Edmonton Oilers Head Coach Kris Knoblauch in conversation with Bob Stauffer (11/25/25)

Edmonton Oilers Head Coach Kris Knoblauch in conversation with Bob Stauffer (11/25/25)

Oilers Now digital content is sponsored by Legacy Heating and Cooling. No payments and no interest for a year. That’s how you build a legacy. Chris, we’re in the Hall of Fame room. We’re actually back in Edmonton after a uh seven game road trip after 16 of the first uh 24 games uh being on the road. Um how would you assess the season to this point? And is it difficult to assess based on just sort of, you know, how the schedule worked out to date? Do you think you have a true read of your team yet? Um, absolutely. We’re in 20. This is game 25. Um, we’re played a lot of hockey right now and we haven’t had our full group for very much and um we’re starting to make some progress, but starting to get a better feel of what a team is right now. Did you feel the fatigue? Uh, I mean it’s been it’s funny. You talk to some people and they’ll say, “Hey, it’s hard to come off losing Stanley Cup final.” It’s been back-to-back years and the amount of road games and the amount of Eastern trips or is that just an excuse? How would how would you assess that? I think a little bit of an excuse. Uh but it is real in coming off the Stanley Cup final. You know, a lot of these teams were excited to get their regular season. They hadn’t been playing for months were not in that situation. And then on top of that, how many road games and the type of road games, like we went to the East Coast twice on some grueling road trips, that makes it a lot harder. Now that being said, we can still be playing better hockey than we did. Um, they are difficult circumstances, but we do have a higher expectation of ourselves. You, uh, got a little bit juice, I thought, against Florida. Connor Clattenberg, a 20-year-old, uh, recalled from the miners, plays an energy game. He’s an old school player. And sometimes for a veteran team, do you sense that it’s good to get a player like that come into the fold? Well, there’s a lot of players in Bakersfield that were playing really well, but for that situation, guy coming in is going to play fourth line minutes, probably 6 to 8 minutes a night that we didn’t feel that that was the skill set that we needed. um he’s been going down there or in Bakersfield playing a high energy game, getting in some fights, but um but also good with the puck and we saw that in uh Florida that yes, he had some hits. He got in on the forche. He’s a good skater, but he also made some plays with the puck. That was on the breakouts and also had some scoring chances also. So, um yeah, it was a nice addition. All right, and I’ll final thought. Uh, you know, you’re you’re a guy, Glenn Gulson, that really helped you out with your career here at Edmonton, uh, was your assistant coach. It’s the Dallas Stars tonight. They have a real good team. They’re off to a solid start. This will be a tough test tonight, won’t it? It is. Glenn’s done an outstanding job there in Dallas and I’ve got a lot of respect for him. Great coach, great person, and the team has been playing really well. They’ve had some adversity, losing some guys, but collectively they’ve been playing a really good game. So, uh, it’ll be a good test. We like playing in the Dallas Stars. Thanks a lot, Chris. Thank you.

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