POST-RAW | Kris Knoblauch 11.25.25

Chris, uh, it it appeared that there was some progress as the road trip went on and now you’re back home and it’s another lopsided loss to a a Western Conference rival. Like, do you believe there’s progress with this team or you kind of stagnant from that Colorado game? Yeah, some days we we do show progress. um you know the heart, the commitment, the details were much much better at the end end of the road trip where we had some tough games and I thought the guys dug in and played pretty well and um you know tonight we absolutely right from the first shift we were flat. we had the puck and we don’t make several plays and then we ended up getting stuck in there and that first shift was pretty much um precursor to what how we played the rest of the game and when we made mistakes and there were some bad ones so I don’t want to put this on our our goalies but um yeah there were some crucial mistakes where we left them exposed at the net. So, you use the word flat several times throughout the season. We’ve heard players reference emotion and passion, things like that. I mean, I guess the question is like it’s almost a third of the way in, like where where is that consistently, that minimum emotional level to compete in a regular season game? Yeah, that’s a that’s a good question. You need that because uh such an important part of the game. It is an emotional game. You got to play with intensity and yes, you need skill and you need uh execution and you need a a good system and um yeah, it’s it’s been um it’s been difficult for for everyone. Chris, where’s your level of concern at this team’s ability to defend? the way you’ve defended this year overall, just kind of the way this group is functioning in keeping chances and goals down and that sort of thing. It’s it’s pretty far off from where it’s been. Yeah, absolutely. It’s been a 180. Last year we were one of the best defensive teams and right now we’re one of the worst. We’ve given up the most goals, almost the most chances, stuff like that. and we were making some progress on the road trip and you know and um yeah that’s that’s got to change um you know that’s from the back end that’s um from the the forwards and it’s from the coaching staff where we need to look at how we’re defending. you know, we’ve spent a lot of time addressing that uh trying to improve, have clarity because of the um the amount of players that we’ve changed that we’ve had a lot of review, but uh we need to think about maybe doing something differently because um it can’t be that they just don’t know right now. bit similar to Reed’s question, but um just the competitive level on your team, like the ability for you have a flat start, but I mean, turn the game around, right? Find ways to put yourself back in games when maybe you don’t have it right away. Like, is it concerning to you that the group is as flat on bad nights as it is to find a way to battle back? There’s a lot of things I’m concerned about defending. Um um yeah, you go through the the checklist of what we’re doing, our breakouts, our forch check, our defending, our emotion. Um yeah, so there’s a lot of things to fix. Uh we have to u have a priority of what we’re going to address. We can’t fix everything immediately, but um there’s um yeah, there’ll be some deep discussions in the next couple days about what we need to do. We’ve got a couple days to finally take some time, assess what we’re doing. We’ve been playing so many games lately. We haven’t had any practice time, very little. Um this week we do have some time that um that’ll give us some time to address things. Just following, how high on that list is overall competitiveness in terms of your concern? Um, we have to ramp it up, but I don’t want to say that we got a lot of guys who are just frustrated. It’s not that they’ve checked out or don’t care. That would be concerning. These guys do care. They haven’t checked out, but they definitely are uh discouraged and don’t see much optimism right now. Um, so there’s that’s uplifting to know that we can work with that. But, um, I think we need to have as a coaching staff starting there, instill some hope and that’s with finding a solution to how we can play better. Chris, you’ve referenced team defense and been asked about team defense a lot here. Um, given all that and your thoughts on the team defense, where does goalending kind of how how do you square goalending with with all that? Yeah, our goalenders need to play better also. Um, you know, I think it also has to start with our um, you know, how we defend, our forwards, defense, goalies, everybody has to step up and um, you know, we can’t play a perfect game. We are going to give up chances. we are going to give up uh power plays where they’re going to get some oddman situations. So, we do need some goalenders step up and you know, we asked uh the goalies to do that. Picks gave us an outstanding game in uh Tampa Bay. Um but um yeah, this is a um the 20 players that put on the the uniform each night for each game need to play better and also our coaches need to step up. Also, I think you’ve talked before about that you can’t just flip the switch and you that you’ve been able to turn seasons around in the past doesn’t mean you’re going to do it this time. Is that really becoming evident now? Is that you know that we’re 25 games in now? Is that a real concern for you at this point? Um, yeah, there’s a lot of things to be concerned about. Uh, you know, in the past there’s been times where we’ve lost games in a row. Um, but you know, it’s the game of hockey where you sometimes lose games that you deserve to win. You were the better team and that just happens. But, uh, the way we’ve played right now, um, you know, I don’t think we’ve been unfortunate. like we it’s not that we’ve let we have let games go, but not because of uh luck or unfortunate circumstances. We have just not been a very good hockey team. Chris, what what happened with Frederick tonight? And is there any sort of update on on his status? Yeah, Freddy um blocked a shot. Uh we had a couple guys miss some time. Um, you know, Rosie took took some time off. Uh, Freddy just um, yeah, he was one of them. Blocked shots and didn’t return. He came on the ice, started third period, uh, to try it out, but uh, felt that he wasn’t ready. You had uh, one player that had a a positive impact on the game tonight. He’s a recent callup. He brought emotion to a team that didn’t have any. Um, you’re going to have to make some roster moves. Nan Hopkins likely back Kappa and coming off of LTIR. Can you justify sending a guy down when in a game like this he might have been the only guy that appeared to be busting his ass out there? Yeah, we had some difficult decisions and unfortunately um somebody has to go down. Um, I haven’t had that those conversations with Stan yet. I liked his compete uh reward with a goal. Um there’s a lot of things that I liked about Clatz’s game uh these past two. Um yeah, going forward, I’m not sure what the decision is going to be, but uh we’ll have until the um game on Saturday to make that decision.

Kris addresses the media following the Oilers 8-3 loss to the Stars at Rogers Place.

42 comments

  4. f'n Bouchard . play defense. Stop thinking your a pylon in front of the net. 3 of the first 4 goals directly cause he's not taking out the man. Standing in front of Skinner screening him or just plain allowing a shot on net BOUCHARD barely moves . had it with him
    Send him on forward line or time for a real defense coach to fix this embarrassing horrific bad habit repeating stupidity by Evan. Its infuriating knowing he just got a HUGE UNDESERVED RAISE and is always the cause of goals against. How can Kris not see it.
    Or is this Connor shielding criticism of his play it just plain STUPID INEFFICIENT DEFENSE COACHING.

    GIVE ME THE JOB ILL FIX THESE SILLY PROBLEMS CAUSING LOSSES BY NEW YEAR OR SEND EM DOWN TO PLAY FOR THE CONDORS FOR A FEW MONTHS. LEARN HOW TO PLAY AGAIN JESUS EVAN WTF

    KRIS WTH MAN. He is going to be the reason you get fired mark my words. Change time is now. Rather Actually yesterday man .

  9. Anyone else notice that the total collapse of Oilers ability to play defence or PK coincides exactly with Paul Coffey's time as Edmonton's defence coach? Who was the most important coach on the Oilers?

  19. Kick them in the butt, practices need tactical structure .
    Fix the back end D lines , forward and goalie confidence will come back
    There is a workable fix, just need to get it done Now . if you need help , it's ok to ask .
    or they will just do blame or excuses in spiralling defeated abandon .
    it's fixable Kris

  20. HAY EDMONTON !!!!!!! your whole Defense is FUKED ! Usually it is NURSE now Ekholm / Out of position never looking around PLUS 2 DEFENSE BEHIND THE NET AT ONE TIME , COME ON COACH ! DO SOMETHING …. NOW THE GOALIE'S , IDEA , MAKE THE PUCK AS BIG AS A BEACH BALL , TRY THAT !!!!! ALWAYS NEXT YEAR !!!!!!!

  22. Team is atrocious currently. Big contract players are not doing their part. A lot like Nov 12, 2023 when Woodcroft got canned. Exactly the same really.

  26. So Kris. The other day you said that you haven't changed your system for what 2 years? Do you think that could be one of the reasons Dallas (Gully) beat you? CHANGE UP THE DAMN SYSTEM.

  27. I’m no expert on hockey, but have u noticed the other teams stop or slow down the players from shooting at the goalie?
    But not the oilers, they skate backwards with the opponent and watch them come and shoot at the goalie.

  31. Team plays flat. Coaching is flat. This team is lacking a heart. Coaching always killed the development of 3rd liners who played with some heart. This team needs a hard skate. They are just standing around. Get your feet going.

  34. you guys are doing what the Sabres did for years with Granato as coach..not talking about the lack of physical play which is the 'family secret' in Edmonton..the Oilers once again under this guy are dead last in the NHL in hitting..last night that got destroyed on their home ice..which I predicted before that game I had called it 8-1 so I was close..but for the Oilers to only toss out 22 hits ???? if anything that should have at least made them wear ice packs and pay a price..bare minimum

  37. I know +/- doesn't tell a full picture, but for me it highlights effort.

    Pods: +5 (wonder if its because he tries every shift)
    Drai: +4
    Emberson, Roslovic, Clattenburg: +1
    Bouch: -1

    Mangiapane: -18
    Kulak: -11
    Nurse/Regula: -10

  40. Players play,you can blame the coaches all you want, back check, foreccheck, strong on the puck,the corners,in the mucky areas! Fundementals,excuses,excuses, see Toronto, Nashville, shameful!

  41. This is not on the coach. This is on the most senior levels of upper management of the Oilers. The upper management changed, a lot of personnel changes were made — by new management— and you can see the result. Blame management.

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