I also think he’s been relatively okay to start the season. Again, the team’s playing badly. I think the I think it’ll come around. Skinner starts tonight, which is probably the only decision you could have made. You Yeah, you couldn’t go to picker tonight. I’m very curious to see how many games Pickicket gets on this road trip. I really am. We always have a seven game road trip coming up, by the way, if you didn’t know. Pretty easy easy one as well. Um, you know, Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, Washington Capitals, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus, Buffalo. Thank God. I mean, [ __ ] seeing how they play down to their competition, nothing’s a win. No. Like, nothing’s a win. Like, tonight, home ice, just got your ass kicked. Columbus should be scared of you. They should be like, damn. But they’ve lost three in a row. Yeah, they’re St. Oilers are seven. But but then that also like a struggling team is a hungry team. Unless it’s the Edmonton Oilers. Then they just kind of whimper and sit in the corner and go, “No man, this is the first time they’ve lost three games in a row this season.” Yep. Don’t make it four. God, I know nothing is a guaranteed win in today’s NHL, but Columbus, Philly, Columbus, [ __ ] beat the [ __ ] out of these teams. And I know we’re not in a position to do that because Colorado just beat the [ __ ] out of Edmonton on Saturday. But like tonight, if you do not have a good effort, we’re asking hard questions tomorrow. Well, kind of hard questions. I don’t even want to go there. Well, you can’t fire the coach. Can’t fire the coach. Well, that’s what I was wondering. We’re asking questions. I can’t. What kind of questions will I ask if they lose? Hopefully, you all never have to find out. the the coaching question’s been up a lot. Yeah, I I don’t I’m not there yet and I’m not particularly close. No, I’m not either. I mean, I just you can’t fire a coach who has only brought you to Stanley Cup finals. Like, I know people will people will nitpick, but like and we had this debate when they were debating firing Woodcraft and I said like at what point do you just have to look and this is one of the questions I will ask. At what point do you just look at the core and go like, “No, no, no, no, no. You don’t get Mlen and Tippet and Woodcraftoft and Knoblock. You don’t get all those guys fired. Forgot Ken Hitchcock.” Yeah. Can he from the bench? That one I don’t blame the core for. Hitchcock was not a good coach. It was not a good coach here. Um, but like you don’t get all those coaches, you know what I mean? Like at some point you just sit there and go like, “Oh, you guys like aren’t gonna win.” And I know they were within a game of winning them within two games of winning. which is again why I’m not like freaking out about this whole thing. Uh just one quick thing cuz it keeps coming up in the chat. Um the continuous conversation about Paul Coffee if I’m not mistaken. I’m pretty sure he left the Oilers bench because he he had like back problems. No, he didn’t. He just doesn’t want to coach. He never want to coach. There was a whole thing of like cuz remember he almost didn’t come back the year before last as well season because he didn’t want to do it. But also too, like I don’t want to speak out of out of what like speak for him, but I’m pretty sure I saw like maybe Bob said it or someone like that. It’s like he had back problems and he just like couldn’t stand on the bench every night. It was causing him a lot of problems. Like he’s also a guy who’s played over a thousand games in a league. Like he probably just wants to be at home. You know what I mean? Like he retired a long time ago and was just not involved in coaching and was kind of like coaching his kids team. Yeah. Like I just think this coaching staff knlock obviously experience this is the first time I would say he’s faced like crazy like this a crazy bad run. I know they had that runations but like that was different where like you have Marcus Stewart now and you have the other fellow I forget his name. They need to figure this out amongst themselves and go for it. Mhm. But just from reading and what Narblocks kind of look like here in his press conferences and stuff he said like I think the room check them out. Sounds like they’re not listening to them. But like I think this is the players. I do not put this on the coaching staff at all. The co there’s no way the coaching staff is going out there and being like don’t battle for pucks tonight boys. No no need to uh no need to block guys out. Block some shots. Push guys out of the way of the net. It’s like, no, that’s on you guys to actually go and go and play. And I it’ll be interesting tonight to see what happens if something goes wrong. Is someone getting benched? What kind of goes down here? If and again, big fan of her work for us. Um, Caprice said this from her scenes in Morning Skate article. The reality is brutal. Losing to Columbus tonight, a team desperate for their first road win of the trip, would be worse than any of the embarrassing defeats that came before it. But that’s also why tonight matters. Redemption is about the statement against the Contenders. It’s about showing up against the Blue Jackets and playing the kind of discipline focused hockey that that doesn’t make highlights but salvages seasons. I think she’s bang on, man. Like we to an extent saw that loss on Saturday come in from a mile away, right? Just didn’t want to didn’t want to fully admit it. didn’t want to fully admit it, but like that [ __ ] was coming. But now tonight, you need to show that like that doesn’t happen twice in a row. That like you are now woken up. We need the Oilers to be woke. Whoa. People will not like that. No, they won’t. But we need the Oilers to show that that they’re woke. They’re woke. Put that on a graphic body like Oilers woke. Yeah, people will. Uh I don’t know. I can’t believe it’s one. I can’t believe it’s 1:00. We’re waiting for our pal Dave Po. Can we do a quick lineup report because there is some news and notes from the lineup. Do you want me to do it? Yeah, do it. Bring it up. Pat, can you put him on the ISO? First line. Sorry, I thought it was going to come up. Here we go. First line. Conor McDavid. There is not lines. Conor McDavid alongside We’ll see because Ryan Nent Hopkins is out of the lineup. Leon Dryidle with Jack Rosavic and Vicili Pod Coulson, Matthew Seavoy up on the top line. Sorry, with uh with Conor McDavid, Andrew Man. This should probably should have been how the top six looked on Saturday obviously with Ryan Agent Hopkins instead of Seavoi being there. Why they went away from that after both those lines scored five on five goals against the Dallas Stars and just put McDavid and Dry Saddle together was just idiotic to me to be honest. The third line there is Isaac Howard, Adam Henrik, and Trent Frederick. Big night you have to get from Trent Frederick tonight. He cannot be quiet. Give us a few hits. Anything the offensive hopefully that’s there, but the physicality has to be on the side of Trent Frederick. Ike Howard, we’ll see what he’s got. Adam Henrique, like I said, center in that line. Two big changes on the fourth line. Matias Yammark on the left wing making his season debut. Either the Others need him back tonight pretty desperately. Someone with a bit of passion would be nice. Curtis Lazar, you know what you’re getting from Lazar. Nothing special, but he’s going to give you something every single shift pretty much. And then Noah Phelp at center. The defensive pairs, I would assume they’re the same, but Tyler’s screen is covering half of them. Oh yeah. Um, sorry, I had the chat open. Okay, I got this. No problem. Matias, Evan Bard, Darnell Nurse, and Alec Regula paired with the third pair, sorry. Brett Kulak, Jig Warman. I have an idea and I want to float this by you here. Should Bret Koulak be playing with Evan Bush? We saw it in the playoffs and that duo was pretty good. It was their top pairing. It was good. And I wonder if that’s like Koulak’s been fine. Like it is what it is for the most part with him, right? Like he’s doing nothing too special, but nothing too crazy. Like I would like to see Kulak play a bit more and bump down Echo and like Regula’s regula I guess like I’m not really that fond of him. I think he’s fine. I wouldn’t have kept Tai Eson out of the lineup so much but again he’s on a penalty kill and he somehow went seven for seven against the Colorado Avalanche. There’s your lineup. What a disaster. Um who knows how they’re actually going to line up tonight. the idea of it better be like that. Well, like it has to be like that. And I really really hope that they uh give Seavoy an opportunity here with new Joe. Like losing NG sucks, but again, I’ve been a big Matt Seavoy fan this season, his expected like he’s doing a lot of things right. I really hope if it truly is a week of no nooge and like who knows with the way this usually goes, we might not see NE till February. Um it might be might never see him again. A liar. Yeah, tongue and cheek a little bit there. Um, but like I don’t know, man. I hope this is actually a week of Matt Seavoy getting some opportunity as well. I I completely agree. Completely agree. I I don’t know why they went away from that top six on Saturday. Mhm. Like what did you think of that? Like I thought I cannot believe they went back to McDavid and dryid. I made no sense. It makes no sense. Like that you actually built a bit of a lineup here and you just took it took it away. Yep. I am uh I’m with you, man. All right. Uh, while we wait for our pal Dave, uh, let’s Should we do our mystery player? It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these bad boys. Never guess. We got $25 to the sports closet to give away. And I have three hints for the people watching at home. Oh, so Pat, you got to pull up the wheel, right? Oh, Pat. Yeah. Do you know how to pull up? Just search prize wheel on Google and then go to the prize wheel website and then we’ll tell you whose names to put in there. Um, if you’re watching along, this is how the mystery player game works. It is a player who played for both Edmonton and Columbus. Okay, I have three hints to give you and you got to comment it in the YouTube chat. And the first three people to comment the correct name in the YouTube chat get themselves into a draw. So here’s your first clue. This player started their career with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Whoa. Okay, hint number one. Hint number two. This player was a firstround pick, top 10 overall. Keep in mind, they were a Blue Jacket and an Oiler. They started their career with the Blue Jackets. They were a top 10 pick and they played playoff in the playoffs for the Edmonton Oilers. Oh, well there goes Gilbert Brulee. Yeah. No, so it’s not Gilbert Brulee. Oh, we got one of them. Patrick, shouldn’t have said it. Damn it. Now it’s just a matter of puff. We got one correct again. First round pick, top 10, played a playoff game with the Oilers. There’s another little clue. And uh they started their career with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Can I give a fourth clue? Sure. Great penalty killer. If you don’t get it off that. Um, so our producer Pat I’ll put Tyler Muick in there. He hasn’t won yet. And there you go. Rat Craig. Rat Craig. Rat Craig. Tyler Muick and Patrick are in are in the draw. Congrats, boys. You got it. It was Derek Brassard. It was Derek Brassard. All right, Pat. It’s time. Spin that wheel. Oh, Rat Craig. Well done. Congrats, Rat Craig. I’ve never really seen him in the chat. No, that’s a big one for you, Rat Craig. Rat. Uh, email me, Tyler Oilersnation.com. Say, I’m Rat Craig and I will get you set up with our friends over at the sports closet and you won yourself $25. Isaac Chow, who I’m not sure, you know, obviously Isaac Howard likes to go by Ikeard. Does Isaac Chow want us to call him Ike Chow? Uh, you were the fourth one. So, you were the fourth one. So, congrats, Rat. Sorry, I um Derek, also you can email us for life advice. Yep. I feel like we’ve gone through a lot of life advice today. Here’s what I’ll tell you all. Here’s some life advice. Unwarranted. Is that what you would call it? Unwarranted life advice. You can love the Edmonton Oilers, but you don’t need to make them your personality. No. The Oilers lost on Saturday. Mhm. It was brutal. Terrible. Come and hang out with us. We can all chat about it together. Yep. But get a hobby. Life advice. That’s uh really well said, Liam. Again, I do think there are some people who like it. And I, you know, you’re emotional. Passionate and I love it. And the passion is why we can do this and why the show’s successful and why a company like Oilers Nation can employ like 30 people cuz there are a lot of passionate Oilers fans out there. And I will never mock anyone for showing passion. But at the same time, I just don’t think it’s good for your heart. And I mean like physically for your heart. If some of you keep getting as mad as you do about a game in November. Yeah. Like if they lose in the playoffs this year, I will be heartbroken. I’ll be upset depending on how it goes. If it’s like last year, I probably won’t be that upset. Yeah. Might have seen it coming. But like again, I’ll be mad at all that I I will feel ways. And if you know what, if they’re 10 points out of a playoff spot, like I’ll be mad at some point. But right now, again, it’s an ugly start to the year. If they win tonight and get two points, they move into a tie for a playoff spot. They move into a tie for second in the division. I know games in hand crowd that a little bit, but like you you move into a tie for second in the division. The sky is not fallen. Sky is not fallen. I mean, it’s it’s dropped. Well, luckily you’re keeping it up with gravity. Yeah, we still waiting. Got Oh, no. We’re ready to go. So, Star Mechanical Guest Line, Edmonton’s number one plumbing and heating company. You can find them online at star mechanical.ca. They are one of Edmonton’s largest locallyowned and operated companies. And whether it’s residential, commercial, or 247 emergency service, they do it all, and they do it well at Star Mechanicals. We bring in our pal Dave Pota from the Fourth Period, our insider. Um, how’s it going, Dave? Well, I can’t run a clock, but other than that, um, pretty good. Sorry about the tartiness here, boys. No, you need a cuckoo clock. I have a cuckoo clock in my house and you never you always know when the top of the hour comes, Dave. Right. Yes. Yep. No, my bad. My bad. I may I You know what? I may have to take you up on that or at least get my own. Um what Antiques Road Show did you get it from? That’s fair. That’s a fair one. I’ll take that one. Um anyways, we’ve spent 20 minutes today talking about if Brandon busy can be a solution. So, that’s how things are going in Edmonton. Yeah. Um yeah, 91 loss. Everyone’s yelling at each other on the ice in practice. It’s a good time. It’s um NA’s out for a week at least. Um yeah, it it things aren’t aren’t really going going too well right now obviously, you know, for the Oilers, but this is better to happen now than in game 75. Wouldn’t you think? I agree with you on that. But I do also think that, you know, the goalending conversation’s been going on here for a really long time. So on a night where they lose 9-1 and now you look at the stat sheet and you see that Calvin Pickard save percentage is in the 830s and it’s like again the goalending conversation is not going away and it will not go away until they do something. But I think part of the problem here is like you know our chat gets littered with the Soros Mlickens UPL all these names and like the bottom line is Edmonton can’t afford they don’t have money this off or this season. They have money in the offseason but not now. So like the fans who are expecting a move at some point what what would you tell them? Temper those expectations because the guy you’re facing tonight’s making 5.4 million. So how you fit in that? Even if you move out Skinner who’s at 2.6 6 how you how you gaining the additional cap space you know Sorrowos sure it’d be great he’s 7.4 four, whatever he is, seven and a half. It’s 7.7 something. Um, you got to figure that out. Like any impact type of addition that happens this season is going to have to result in somebody pretty substantial leaving unless or somebody’s waving a no movement clause or a no trade clause. Like there there aren’t there aren’t that that many. Well, first of all, there aren’t any quick fixes. And if you want to be get creative, this is this is not just a one a one-off type of scenario. You’re likely to have to create multiple different moves in order to to facilitate this strictly for financial purposes. So, yeah, obviously not an ideal situation and you know, not having now now you start to get more injuries piling up and not having nude is certainly going to factor in. Um, you’re going to have to juggle some lines here. You know, the biggest issue with this club for the most part from what I’ve noticed, and you the numbers show it, is the depth. You know, obviously, yes, goalending is one thing, but the depth just hasn’t really been contributing. You gave Trent Frederick an eight-year contract. He’s got one goal. You know, you either either, and as you see, L like either you you you have to mix things and Seavoy’s on the first. He’s got two points. So, you got to have to either move things up and jumble things in hopes of getting a guy like Frederick going and get a little confidence in there so that you know, maybe you’re not always chasing a lead, maybe you’re creating one your yourself and then letting letting the game kind of shift back into your direction. Otherwise, you’re going to keep going through the same thing and you’re going to have to look for alternative options and that’s going to result in multiple guys leaving simply for the finances of it. or you bank on on 97 and and 29 trying to bail you out again and you wait till July to fix it. Of the 14 Oilers skaters who make more than $1.4 million, 12 of them have some form of trade protection. The only ones who do not have any trade protection are Evan Bousard and Brett Kulak. And you’re not trading Evan Bousard or Brett Koulak. So, like again to your point, someone said Sorrowos is worth moving a big name for. Okay. I I don’t know who that is. Like you’re not trading. And like why would Adam Henrique at this stage in his career put up his hand and go, “Yeah, I’ll wave. I’ll I’ll play out this contract season, one of my last years in the NHL. I’ll play it out in Buffalo just just to get do you guys a solid.” Like that’s not how this [ __ ] works. No. No. Exactly. And And do you want to trade Ryan Ninja Hopkins? No, probably not. So, yeah, I don’t know what other I don’t know what other alternatives you have. You know, you’re not going to move Buchard right now. Um or anytime soon, probably. Uh you know, you the the options are the options are kind of limited. So, again, like you’ve got to be very creative in trying to piece these these these types of scenarios together um in order to help push you forward. If you’re not digging internally to try to fix this, I mean, that that’s almost all you can do. Unless you’re looking at some of the guys and you’re going, “All right, well, let’s let’s have some hard truth conversations here about what direction this is all going in.” But again, even if you try to move like to your point, Adam Henrik, no, he won’t go to Buffalo. No, he won’t go to Nashville, for example. But he’ll go here, here, and here. Well, here here and here are probably other contenders and those teams aren’t typically trading with one another. So, at least in season. So, it’s a tough it’s a tough scenario. It is. It’s a deep sigh like I just gave out. Um this is not um there are no quick fixes in any of this. And again, even if you count on and let’s say they get through tonight, they beat Columbus who’s seven and seven. You’re six six and four. um it or whatever you’re at like this is it. First of all, I want to see the response tonight after getting [ __ ] kicked on Saturday, but let’s see the response and then and then go from there. You can’t especially now like knee-jerk reactions in this league never help, never work out. So, you’ve got to kind of just bite down and just hope that this team can pull it off. But again, you need more than 97 and and 29 doing all the heavy lifting all the time. Not sure quite how to word this one. So bear with me and just walk with me or something. I can work as a Liam translator if we need it as well. So they obviously got smoked nine to one. Mhm. But before that like we were all very aware that there was cracks in this team. They were just all ultimately revealed on Saturday night. What was the vibe go like? What is the vibe now around this team? Like are they all do you know what I mean? like we sit here and we ride the roller coaster game in game out. You are able to I think obviously remove emotion cuz you’re not an Oilers guy, but you can take a more 30,000 view of this team. Like is it really just like haha same old Oilers watch for them to win 10 in a row in January or do you actually look at this team and be like not a Stanley Cup contender? I I thought this team was going to be a wild card team at the start of the season. Okay. um maybe pushing for third and then probably playing LA and one way or another they’ll probably play LA. Um but that’s kind of where I had things at. Now I I think there’s an incline like I I I’m anticipating I I know we’ve talked about this before in previous weeks. I’m anticipating this team having a very active summer because of all the cap flexibility that they’re going to have. But that doesn’t help 7 months from now or 8 months from now like like the sorry it doesn’t help the now when you’re when you’re thinking and looking forward to seven eight months from now. Um you know so looking at this team healthy because I I mean Heyman’s such a big part of this um you know his impact has been pretty evident. We’ll see and it’s going to take him a few games once he does get back to get his legs under him. So bear with him. Um, but you know, this is this is a team that I mean, look, first of all, I expected a little bit more out of Frederick. I expected more to Seavoy. I thought Howard was going to give a little bit extra um to to this point. So, even with all of that coming into play, I figured they’d be a three or or a wild card type team for for this particular season. And then let’s see what happens next year and on. Um, and then kind of go from there. But, you know, this this team with with what they like you I didn’t expect goalending to be this rough. Mhm. Um I didn’t expect them to be, you know, extraordinary, but like everything that that’s kind of going wrong with this club right now or that could go wrong with this club is going wrong. Uh so, typically that ends and things start to smooth out and then you start to see a bit of an incline. And I’m not anticipating a 10ame heater here at any point in the season with with this group, but I think we just need to be a little bit realistic with some of the moves that were made and again with the expectation that this team is going to be aggressive in the summer and I mean even before the Connor extension kicked in and everything that that means. Uh but you know, you look at this club, you look at the competition in the West, you look at teams like Anaheim that are on an incline and so on and so on and Utah, even though they’re in the other division, but and Chicago, etc. Like these teams starting to go on a bit of an incline, there’s going to be a little bit of regression in some fashion. I didn’t expect at this point. And there’s I mean, they’re 500. They’re right in the thick of things still. It’s not like they’re 10 points back of a playoff spot. So, I know that’s not what everybody wants to hear, but that that’s just the reality of of the situation. Let’s see what happens when Heyman gets back, but first and foremost, let’s see a reaction after what the hell happened Saturday and the emotions flying at practice yesterday. Let’s see this team get going and let’s see some of the depth guys contributing and and finding some type of spark to kind of get get them, excuse me, going as well. But I think realistically across the board looking at this team and looking at the depth of the roster, I I was a lot I’m not going to lie, I was a little surprised that a lot of people out there had them pegged for another cup run um this particular season. So two-part question. First part I think is really easy. They’re obviously not looking for a new head coach anytime soon like people are screaming for, but I just need confirmation. The second one. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. We’re good. I just want people to hear that. And Paul Coffee also is not coming back. Correct. Behind the bench. Yeah. Anywhere. Yeah. No. No. He’s still hovering. He’s still hovering somewhere in the back in the shadows, but but no. Okay. So, my second third part question, I guess now Brian put in our chat just poor management. And obviously that’s towards Stan Bowman. But when you say they’re not a wild when they’re a wild card team, it’s obviously a playoff team. You still think they’re a good team? Of course. Yes. I wouldn’t say this is poor management. Do you think it’s more of like circumstance of just like where the team is at with like where the cap got to? They couldn’t have guys like Perry and Brown anymore. They had to bring in not experiments, but like you had to give Howard and Seavoy a chance. So, do you think this is based off circumstance or like poor management decisions? No, I I I thought this was all circumstantial. Um, and again, I anticipated this at the start of the season, not to this extent, but I I thought there was going to be regression. I anticipated regression um this season. I anticipate, as I said, a lot of activity in the summer. And then I’m going to put them back, assuming they do some of the things that I expect them to do or address some of the needs, I should say, that I expect them to do in the summer. I would put them back into top tier contender status for 27. But I expected a setback in 26 primarily because of the financial aspect of the sport, the cap. They didn’t have, like you said, they didn’t have the ability to bring certain guys back or replace those particular pieces the way that they would really want to. Um, so be I mean that’s that’s certainly that’s certainly a factor. Again, I expected more out of some guys on this team like Seavoy and Frederick and so on, especially Trent Frederick. Um, but I I I I just this is this is not a, you know, a scenario where Stan Bowman’s just sitting back with Jeff Jackson and they’re smoking cigars and laughing up at the sky because, you know, hey, we made two cup runs and and this is awesome. Give me pour me some more KNC or something like that. Like that’s not the that’s not the case. I assume that’s what I would assume people do with some Yeah. Yeah. But um you know that’s not that’s not what they’re doing. They’re they’re looking for ways and trying to figure this out, but because of where they’re at and and you know, because they’ve been to backto-back Stanley Cup finals, nobody’s throwing them any lifelines for any reason. You know, everybody wants to be where they’re at. Everybody wants to be in that position. To go back to back in the Stanley Cup final means a lot. You know, there are a lot of teams that would love to be able to do that, excuse me, and then continue to ride this as much as they can. This is a setback for the Oilers. This doesn’t mean the run’s over. This doesn’t mean they’re not going to improve for next season. And I don’t want to forecast for next season already because we’re only in freaking November. But um like let’s pump the brakes a tiny bit and just understand that this team with the way that the league is going and with other teams that are having them in their crosshairs like they were going to be a target and they are a target and you can’t tell me that Colorado’s game on on or performance on Saturday wasn’t quasi message sending. They want to be back at the cream of the crop of the Western Conference. they want to push the Oilers aside. So, with all of that in mind, with the ability or the inability to to make, you know, quick type of decisions here, you kind of got to sit back and kind of watch this play out a little bit longer than you perhaps would like. Uh, well, let’s hope they beat Columbus tonight because apparently Columbus has a flu bug and like don’t even know if they have players for the game. So, I mean, if they lose tonight, Jesus Christ. Um Dave, that’s starting to go around the league, by the way. The the the flu bug’s starting to make some some appearances through I think Buffalo’s hit with a bunch of it, too. Hopefully, it’s not the MS like it was that one time. Wow. That don’t need Sammy Crosby getting the MS again. That would be that was awesome. Remember that he had this big thing right here and he’s like, I feel great. I bring I bring that up once a month. Like the fact that one, there was a MS outbreak. Second off, they had to do like mass vaccinations around the NHL. Could you imagine if they tried to do that in 2025? Oh boy. Um, and also they just let Sydney Crosby do that media scrum. They’re like, “Yeah, get out.” Yeah. Break. No, no, no. Come on. Out to here. Yeah, it was awesome. Meanwhile, Roe Hins gone playing in a playoff game cuz it’s now we’re in a whole different thing. Anyways, Dave, we’ll let you go. Thanks for popping on. Thanks for doing this. All right. Peace, boys. David Pñota, you can read his work at the fourth period. He also does a lot of appearances across the nation network. friend of the program as they say. Um, someone made a comment in there. Sorry, your comments scroll by. Uh, I feel like we’re going to go a little bit longer today. Yeah, it’s fine. Um, uh, Baldin Barber, great name. They did have the cap space though. They signed Frederick and Mania, for example, rather than Perry and Brown. The management has lost the bets they have made so far. I the mania pani one is very interesting cuz I feel like he’s just been inconsistent but also being asked to play as a topline player when really he’s probably a third line guy. I don’t think your comments wrong by any means. I just think they maybe wanted to get slightly younger as well and felt like if they put their money on Mania and Frederick, it would be more beneficial than signing a 31-year-old Connor Brown to a four-year deal and then signing Cory Perry, who again, like I’m amazed at the impact that he brought to the Oilers, but now it’s just all gone by his presence not being here. Mhm. I don’t think they’re expecting a 41 Cor 41y old Cory Perry to go back and do what he did again. And I don’t think that’s a bad bet to miss on. You know what I mean? I think that one’s fine. And like again, busting T, Buster T, sorry, busting it. Perry has seven goals. It’s amazing what he’s able to do. Yep. Cory Perry, like full credit to him. I’m surprised he is what he’s doing these past few years. And credit to him. But yeah, I just I don’t know. I’m not willing to give up on those two guys, especially Frederick. I just think he’s playing the lowest he could go like many other guys on his team. And what’s man have? I think his four goals. Yeah, Majapani’s been I think he’s been fine. I don’t know. He just My criticism of Miapani is just like it falls into the same area of like the Connors and the Leons and the NASA where it’s like show some fight. Like you’re having a fine year. Show some goddamn fight. Yeah, I agree. And again, I I wrote about this as I continue to promote my own work. Mhm. When NBlock came in, he allowed guys like Vinnie, Derek Ryan, Matias Yammark to establish themselves as penalty killers, give themselves a role, and Connor Brown was another guy who became a big part of that as well. Obviously, he didn’t score for so long when he played for the Oilers, and then he had a good season last season, was really great in the playoffs, too, until he got hurt again. I want to see that side of Knoblock back like McDavid and Detle, don’t completely take them off the penalty kill. I think there’s spots for them to play in. Absolutely. Take it take the minutes way down though. But we need to see guys need to have an identity and a purpose. Like we need Mania on there. We need Frederick. And again, I don’t know what their penalty kill history is. It’s just examples of like your bottom six players. Like give them something to do. Allow them to establish themselves as someone reliable on this team. And that’s what frustrates me a little bit about Knoblock specifically right now is like, and it seems the same with everyone else. It’s like give guys the opportunity to establish themselves with roles. I’m I am curious to see if that changes over this next little bit here. They’ve had a bit of practice time. I don’t know if they anyone saw any reports on that. I didn’t. But like we’ll see what happens. One more thing. I know people are very anti-blender and I’m anti-blender. Like I do agree like give the lines some time. They lost to St. Louis. He kept the top six the same. Then he kept it the same and they lost again to Dallas. I don’t know man. at some point he can’t sit there and not do anything when they’re losing games and blowing leads, right? Like at some point you need to switch it up. Like he gave that top six backto-back games on the road. I think they might game before that too. Yeah. What I’ll say is though the top six scored in those games. Yeah. I don’t think the top six was the problem of why they lost. I mean they didn’t help. We talked about some of the defensive error. Maybe that’s why. But Brian Burke was talking the other day too. He’s like I don’t like it. is like when I would talk to my manag coaches, sorry. Duos was kind of the thing they would do. It’s like you keep two guys together. Yeah. You can’t just change everyone, which I think is the right thing to do. Yeah. Maynard says the schedule’s been hasn’t been kind. Oh, good lord. We’re not do we’re not giving them breaks because the schedule like Well, it is not. I know, but like it’s a compressed schedule for everybody. I get they’ve been on the road a lot, but like that would be my that But you’re a cup contender. Win road games. Totally. I agree. It’s also the start of the year. You should have energy. like you shouldn’t even if you had a tough road trip in January I’d be like you know what dog days of the season sometimes you don’t have it beginning of the year like just play better I still think it’s been more difficult than others just based specifically of like they’ve played like six home games they’re 16 games into the season sure I mean the Ducks have only the Ducks have had basically the same the Ducks have played fewer home games than the old where have their road games been I think that’s another part of it too if I we don’t have to dig into it I just think it’s been difficult for And they need to prove themselves a little bit too obviously, but seven game road trip. I don’t care who you’re playing is tough. I mean, they went they did their Eastern swing. It did. Yeah. They did Boston, Tampa, Florida, and got points in two of those three games. I don’t think it’s the reason they’re losing games. It’s not an excuse, but it’s just a reality. They’ve had a difficult road start to the season. Um, all right. A couple numbers I want to throw your way. Uh, Pñota talked about Zack Heyman on this five on five. Five on five on ice goals four percentage or goals four per 60 just as a team not individual but when Zack Heyman’s on the ice amongst all forwards on the Oilers that have played a game since the beginning of last season he has the best on ice goals four per 60 having that guy back will help your five on five offense here’s another number individual expected goals per 60 at five on five Zack Iman has the best number since the start of last season second on that list is Jeff Skinner third on that list is Matt Seavoy play Matt Seavoy Matt Seavoy shitload of minutes with Conor McDavid. Goals will go in. You will have a player. I completely agree. Like Dave mentions that he’s like he only has two points. He does, but we all know the work ethic he has and I just think you need to give him that chance. The opportunity is there now. I said the other day, I was like, I don’t know. You’re moving down to get him up. Mhm. Now you’ve got your spot. Go get it. Should we do our betting preview for our friends at Bet365? Download the app today. Use the promo code nation. Whatever the moment, it’s never ordinary at bet 365. Uh we did not obviously have any bets in for the game on Saturday cuz we did not do a show on Saturday. Um I do also want to say Jay got in his bet. What time? He’s taking a Rosik power play point. What time did he get his bet in? Tell me the time. I’ll tell you if it’s allowed. I don’t want to. Cuz it was afternoon. I know. We’re g to uh You’re too lenient. I know. He was busy. He’s in meetings. He’s on Eastern time. He’s taking Rosik power play point, which if you uh head over to bet 365, plus 280. Plus 280 for Jack Rosik to get a power play point today. I did make David power play point plus 120. Oh, 105. I don’t know what it was. Something around that. Plus something really little. Uh McDavid to get a power play point is plus 120. Thanks, Pat. Um I did a same gamer. I think this is a bounceback night. I hope it is. McDavid, three shots. McDavid, one assist. Both look good to me. Steuart Skinner over 23 and a half saves. That’s what juices this one up. It’s plus 290. Columbus should be shooting the puck a decent amount. I think they usually do. Um, so yeah, I’m going to I’m going to bank on Steuart Skinner having a bounceback game and Conor McDavid being so pissed off. He shoots a lot of pucks and of course he’ll get an assist because he always gets assists. Nice to see him have a couple of goals. Backto-back games. Yeah, he’s shooting the puck more now. Does he have three in a row or just back to backs? Did he score against St. Louis? No. Rosovvic and No. And Japan. Oh, no. No, just back to back. Okay, that’s good though. Either way, uh, for people who want to know, keeping drag at home, uh, I currently lead the bet 365 challenge. You’re second J third. Yep. Uh, Columbus, just to wrap up my bet, Columbus 32.7 shots per game, third best in the NHL. Nice. They also allow 32.7 shots per game, most shots against in the NHL. So, I think there’s probably some plays betting on shot props either way here in this hockey game. Cool. Jack Greavves gets a start tonight for the Blue Jackets, and he is really good. Uh, in my conversation with Kevin Woodley today, he said one name that is not getting enough attention for that Hockey Canada spot is Jet Greavves. 24 years old, he’s off to a great start this season. Last year in 11 games with Columbus, he’s a 938. Basically, with the analytics, Woodley basically said every level he goes to, he performs. So, why not take him? How old is he? 24. Interesting. Last thing I wanted to say from a betting perspective. I played McDavid and Barbashev shot props today. Three plus. Barbashev to get three shots is plus 300. Oh, he plays on Vegas. Vegas. He’s plus 300 to get three shots. He’s done it three straight games. Damn. Plus 300. I’ll take it. I know maybe it’s an unsustainable run, but eventually he’ll he’ll get one. I hope it continues tonight for you. Um, do you want to do what’s training quickly or just want me to make my point? Sure, just make a point. Um, Pierre Lebron and Chris Johnson had an article today out on the Athletic outlining kind of what the Team Canada roster could look like. And Evan Bousard and Stuart Skinner are supposedly well in the mix to make the Team Canada roster. Can you imagine the outcry from not like but from like other fan bases if they take Stuart Skinner? I think things would have to drastically change for him to be on the roster. They mentioned he was one of five. I think it was like the line was the goalies who could play their way on are Logan Thompson, Darcy Camber, Stuart Skinner, and Mackenzie Blackwood. Yeah, Evan Bushad was obviously on the list for the defenseman. I think it had like Eblad, Noah Dobson, who was one of the Montour, Morgan Riley, Mackenzie Waguer, and Matthew Schaefer are the quote outside candidates. I don’t think Matthew Schaefer will go because I think Cabbrini makes a team. I don’t think they take too many young guys. I think they’ll take Cabbrini and that’s it. They won’t take Bernard cuz I mean at the end of the day it’s they can just go to the world championships. It’s Schaefer, you know what I mean? Like he’ll get experience but yeah, we’ll see. See what happens here. Mhm. People saying Skinner has no chance. He clearly has a slight chance. He has an outside chance. Yes. Things have to change. Yep. Um Okay. I think that’s Oh, our NFL parlay lost big time. Well, mine’s not dead yet. I know, but the best we can do now is one for Did you do like this JJ McCarthy thing is super weird. What What’s your beef with JJ McCarthy? literally said, “I have an alt ego I use when I go on the field called nine.” And then I saw him during the game. He was like laughing with the other team at one point after they hit him. And I’m like, “I thought you had an alter ego.” Weird. Is the alter ego just that you’re weird. Weird. [ __ ] He’s a weird dude. He’s also not that good. I’m so pissed. The Lions lost to him last week. That is devastating for me. So Dom Lucian does his This just popped up on my Twitter feed. He does his like market value for players based on his analytics. like they’re playing. Oh yes, I’ve seen that. Matthew Schaefer through his first 16 games of his career is playing at a value of a $17.2 million player. That’s crazy. Money. Yeah, he’s so good. He is unbelievable. Mhm. God, the Islanders got so fortunate. Like they were just living in the battle of mid. Yeah. And then they got maybe what could be a Hall of Fame defenseman honestly to get ahead of things cuz I think he’s that good. It’s crazy. So, we clip that for when it comes around. All right. Well, that’s a wrap tonight. Yeah, I’ll do I got a pre and post game, me and Zach Lang down at Dogatch. Dog patch. Come to Dog Patch with Liam. Watch the game. Yeah, come watch the game. Uh, it’s a prime game tonight. So, that is not going to work out well for the Oilers. That’s also not We’ll talk about it after, but yeah, they usually get smoked on prime. They didn’t score a goal last year on prime, I think, for the first two or three games, I think. Yeah. Terrible. Yeah, they’re due for a win tonight. Just give me some effort. Like if we come here tomorrow and they lose, but they showed some fight. Where would your level be at? Like if they like it was a good game, they battled. They just got a bit unlucky at the end. But it was like No, I want to see him win. I need a win, too. I need to see a win. But I would like I just need effort. Like I want you to show me that you give a [ __ ] Yeah. It’s all I’m asking for is it’s a pretty low bar. You play in the NHL. Try, you know? I feel like we can get there. Yep. Aaron’s back tomorrow. Aaron’s back tomorrow. Liam’s got pre and post game tonight. That’s a wrap on today’s edition of the show. Um, honestly went kind of how I expected. I thought it went better than I expected. Yeah, I feel like the chat, thank you. You were very levelheaded today. I thought we actually had some good conversation and the camera might have just froze, but that’s fine. Whatever. That’s a wrap on today’s edition of the show. Thanks to Pat for covering behind the scenes today. He did a bangup job. Thanks to Dave Pyota. Watch pregaming tonight. Oil up. What’s up, nation citizens? 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Things couldn’t get much worse for the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday night after a 9-1 loss to the Colorado Avalanche — a humiliating result that capped off what’s already been a dismal start to the season. The question now is where they go from here.
Head coach Kris Knoblauch had some interesting comments post-game, particularly regarding the team’s trust in its goaltending. Could that be a hint at what’s next for Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard? Tyler Yaremchuk and Liam Horrobin will be joined by David Pagnotta from The Fourth Period to discuss the possibility of a trade so early in the NHL season.
Meanwhile, the Oilers are back in action tonight against the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Jackets have dropped three straight and could be the ideal opponent for Edmonton to bounce back against.
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17 comments
I wonder if the Bruins could be enticed to trade McAvoy, Swayman for Bouchard, Skinner & Howard and some draft picks 😢
If Frederic has another dud game tonight, scratch him and put Tomasek in RNH's spot on the powerplay
Great time to make a cup bet!
Seems to me like they just aren't showing up for work. Show up, and give it your all every day like everyone else in Alberta does (except teachers) These over priced babies need a reality check. Bouchard skates like he's gonna crap himself if he goes to fast. Enough is fucking enough Oilers. Knoblauchs secret "Put McD and Drai on same line" is fuckin stupid!!! 11 and 7, doubleshifting McD and Drai in the 12 spot. That also allows you to bench whoever the garbage Dman of the night is. Also, BRING UP A GOALIE. At this point I'd take a fuckin shopping cart with pads stacked against it
McDavid is not a good Captain.
He is a skilful player of hockey but doesn't seem to have the skill of leadership.
Which is fine, not a lot of people do.
But that's what this team seems to be missing in my opinion.
An actual captain, a leader of people on the ice.
What 6 is he talking about?
They haven't lost belief, they simply DONT BELIEVE
I played keeper in a completely different sport, at a much lower level, a long time ago.
But I'm sure I could do better than that last game. And I wouldnt cost much so it would help with the cap 😂
My thoughts at the beginning of the year were on par with David's. You look at this team and its not quite SCF caliber. Enjoy what this season is and expect moves in the summer. I honestly think this team needs a break from the playoffs to fully rest and go hard for another 2 years.
Why would Saros (objectively) leave Nashville (better weather, night life if he cares about that, and no state income tax) for Edmonton? Money talks and a chance to win title greater on Oilers than Preds, but surely Nashville wants to keep him right?
.914 save %s in BOTH regular season and playoffs goalies don’t grow on trees. He’s one of the best goalies in the NHL since 2018 (.914% in 21 Playoff games with only 2.42 goals against since 2018 and .914% in 420 reg season games since 2017!). I get Trotz not the best GM, but he knows Saros is one of the better goalies in the NHL the last decade or so. I know he’s only .901% since 23-24, but he’s still at worst a top10 goalie in the NHL at his best right?
Maybe I just don’t know about a younger goalie Preds want to go to which is why Saros could walk?
Want to cheer for these guys. But they are soft. You are right when they start to struggle they just pout. This team needs more Klim Kostins and less powder puffs.
On the bright side, I think keeping Mark Stuart was the right call
He has completely abandoned the PK system that got exposed by both Dallas and Florida and now the team is settling into the new system
Really really liking the special teams still. PP may not be as good as when Gulutzan was running it but it's still pretty good, so far
The NHL 26 GMs have it all figured out. They've made the trades on their PS5 so Bowman is an idiot for not doing the same.
They need to put on smile on it though. Like, every game, you see them coming in, they look miserable and way too serious. Learn to enjoy your game, enjoy your team, teammates, love dominating other teams. Then maybe they can get going.
There were several times where Skinner and Pickard were flopping around. Such a great showcase of terrible form.
I believe the oilers need to get a goalie who will make skinner fight to keep his starter spot we need skinner to feel threaten that he'll lose it because he knows he can't lose it to picks
Watching them tonight against CBJ, it looks like most of the players don't even want to be an Oiler anymore. For the team they have, they should not be losing this much. They should've traded McDavid. He looks defeated.
No way bro said "until that bunch of my goals…edmonton had em" that was sillyy