{"id":451072,"date":"2026-02-08T07:07:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T07:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/451072\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T07:07:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T07:07:04","slug":"kris-knoblauch-slams-oilers-after-5-2-loss-to-maple-leafs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/451072\/","title":{"rendered":"Kris Knoblauch Slams Oilers After 5-2 Loss to Maple Leafs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Head coach Kris Knoblauch did not hold back after the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> dropped a 5-2 decision to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n

As the game began, both teams looked strong, and the first period ended 0-0. However, the Leafs got the first goal in the second, and since then, the Oilers were in a constant chase mode. It was a disappointing game for Connor McDavid<\/a>, who led Oilers against Auston Matthews<\/a>‘ Leafs.<\/p>\n

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The Oilers have now allowed 32 goals over their last seven games and have shown defensive and goaltending issues. And in their eight-game home stand, they won only four.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the loss, Knoblauch looked back on the stretch and pointed to a wide range of issues.<\/p>\n

“A little bit of everything,” Knoblauch said. “Five-on-five defending, obviously the penalty kill, we talked about that. How many penalty goals we\u2019ve given up. Some goaltending. A little bit of everything. We\u2019ve got to make sure we reduce those. That\u2019s obvious.”<\/p>\n

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Matias Maccelli scored twice for the Maple Leafs, and Matthew Knies added a goal and an assist. John Tavares scored his 20th of the season, while Bobby McMann sealed the game with an empty-net goal. Anthony Stolarz made 34 saves, including a late diving stop on Leon Draisaitl.<\/p>\n

Edmonton briefly found life when Kasperi Kapanen tied the game at 2-2. That momentum vanished quickly, as consecutive penalties to Matthew Savoie and Mattias Janmark set up a Toronto 5-on-3. Tavares and Maccelli scored during the power-play advantage. Meanwhile, Edmonton went scoreless on its only power-play chance.<\/p>\n

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Knoblauch acknowledged that urgency is rising as the season tightens. With roughly a little over 20 games left, he said the alert level is much higher than in the early months.<\/p>\n

“Absolutely,” Knoblauch said about urgency. “Anytime you\u2019re fighting for first place or fighting to get into the playoffs, urgency always ramps up. Yeah, we\u2019re at that.”<\/p>\n

Edmonton sits tied with Vegas in the Pacific Division with a 28-21-8 record. Offense remains their strength behind McDavid, who leads the league with 95 points.<\/p>\n

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The Oilers have now lost back-to-back home games, with their previous loss being 7-3 against the Minnesota Wild. They visit Calgary on Wednesday as pressure continues to build, before the Olympics break.<\/p>\n

Related: Tom Wilson Involved in Painful Incident With Connor McDavid During Oilers-Capitals<\/a><\/p>\n

Related: Auston Matthews Assigns Blame After Maple Leafs’ Loss to Kraken<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Feb 4, 2026, where it first appeared in the NHL<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Head coach Kris Knoblauch did not hold back after the Edmonton Oilers dropped a 5-2 decision to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":451073,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[54,532,3819,895,155,198,146,5300,5,611,4812,12969,370,10077,797,1591,3533,38,4,24,31],"class_list":{"0":"post-451072","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton-oilers","8":"tag-anthony-stolarz","9":"tag-auston-matthews","10":"tag-bobby-mcmann","11":"tag-calgary","12":"tag-connor-mcdavid","13":"tag-edmonton","14":"tag-edmonton-oilers","15":"tag-edmontonoilers","16":"tag-hockey","17":"tag-john-tavares","18":"tag-kasperi-kapanen","19":"tag-knoblauch","20":"tag-leon-draisaitl","21":"tag-matias-maccelli","22":"tag-matthew-knies","23":"tag-matthew-savoie","24":"tag-mattias-janmark","25":"tag-minnesota-wild","26":"tag-nhl","27":"tag-oilers","28":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116033751822585114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451072","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=451072"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/451072\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/451073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=451072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=451072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=451072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}