They\u2019re getting by with three-goal third-period comebacks and using their high-end firepower to make lesser opponents fold, but that\u2019s not going to work against deep, veteran contenders.<\/p>\n
At the heart of their concerns right now is goaltending that isn\u2019t good enough and careless team defence that only compounds the problem.<\/p>\n
The Minnesota game was a microcosm of a season-long concern. Edmonton applied significant pressure offensively and had control of the puck long enough to win. They outshot Minnesota 32-16 over the final 40 minutes. But they were outscored 5-1 over those last two periods because the combination of defensive breakdowns and sub-par goaltending was too much to overcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we gave them too much, too many good looks on our net,\u201d said Walman. \u201cIt\u2019s no secret, it\u2019s just dialling in, being a little harder in our zone. And, I mean, that\u2019s the difference between a Grade A and getting the puck out.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/72fef8e19dd16dfbd09b663f6cd4b24f.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Goalie Tristan Jarry (35)of the Edmonton Oilers, was pulled in the second period in favour of Goalie Connor Ingram (39) while playing the Minnesota Wild at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Saturday, January 31, 2026.<\/p>\n
Again With The Goaltending<\/p>\n
Here they are, a team that considers itself a Stanley Cup contender, and with 26 games left in the season it still doesn\u2019t know who its starting goaltender is.<\/p>\n
That has to be a little unnerving. So does giving up 25 goals in five games and seeing both of your goalies hooked. But Knoblauch still has faith in the Jarry-Connor Ingram tandem, even if there is no clear-cut undisputed No.1 he can ride for seven out of every 10 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are very few teams in the NHL who can say they have a number one goalie who plays the majority of the games, 70 per cent of the games,\u201d said the coach. \u201cThere are only a handful of teams that have that. To answer your question, no, I don\u2019t think we have that goalie.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nor do they have, at the moment, the kind of team that can make life easy for whoever is guarding their net.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think save percentage is a full-team effort, and it lies on us,\u201d said Walman. \u201cIt\u2019s the game of odds. If you give up too much, eventually it\u2019s gonna break. We can only ask for so much (from the goalies). It\u2019s up to us to kind of close the gap.\u201d<\/p>\n
E-mail:\u00a0rtychkowski@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n Related<\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.<\/a><\/p>\n You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The bad thing about statement games is that sometimes the statement hurts. Like Saturday night\u2019s 7-3 loss to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[193,192,155,196,198,146,5300,425,57,5,3144,370,38,4,24,3591,15,6769,1588,1585],"class_list":["post-440501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton-oilers","tag-avalanche","tag-colorado","tag-connor-mcdavid","tag-dallas","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-edmontonoilers","tag-evan-bouchard","tag-florida-panthers","tag-hockey","tag-jake-walman","tag-leon-draisaitl","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-nhl","tag-oilers","tag-rogers-place","tag-ryan-nugent-hopkins","tag-tristan-jarry","tag-vasily-podkolzin","tag-zach-hyman"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115997612721630297","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}