So, same old, same old, eh?
The Edmonton Oilers are scuffling along, 10 games in, with a 4-4-2 record but really it’s four wins and six losses — forget those Bettman loser points teams get in OT.
Yeah, the Oilers will be in the post-season, but nobody in this town cares one hoot about just making the playoffs. We’re not the Buffalo Sabres here or the Detroit Red Wings. The fans here only want the Oilers to be the last team standing in June.
Truth is, the three teams that have played the most playoff games the last two years — Florida, Edmonton and Dallas—are all meandering. The Panthers are 5-5, Dallas is 5-3-2, giving up more goals than they’ve scored. And, Toronto is 4-4-1, Tampa is 3-4-2, Vegas is only three points better than the Oilers.
Yeah, Carolina is rolling, but aren’t they always in the regular season? New Jersey has won eight-in-a-row, including kicking the Oilers butt on their Eastern trip, but are they really a Cup contender?
There’s always some “where did this come from?” too, as we look at the Utah Mammoth (8-2), who the Oilers on Tuesday. That will be a test for the Oilers, as currently constituted, and, make no mistake, they are playing poorly. Edmonton’s only had one game (Vancouver, Oct. 11, 37-15 shot advantage) where they were good until the last drop.
But, the regular season looks like a seven-month obligation to the Oilers and several others, although they are not discounting ticket prices at Rogers Place anytime soon because Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and company care more about what happens in May and June than an October game against the Canucks.
That said, this Oilers team has way more questions than answers.
1. What we think we know about head coach Kris Knoblauch
We get that he’s trying to find what works, trying to work in new faces like Andrew Mangiapane and Jack Roslovic, along with Matt Savoie, Ike Howard and David Tomasek and it takes time for things to jell, but he looks more like our Grade 10 chemistry teacher, in a white lab coat, with all the experimenting.
This shouldn’t be as hard, as scientific projects go, as a blind taste test on what type of milk you’re drinking— non-fat, low-fat or whole.
But, there’s been so many different line combinations. McDavid and Draisaitl on the same line, McDavid and Draisaitl apart. Not quite nobody with a pulse getting a shot when the biggest guns are together. But, it just seems too much.
Surely, there is one line in the top six that works and he can stick with it.
And one line of checkers and hitters in the bottom six.
2. What we think we know about Knoblauch
Every day he checks in on forward Zach Hyman and his repaired wrist. He can’t come back soon enough. His absence around the blue paint, his taking a pounding to score goals, is killer.
He’s probably not an instant panacea because he hasn’t played a game in five months, but the Oilers look to be too light at forward.
They miss Corey Perry’s antagonism and hands around the net. They miss Evander Kane being in somebody’s face, even if he took too many stick penalties and he’s not a natural talent in terms of making plays.
There’s not enough forwards on this current team that teams are mad at. We’re sure Knoblauch knows that.
Despite what fans think, he has given Savoie opportunity and he has one assist and is -5. He has dressed Howard and Tomasek nine of the 10 games. It’s not like he’s yanking them in and out of the lineup, never mind how much they play. There’s one goal each for these NHL rookies. We’re also sure, he misses Connor Brown — a lot.
He was a plug and play guy. He knew his role and he was good at it, also he was a huge part of their penalty kill.
3. What we think we know about the goaltending
There are bigger fish to fry.
Stuart Skinner remains the pinata among Oilers fans and they have a valid point about his east-west movement in the crease on rush chances. It’s not fluid, it needs to be better and this comes from talking to former NHL goalies about that.
But they also say, pretty much every NHL goalie has something teams zero in on in scouting reports. Right now, Skinner has a cumulative .903 save percentage and a 2.31 goal average. His GAA is 10th best. He is not THE reason the Oilers are losing games.
Now, his backup Calvin Pickard, who was 22-10-1 (.900 save percentage) last year and saved them in the playoffs, needs to be better. He’s given up 14 goals on 91 shots in four games. He needs to push Skinner more for starts.
Edmonton Oilers goaltender Calvin Pickard has given up 14 goals in four games so far this year.
4. What we know about the goaltending
It remains the No. 1 story with fans, and quite possibly GM Stan Bowman. This idea that Connor Ingram, the former Utah goalie, is pushing his way into the picture after signing as a free-agent, though, is awfully premature.
Ingram is in Bakersfield. He was very good in his first AHL start, giving up one goal. He gave up five on 29 shots in his second. He is a nice story, for now. When or if he plays here, who knows?
The bigger play with fans is Bowman trading for, say, Juuse Saros at the deadline, if Nashville’s out of the playoffs. We’re sure Mattias Ekholm would offer up a scouting report on his former teammate. But he has seven more years at $7.74 million AAV. Skinner would have to go in that trade, if it ever came to that, plus a first-round pick, plus a good prospect.
5. What we think we know about Ekholm
Last season, he gutted it out in the playoffs with a torn adductor muscle, which clearly hampered his ability to gap up on puck-rushers and the other skating things this big man is so good at as Evan Bouchard’s security blanket.
He was also battling sickness. He was far from the terrific Ekholm, but he is tough, and we all hoped he would be back to normal, now. He is not. He was plus 72 his first 100 games with the Oilers, was still plus 11 last season in 65 games, but he is -7 through these 10 games.
When Kiefer Sherwood turned Ekholm around on a rush and went in to score on Pickard Sunday in Vancouver it was a whoa moment. Normally, he would have stood up, knocked him on his fanny or off the puck with ease. This is a concern. Either it’s just an aberration, the early struggles or he is 35. There’s a lot of hard miles on his body, six games from 900, with the style he plays.
Edmonton Oilers defenceman Mattias Ekholm is off to a tough start to the 2025-26 season. Shaughn Butts/Postmedia
6. What we know about Ekholm
He is one of the proudest, most honest players. He knows he’s not playing well. Looking at him on the bench in Vancouver, you could tell on his face that it is eating at him. The partnership of Ekholm and Bouchard (-9) has been a constant for 170 games or so, but they’ve only been on the ice for one even-strength goal as a pairing. They’ve been on for eight against.
They were broken up for the whole game in Vancouver with Ekholm with Jake Walman and Bouchard with Darnell Nurse.
The Oiler defence is the strongest part of their roster, at least on paper. Throw in Brett Kulak as a No. 5 with Ty Emberson, Troy Stecher and Alec Regula in the six-through eight spots and this is a top 5 NHL back-end. It needs to get back to that.
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