Rinse and Repeat…Post-Game Fan Reaction: Oilers vs Capitals

I have been sitting here, well, it’s been almost an hour since the game ended. um figuring out how to even make this video because there is a large section of the fan base right now that would love nothing more than to hear me scream and shout. There’s a large section of the fan base that likely wants to hear me preach positivity and patience. Positivity is something on the channel I’ve been trying really hard to keep going with. It’s like in the last video um after the Buffalo game talking about Pokemon Pokemon Emerald. Um this was a game where everything that has gone wrong this season for Edmonton and all of their issues were in full display. Defensive breakdowns, poor goalending, offense that didn’t even start trying really until the third period or at least didn’t start generating a lot of chances until the third period after they were down. Um, it’s it’s the same story. It’s the same story every night. I I just We’re at the point now where you have to Well, they can’t even make any changes like what what like what what roster moves could they make right now? They have injuries. They had to go 11 and seven tonight, but they essentially went 11 and six because Alec Regula only played like just over a minute. Regula got one or two shifts. There was a goal against and I guess he’s the one that gets sat even though Brett Kulak is literally unplayable right now. Um I I honestly don’t know how to do this one. I’ve been doing these videos postgame fan reactions that is for about a year and a half. I didn’t really start doing this until a few months into my time here on YouTube. This is one of the hardest ones for me to do because there were positive aspects of this game. The team did not roll over like they did in the Colorado game and to an extent the Buffalo game. They did push in the third period. They almost were able to tie it up, but almost obviously isn’t good enough. Uh the Oilers as a team have significant problems right now that are still on full display. Still on complete full display here. Like I mentioned, uh the biggest one is still goending. And I I knew I think I’m not as mad because I expected a loss tonight. And I know coming into this road trip I keep saying, “Well, as long as they go 500.” Well, to go 500 on this road trip now, they have to get three of the next four points. They play Tampa and Florida. They play Tampa Bay tomorrow. Like that’s going to be any easier than the game tonight. I am concerned that the team emptied the gas tank in the third period tonight. that they’re not going to have the energy that they need tomorrow against Tampa and that tomorrow’s game may actually be significantly worse than what we watched tonight. And then the game against Florida. Yeah, Florida’s dealing with their own injury issues as well. Uh, one of their players actually had a barbecue incident who’s going to be out several weeks now according to Paul Maurice, which is I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what’s going on in Florida. This This sucks. This does suck because if these losses keep piling up, there’s a realistic scenario where Edmonton is either fighting for a wild card spot or will not make the playoffs. And to talk about the playoffs in November might be silly to some. Everyone likes to point at the Oilers record this year compared to last year and the year before. And I get it. I get it. You can do that. If that makes you feel better, that’s fine. The underlying metrics are not great for Edmonton. They do not point to a turnaround in their game. And every mistake ends up in the back of the net. Literally every single mistake ends up in the back of the net. I know Bousard’s going to get blamed on one of those goals. Um, one of the one of the Leonard goals got around Bousard, which is I mean that’s going to happen sometimes, but Steuart Skinner at first he’s square to Leonard on that breakaway and then he just doesn’t do anything. He just he just freezes. The man was frozen. doesn’t try and poke check, doesn’t sprawl, spread eagle, doesn’t try and dive. Like literally anything would have been better than what Stu did on that partial break from Leonard. And I know the fans are going to be mad at Booard, but at five on five tonight, Booard was on the ice for three goals for one goal against obviously the empty nets. I do not count on like the plus minus charts, at least not real plus minus. Not to me. Darnell Nurse had said two goals. That’s a positive. Hey, we can talk about Darnell Nurse having a legacy game, but Darnell Nurse has a legacy game that the team still loses. That sucks. But at least Nurse had two goals. Nurse must have been hearing the noise. I talked about that in my pregame. I said Darnell Nurse was reportedly potentially um you know being affected by the noise going on. It was reported by Elliot Freriedman. Well, Freeman wasn’t reporting on it. He was speculating that the noise in Edmonton from the fan base was getting to him. And then Nurse had two goals tonight. That’s awesome. I love that. But I’m also concerned that that means Darnell Nurse is also just going to start shooting the puck even more than he already does. But if they can at least go in the net some of the time, that is better than literally none of the time. And good goals from Nurse, too. Lot and hey, traffic in front of the net. What a wild concept, huh? Look at the goals that Washington scored tonight. Look at the amount of traffic that they always have in front of Steuart Skinner. I wish the Others did that more. David Tomasic had a nice goal. nice little play. Um came out in front. He was all alone in front. Kicked it to his stick and then he puts it right behind uh Logan Thompson. And that’s the other thing that’s frustrating. Speaking of Logan Thompson, statistically the best goalender in the NHL this season for goals against average and save percentage. And the Oilers put up four. They put up four goals against on Logan Thompson and they still came away with the loss. Two empty netters for Washington. And the Oilers gave up five goals against before the Empty Neters in a game where yeah, they were in it, but were they really in it? Were they Were they really in this game? What I mean by that is the Oilers after the second period had generated uh what what does this say? 1.5 expected goals in all situations. And then in the third period, there’s the the dramatic push. The dramatic push to try and tie this game up. They got one. It’s 4-3. Washington makes it 5-3. They quickly make it 5-4. And then the Oilers keep pushing. Washington basically had no shot attempts after the uh the Oilers made it a onegoal game when they made it 5-4. Washington basically had nothing on the Oilers until those empty neters. Uh the expected goals for percentage is this is why we have to always look at context for expected goals for and analytics because with proper context here, you might think, oh well, the Oilers were pretty competitive. If like if you were to just look at the raw expected goals for you’d be like, “Oh, pretty even game.” Well, not really. Washington really was in control until the third. The Oilers their their dramatic push that they like to do. Uh at five on five, expected goals four percentage. Bard nurse led the way, which from the eye test that makes sense. They were terrific tonight. And Henrik had a good game. Pud Coulson had a good game. Uh Tomasik had a good game in my opinion. McDavid, Didle, a lot of there weren’t really a lot of passengers tonight honestly, especially a five on five. Poor Regula. Poor Kagi. Yikes. That is cringe. Uh, time on ice in all situations, I believe. Yes, Evan Bushard did lead all players. Conor McDavid 2402. Dry settle 23-26. Rosik played 2250. He did not get on the score sheet tonight, but he did have some looks. And I I mean, I understand why they played him as much as they did, but this is this is the killer, man, right here. This is the killer. On a on a night where they needed a save, they didn’t get one. They’ve had saves earlier this season. They’ve had nights where they’ve gotten the saves and they haven’t had the offense. Tonight, they had the offense, they didn’t get the saves. But this has been a problem in oil country for a couple seasons now. Whether fans want to admit it or not, goending is and will be the biggest issue that the team has to address. Other than potentially coaching, uh I still think a lot of issues are on the coaching staff. I I honestly like tomorrow I got to do a pregame report for Tampa so we can quickly try and forget this one. Just trying like quick turnaround, right? It’s a quick turnaround. There’s going to be no day after discussion of this game. It could get ugly fast here, folks. The Oilers could realistically be below 500 heading back home after this road trip on the most important road trip of the season. The road trip that I said would define their season. then it would define whether this team I think would be a playoff team or not. If they win the next two, then they won four out of the seven and that’s fantastic. If they win one and lose one in overtime, that’s fine. You go 500, try and find a way to build on your game after that and you got a little bit of a break in the schedule, try and get some rest, right? The injuries are piling up here. Um, but I am concerned that this team is going to be two games below 500 heading back to Edmonton. And if that’s the case, like that that is a hole that is going to be very difficult to get out of. We can take a look at the standings because I know a lot of fans like to point out, well, the Pacific division isn’t very strong. The Oilers are only a couple point like I know, right? I know they’re only a couple points back of LA, but they’ve played two more games, right? So if you if you assume and you can’t do this, but if you assume that Vegas, LA, Anaheim, they, you know, make up those points, they they get the points on Edmonton with those games in hand, well then it’s not a good look for the Oilers, right? The Oilers are 500. Kings are four games above 500. Gold Knights five games above 500. Ducks six games above 500. Seattle’s four games above 500. So looking at this from the perspective of points, yes, the Oilers are obviously still very much in the hunt for a top three spot in the division. This is a division that is historically not very strong. Calgary not a playoff team this year, although they made Buffalo look like a lottery team after Buffalo made us look like a lottery team. Go figure. Vancouver, they are up and down, right? San Jose, they’re starting to find the win column. They’re seven two and one in their last 10. If San Jose gets going and then these teams keep winning, it it’s tough, right? It’s hard to win in the NHL. It’s hard to make up ground. It’s hard to make up ground in the standings. Uh if we take a look at the wild card positioning here, the Oilers are one point back. But again, Seattle with three games in hand. Utah and Minnesota ahead of Edmonton, they have two games in hand on the Oilers. This is where the math starts to become involved. This is where um honestly we’re getting close to American Thanksgiving. And statistically, what is what was what is the percentage? 86% of teams that are in a playoff spot by American Thanksgiving will make the playoffs. And then I think it’s like 14% don’t make the playoffs. It’s something around there. Don’t quote me on that, but I know it’s around that area. There are exceptions. St. Louis in 2019, they were last in the Western Conference in January. On January 1st, Jordan Bennington came up, went on a run. St. Louis goes and wins the Stanley Cup. The Oilers the last two years have been behind the eightball. They’ve expended a lot of energy to find a way to get into the playoffs. They’ve gone to two cup finals in a row. I am extremely concerned that the core of this group will not have enough in the gas tank to do it this season. Unless Stan Bowman can make some changes here, significant changes. And by significant, I mean upgrading the goalending, right? trying to find some kind of depth for the the bottom six. Bottom six is still anemic. Although bottom six goal tonight, Tomasek, love that. Thank you. Thank you for a bottom six goal. I don’t know, man. I will let all of you leave your thoughts in the comments section below. All right, I’ll let you drive the conversation. Sorry I don’t have much more than that. That’s just that’s just where my brain’s at tonight. I do apologize. Pregame report will be up tomorrow morning for the game against Tampa. Uh because of my NHL 26 league games, I’m currently fighting for a playoff spot on my team right now. So, I’m not going to be able to do a live stream tomorrow. However, there will be a live stream on Saturday for that game against the Florida Panthers, the uh Stanley Cup final rematch. Looking forward to that game. Unless Edmonton gets absolutely thumped, then I’m not looking forward to it. But we’ll see how they do. We’ll see how they do in the next two games. They need to win one at minimum and get a point in the other. They need three out of four points in the next two games. Can they do it? My my brain is telling me no. But my heart I want to believe. I want to believe. I want to say hope will never die. It’s what we do in oil country, right? We want to believe. We do believe. Even though it’s difficult right now. Let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Hit the like button. Subscribe if you’re not yet subscribed. Tell someone that you love them. And as always, fight like a kid. Fight like Ben. Let’s go Oers. I’ll see you tomorrow folks.

Stuart Skinner was bad, the offense didn’t get going until the third period and the Oilers lose. Rinse and Repeat. #oilers #edmontonoilers #nhl

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40 comments

  3. i said before Draisaitl signed that they should trade him for a goalie and some wingers and I understand why so many fans hated the idea… but just think of McDavid with 2 top wingers, RNH with 2 good wingers, and a reliable, veteran goalie that's been there before.
    The players they have could fill the bottom 6 (where they belong) and others would be trade bait.

    Hell, they might have been able to keep McLeod or Hollaway.

  4. Skinner and Pickard couldn't stop a beachball. Pathetic team this year. Pathetic effort this entire year. McDavid looks like a passenger this year. Defence is garbage.

  8. I waited some time to let it settle to post. I still feel the way I do after last game lose. Yes Skinner posted another sub .900 game, and not to defend him(which im not) but any goalie you put in the net right now is going to post sub .900 when the team plays this bad. Yes there was aggression, and yes there was offence this game, but you CAN NOT be a great team with 5 players. They need to bring in better Defense minded defensemen. McDavid played better defense tonight than most of the D men. And why dress 6 D men if you are only going to play 4 1/2? we had 2 under 10 min of play time, and Regula had 3 shifts? thats insane.

  11. Its not complicated. 1. Coffey is gone. 2. This team has less talent. 3. Knob is a lousy coach.4 they didn't get a gaolie. Knob has allways been a lousy coach. Some say , well… he took us to 2 cup finals. Blahblah. A chimpanzee could coach that group. Knob screwed up 2 stanley cup finals. This less talented team requires an nhl coach. Knob is pals with conner and bum buddies with jeff (liver-lips) Jackson. Thats the only reason he's there. Also. I watch every game with keen interest. Just because they aren't doing good right now, doesn't mean i shut it off like some of these bandwagon jumpers commenting here.

  12. As mediocre as Skinner and Pickard are, is there an NHL goaltender out there who could come close to a .900 save percentage behind this team's defensive play? The answer is no.

  16. Bouchard and nurse are actually good together, oddly enough. Ekholm made a tremendous play to break up that 3 on 1.
    Kulak was the same as every other game( unnoticible)

    From what I watched it was a decent game, the only thing that went wrong was skinner letting in peanuts.
    And bouchard could have leaned a little harder on that partial break.

  20. Bowman and Managment set this team back a decade, thats to bad had a couple nice runs tho , its clear they are not looking for goaltending or defense or offense, I hope McDavid eas smart and has a clause in his contract

  25. I’m still believing they’re saving their engery and best plays for the late season. Mcdavid has shown a few times he still has the mcjesus engery in him.

    Why try hard now and possibly lose your best players to injuries and lose the best plays to repeated use.

    I think new year and they are playing new. And if they aren’t all good we got mcdavid for a few more years 😂

  27. This season shows a recurring pattern, and this campaign may be the one where the whole system breaks down. This team has suspect leadership; they try when inspired, show terrible body language (Drai and McDavid) or passive indifference (Nurse), and continue to make the same mistakes with no accountability or indication that real change is happening (Bouchard).

    They have inflexible, uninspiring coaching that chokes the offense out of most of the lineup, somehow thinking that playing good defensive hockey means foregoing offense completely. They've tried to create a defense-first system with this squad, however it's a defense-that-leads-to-offense system that the best teams play. Our coaches struggle mightily to connect the D to the O, and what always happens is that the team regressed back into a game style that will produce offense at the cost of leaving holes in the D.

    Lastly, our total lack of talent identification within our pro scouting staff has failed to add meaningful off-season acquisitions to the squad (how many guys have been added to this team that have proven to be completely ineffective over the last five years?) and is it the coaching that produces the result alone? Or is it a lack of value talent that we're adding as well?

  28. Sorry for the off-topic, but I have seen that nhl'26 has a 40% discount in the microsoft store… According to your opinon, is it any good? Any change that can be noticed, rosters aside?

    At this moment, I prefer to focus on virtual NHL… It may be better for my well-being (Anyway, I will still watch next Oilers games, I am getting good at standing serious suffering this season).

  32. I have a solution, complete contract renegotiations on every single D man on this team. Nurse and Bouchard give back half their current contract. Stu and Pickard are not playing well either, but they are being left to dry by these horrific D men.

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