RAW | Kris Knoblauch 11.27.25

RAW | Kris Knoblauch 11.27.25

Chris, maybe we’ll just begin with some housekeeping. We saw captain leave the ice just a touch early. Do you have an update on him? No, I don’t have an update. Well, um, he’s getting looked at right now and, uh, yeah, tonight I’ll I’ll know. Uh, is Nan Hopkins going to play Saturday? Uh, yes, he’s cleared to play. Lazar is cleared to play, so we’ll hopefully have them in the lineup on Saturday. And any further update on Walman? Uh, he was on the ice today. I think it went well, but uh, he’s dayto day. And will it be skitter on Saturday? Uh, we haven’t decided that. Thank you, Chris. Before um the game against Dallas, you mentioned that you’re looking to make some changes defense or structurally, I guess. Um, is that are you still looking to make further changes here as you get ready for Seattle or what what’s kind of the plan after the last game? Uh, yeah, there are some changes, some minor changes. It’s so difficult in the season where you’re playing almost every second day to um change too much. And right now we do have a little block of practice time uh today and tomorrow before we play on Saturday gives us a little bit of time, but it’s um it’s difficult because you want your players obviously playing with their instincts and playing freely and not giving them too much. But if there is something that we need to change and alter, it’s going to make a change. Um then we do it. But right now, I think it’s all about making tweaks rather than blowing something up and changing something up completely. Chris Matias talked about how there’s use like a the analogy of like a like a film over guys and it’s plastic and they’re just you look at guys who are mishandling the puck when they got time that’s leading to turnovers and some battles that you normally would win you’re not even coming close to winning. So, it’s not like, you know, the system is breaking down all the time. It’s a lot of individual mistakes. How do you how do you help guys, you know, get their puck management better because that’s been a big issue. Well, I think that’s a twofold. One is the player feeling confident, um, energized, not tired, uh, being able to play his best, but also having some layers to protect that player that if he was to make a mistake, we can have some protection layers that even if there was a mistake there, there’s other players that you have to go through to get that scoring chance. So, one, we need that player. He has make that play. But if he was to make a mistake, we want those um security blanket um a little bit of more um maybe structure just to prevent the uh what happens after mistakes. Now, he wasn’t on the ice today. What’s what’s your update on Jack Rost? You expected him to play on Saturday? Uh he is um questionable for Saturday. He’s getting looked at uh the doctors today and um I don’t have an update on if he’s going to play on Saturday or how long it would be. What’s your sense of the mood of the team in terms of you know you guys haven’t played the way you want to play to this point. What’s especially after the last game? What do you sense from those? Uh frustration. Um yeah, anytime you don’t execute to your um how you feel that you should be playing at that level, then there’s there’s frustration. Um you know, guys care. They want to win. It’s not that they’ve quit and turn the page on what’s happening. Uh they want to get better and push themselves to turn the season around. And you know, it’s not just going to be one thing. We need to, you know, get a lot more out of every everybody just, you know, everyone step it up just a little bit, not just a burden on one or two guys to turn this season around. So, I I think everyone can uh collectively just chip in a little bit more. Goending is obviously a unique position in hockey as a coaching staff. Do you how do you you know, when you have a goalender, not that it’s Stu’s fault because of the way you guys are playing, but you know, he’s part of the group. How do you do you have to deal with a goalender differently as a coaching staff than you do obviously a normal skater I guess? I think you handle the players differently mostly on their personality and not so much on their position. Uh uh Stu’s got a you know a a goalie coach that he sees every single day almost and they’re talking and you know he’s talking to the other parts of the coaching staff myself included the other assistants and you know you know I just help uh support him and know that it’s not all on his shoulders. uh you know you know you look at it and you just saw the stat line of four goals on eight shots start the game you would think what happened but then if you just watch the goals you would understand that he didn’t have much chance on those. So uh yeah it’s uh your goalender is so important and when you’re playing well in front of him it makes the game so much easier for him and we’re just doing our best to make the game easier for him. A player can get his frustration out by dumping the puck in and banging. Goalies can’t. So, how does a goalie get the frustration out? As he said, we asked, “What about a fight?” Never been a fight in a fight in my life, but maybe call out Mike. Steu’s uh Steu is one of the bigger guys, so, you know, he might be able to do some damage, but uh yeah, as for a goalie, they’re they have to it’s a different uh skill set. uh any player they can take out their frustration with the hit and it’s a physical game. It’s not so much of a physical game for the goalie and that’s what makes a goalie unique is their mental fortitude has to be so strong and be able to let things go and a forward if he makes a mistake he can make up for the next shift. Goalie makes a mistake he has to wait for his next shot. Now he doesn’t know when that next shot’s coming. he might have to wait and you know it’s it’s a the importance of a skill mindset is very important as a goalie obviously you look at them and goals go in you don’t want them start to point fingers at guys because you’ve probably seen that on TV where a goal goes in and goalie goes like this as if you should have had it in front of me you have to watch that as a goalender too the frustration he doesn’t seem to be knowing anything always takes accountability and obviously there’s times where he didn’t get help and he doesn’t point blame and I think the guys respect that about him and yeah we just yeah we appreciate uh you that’s pretty much the mindset of all our players is uh the accountability is high and you know the only way you’re going to get better is you know taking ownership of what’s going

Kris speaks following Oilers practice at Rogers Place on Thursday.