PRE-RAW | Kris Knoblauch 12.04.25

PRE-RAW | Kris Knoblauch 12.04.25

Uh Chris Philippy Stewart Skinner tonight. No, Calvin Picker. Calvin Picker. All right. With the uh with the improved defensive play over the last couple of games, what is the next step for your group to fully find? Um I think we can still get better with the puck. Uh moving the puck up the ice together. Um it wasn’t uh perfect um the other night, but I thought we’d managed the puck pretty well against Minnesota. Uh we did have some turnovers, but I liked how we respond to those turnovers and we’re able to defend right away and not exposing the middle of the ice, but I think we can still get sharper and um just work the puck up better um together just to have a little more speed and be a little more dangerous. A little bit of a shake up with the lineup and particularly with the top six. What are you looking for out of that six unit? Yeah, we just moved uh Nagi from uh 3C uh back with Connor and um just with um just them being familiar with each other, them playing against other teams, top lines. Um you know, N is obviously a very good defensive player. Um so is Savvy, but uh I think it just gives a little more stability there. And um but like I said, it’s it’s we’re going to see Ryan play um some center, not be locked in at left wing uh through the year or even through this game. I just think it’s uh nice for him to play in that position because I think he plays his best hockey in the middle. You got a lot of guys right now in your bottom six that are struggling to produce it at five on five, you know, 18 19 games. Some guys got one goal, some guys got none. Now, how do you get the group in that bottom six going offensively? Yeah, I think it uh simplicity, just uh throwing pucks to the net and looking for rebounds. That’s the majority of the goals. It’s not something fancy. Certainly don’t want to add an extra pass. Um you know, goalies don’t let in many bad goals, but it does happen once in a while, but it’s usually coming from chaos. and whether that chaos is from a tip or just a rebound, but I think uh those guys who haven’t scored can u simplify their game and just get to the net a little more. Chris, um you guys have had a tough schedule obviously in terms of how many road games you’ve played up to this point. Do you feel like there’s a little bit of more, I don’t know, urgency or whatever you want to call it to have a good home stand here and now that you, you know, have a few home games? Well, I think whether we’re at home or on the road, I think there should be urgency to get back in the playoff picture and get above um just winning more hockey games. Uh it is nice being home. Uh I think for for a couple reasons. One that we are at home that we we like playing here. It’s nice to be in Rogers u playing in front of our fans. That’s one of it. But uh with the schedule now that we are home, we’re not traveling so much. We also get more practice time that we can work on things in our game which um you know first seven weeks of the season we’ve had very little time to do. Is there always a concern you don’t want the backup to sit too long before they come in and then that puts them even in a more awkward predicament if it’s 10 days or two weeks? Um yeah, for a couple reasons. Yeah, you don’t want them sitting too long and um also with the way uh we could absolutely go back with Stuart Skinner. We didn’t play the other day. Um and he’s playing playing really well. He could have had this game, but um picks, you don’t want him going too long without having a game, but also how well he played his last one in Tampa Bay. He was um you know, a couple minutes away from having a a shutout. Uh having a spectacular game. Unfortunately, we gave up a goal late and they scored in the overtime, but um you know, I think he deserves not to be sitting and he should have another

Kris shares lineup notes with the media as the Oilers prepare to face the Kraken tonight at Rogers Place.