Articles in Edmonton Oilers

Troy Stecher Now With The Edmonton Oilers

03/07/2024 at 2:03pm EST

The Pittsburgh Penguins Were No Match For The Edmonton Oilers

03/04/2024 at 9:38am EST

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

When the Oilers were winning five Stanley Cups in the 80’s, the Penguins were nowhere to be seen. Then, when Mario arrived, and later Sidney Crosby, the failing Oilers watched each of the Penguins' five Stanley Cups from the various lakes and golf courses of a hockey player’s summer.

Today, the contending Oilers tend to toy with the flagging Penguins, winning the last five meetings each by a decisive score. They beat Pittsburgh for fun most nights, whether it’s the 7-2 romp at Pittsburgh a year ago, or the 6-1 lickin’ the Oilers put on Pittsburgh Sunday night at Rogers Place.

Edmonton is quick and plays fast. Pittsburgh is slow, their best players ageing out.

The Oilers will be buyers as Friday’s NHL Trade Deadline approaches. The Penguins had better be sellers, nine points out of a playoff spot with three teams to pass.

On Sunday, the contrast was stark.

Good beat average by five goals, in a game you could replay 10 more times and not get a different result.

continued

The game highlights are below.

Video- Paul Coffey On After Hours

02/25/2024 at 2:58am EST

via the YouTube page of Sportsnet,

Paul Coffey joins After Hours to discuss his playing days with the Oilers, the numerous Battle of Alberta's he was part of, his decision to return to coaching, the evolution of today's game in the NHL, and more.

A Sloppy Loser Point For The Edmonton Oilers

02/22/2024 at 6:15am EST

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

You can look at a game where the goaltending was sub-par, where a couple of your best players were average at best, where you had another awful second period, and say it was a point wasted.

Or, you can assess a game where you trailed a top team by a score of 4-1 with 26 minutes to play, and you rescued a point in a 6-5 overtime loss, and say, “We’ll take it.”

The Edmonton Oilers will likely do the latter, after collecting just their second loser point of the season in a game that a better — and healthier — Bruins team would surely lock down.

“There were a few mistakes,” said Oilers winger Corey Perry, who scored his third as an Oiler. “But we found a way to get a point and that is all that matters after being down 4-1.”

his was like one of those old Smythe Division specials, with 11 goals — and only one on the power play. Neither goalie, Stuart Skinner or Jeremy Swayman, distinguished themselves, but both gutted it out, making massive saves in overtime before Charlie McAvoy weaved his way through the slot to cash an OT beauty.

If hockey is a game of mistakes, well, then this was certainly a hockey game. Two good teams, neither of whom will enjoy their video session on Thursday.

continued

Game highlights are below.

Ken Holland Has Work To Do

02/12/2024 at 10:19am EST

from Robert Tychkowski of the Edmonton Journal,

The Edmonton Oilers are good, but not good enough.

Not yet.

With the trade deadline fast approaching, it’s up to general manager Ken Holland to find the necessary ingredients to make a good team great and position the Oilers for their best chance to win a Stanley Cup since 2006.

Everyone around him is loading up already. The first overall Vancouver Canucks got a jump on the trade deadline by adding what every contender wants, a solid two-way centre in Elias Lindholm. The Winnipeg Jets added Sean Monahan and the Colorado Avalanche are about to find out how much Zach Parise has left in the tank.

In Edmonton, Holland has a group that has paid its dues and is ready to win now. What he does prior to the deadline will play a major role in whether Connor McDavid and Company can finally push through or if it’s another long summer of ‘Wait till next year.’

So, what are those ingredients? What’s the biggest need? There are cases to be made in all three areas, goal, defence and forward, and the GM has limited assets with which to forge a deal.

This is going to take some creative manoeuvring.

continued

The Vegas Golden Knights Put An End To The Edmonton Oilers Winning Streak

02/07/2024 at 2:47am EST

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

To win 16 straight hockey games takes more than just strong defence, great goaltending and timely scoring. It takes some breaks.

Frankly, you tend to need more than your share of the luck to win every game since Dec. 21, 2023. And even though the old hockey maxim decrees that a good team earns its luck, eventually you run up against another good team, and they deserve some too.

A near-record winning streak is forged on a wide-open net missed by the Blackhawks one night, when you’re down 1-0. It’s a post-and-in for the Oilers at Montreal, but a post-and-out when Nazem Kadri is shooting in Calgary.

This much we know to be true: the Oilers played far better in a 3-1 loss that ended their 16-game win streak in Vegas Tuesday night than they had on two or three nights where they’d found a way to extend the streak over the past 47 days.

They just ran out of fortune. Used it all up, really.

“Yeah, yeah,” agreed Connor McDavid. “We had a lot of things go right, obviously. Winning 16 straight, you’ve got to have a lot of things go well. You’ve got to get some bounces, and we got some bounces. But for the most part, I thought we went out and earned our bounces and earned our luck.

“Credit to (Vegas). Tonight they make the shot.”

continued

Game highlights are below.

It's Official - Corey Perry Signs With Edmonton

01/22/2024 at 11:51am EST

EDMONTON, AB – The Edmonton Oilers and free-agent forward Corey Perry have agreed to terms on a one-year contract with an average annual value (AAV) of $775,000 plus performance bonuses.

The 38-year-old right-winger has played 1,273 career NHL regular season games, scoring 421 goals and 471 assists for 892 points. Perry has also played 196 career playoff games, recording 53 goals and 71 assists for 124 points.

During the 2010-11 season with the Anaheim Ducks, the Peterborough, Ont. native scored 50 goals and 98 points to win the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy as the NHL's leading goal-scorer, plus the Hart Memorial Trophy as league MVP.

Perry won the 2007 Stanley Cup with the Ducks and also played in three consecutive Stanley Cup Final series with the Dallas Stars (2020), Montreal Canadiens (2021) and Tampa Bay Lightning (2022).

He also captured Olympic gold medals with Team Canada in 2010 (Vancouver) and 2014 (Sochi).

Perry will wear jersey number 90 with Edmonton.

13 Straight Wins For The Edmonton Oilers

01/21/2024 at 9:40am EST

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

It is the longest winning streak ever authored by a Canadian-based NHL team, and four shy of the NHL record of 17 set by the 1992-93 Penguins.

“It's very cool,” said Oilers goalie Stuart Skinner, who is playing by far the steadiest hockey of his short NHL career. “It's a little bit surprising that it kind of took this long. I mean, there's been so many great Canadian teams that have played.”...

Is this it? Has the final question been answered here, after all these years?

“I guess time will tell,” mused Hyman. “Every year you learn something. You mature. We've had a lot of guys who are on those teams … and when you lose in the playoffs to this Stanley Cup champions two years in a row, you learn from that.”

more on Edmonton's 3-1 win over Calgary...

Below find Eric Francis of Sportsnet on the Flames and the game highlights.

The Edmonton Oilers Keep Winning

01/19/2024 at 9:21am EST

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

The Edmonton Oilers, it seems, have forgotten how to lose, winning their team-record 12th straight Thursday night. As they’ve done in eight of the 12 games, the Oilers erased a deficit — this time 2-0 in the first 13:32 of the game — a trend that seems dangerous, but is perhaps becoming something better than that here.

"It's been a theme of this winning streak. We stay composed,” said big Mattias Ekholm, who snapped late in this one when Yanni Gourde left the ice to deliver a headshot, a hit that earned Gourde a well-deserved charging major. “We just come in and take a breather, catch your breath, and get out there again.

“I feel like it hasn't really mattered if it's going in the third, going into the second or going to the last five minutes of the game. We find a way right now to stay in it and end up on the right side of things.”

This was the fifth straight game — all Oilers wins, obviously — where the opponent has scored first. And it was the 10th consecutive game that Edmonton has allowed two goals or less, a stat that is as foreign to Northern Alberta as an elected Liberal.

That ties a team record set all the way back in the spring of 2002.

"Wow, I didn’t even know that," said Foegele. "I think it is a credit to everyone buying in and taking a lot of pride in playing the right way. This group was down at rock bottom, so it means a lot to climb back and to try and build each day."

more

Watch the game highlights below.

Paul Coffey Is Running The Defense In Edmonton

12/30/2023 at 11:39am EST

from David Staples of the Edmonton Journal,

Paul Coffey has his defensive brigade playing like, well, their own newly-minuted versions of Paul Coffey.

Since Coffey took over in mid-November as coach of the Oil d-men, this group has been transformed from plodders into puck movers.

They have got their feet moving. They have got their eyes up, searching to bomb away with stretch passes. And they are moving and probing at the offensive blueline to launch hard shots on net.

All this has played out with Edmonton’s d-men crushing it at even strength, cutting down slightly on their individual major mistakes on Grade A shots against, dropping from 1.53 per game before Coffey to 1.31 per game per player with Coffey.

They have taken an even bigger jump on the attack, where they’re making a higher rate of major contributions to Grade A shots for, going from 1.06 per game to 1.34 per game.

That kind of statistical improvement represents the difference between a d-man who is playing solid hockey to one who is playing at an all-star level, which Mattias Ekholm, Evan Bouchard and Darnell Nurse are all doing under Coffey’s guidance.

This is the same Coffey whose promotion to Asst. Coach was met with no end of scoffing from some loud factions of fans in Oil Country.

You know may have heard the complaints if you logged onto social media for a moment after Coffey was signed up: Coffey is a member of the OBC (Old Boys Club). Coffey has never coached at the pro, college or major junior level. Coffey is special assistant to owner Daryl Katz, which is sure to cause dissension. What does Coffey know about modern players anyway?

read on

Edmonton's Stuart Skinner Blames Himself For Loss To The Lightning

12/15/2023 at 2:50am EST

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

Stu Skinner walked out of the catacombs surrounding the swank dressing room of his Edmonton Oilers, and stepped into a media scrum waiting in front of his locker.

There was no deflecting or excuse making. He called a spade a spade.

“I ended up losing us the game.”

The Edmonton Oilers got goalied on Thursday night — at both ends of the ice. Their eight-game winning streak went up in smoke in a 7-4 loss to Tampa.

This was a game in which Edmonton — who would outshot Tampa 55-24 on the night — found themselves in a 3-3 tie with the Lightning with just eight minutes remaining in the final period.

Then, Nikita Kucherov pushed a loose puck through Skinner’s legs. It was a bit unlucky, but nobody has time for an unlucky goalie at a time like that.

Then, 75 seconds later, Steven Stamkos floated a long wrist shot past Skinner’s glove to give Tampa a 5-3 lead. Stamkos would score one of two empty net goals — it was the first four-goal night of his career — and the Oilers could never recover from that late, 5-3 deficit that Skinner coughed up.

“It's a one-goal game (when) we ended up scoring,” Skinner said moments after the game. “If I was able to make that last save, we might still be playing right now.”

continued

Below watch Skinner post game plus the game highlights.

Afternoon Line -Zach Hyman

12/14/2023 at 12:08pm EST
“We live in Canada, in the US, where these things shouldn't be happening. And we can’t turn a blind eye to it. Being a Jewish person doesn't feel comfortable right now, and that’s a scary feeling.”

-Zach Hyman of the Edmonton Oilers. Mark Spector of Sportsnet has more on this.

The Improving Edmonton Goaltending

12/11/2023 at 12:07am EST

from Daniel Nugent-Bowman of The Athletic,

Skinner started the last seven games before Sunday’s 4-1 win over the New Jersey Devils, winning the last six of them. He sported a .913 save percentage in those six victories.

Pickard got the call against the Devils in Skinner’s place and all he did was turn aside 26 of 27 shots, helping the Oilers up their winning streak to seven games. The Oilers have surrendered just 12 goals during that span.

“It’s a combination of everything,” defenceman Darnell Nurse said. “We’ve been defending a lot better, but they’ve been making big saves at big moments, too.

“Usually, you’re not going to get one without the other. It’s shown.”

It wasn’t long ago when the Oilers didn’t have either facet going.

They had an .864 team save percentage — the NHL’s worst — when coach Jay Woodcroft was fired on Nov. 12. That move came two games after high-priced goaltender Jack Campbell was demoted to the minors.

Since then, the Oilers are 9-3 under new coach Kris Knoblauch, while their goalies’ .903 collective save percentage has been more respectable amid a greater emphasis and commitment to defending — particularly off the rush.

read on

Video- You Make The Call Edmonton/Minnesota

12/09/2023 at 12:38am EST

Basic Details Are An Issue For The Edmonton Oilers

11/23/2023 at 3:34am EST

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

The Edmonton Oilers are broken.

How else to describe a team of professional hockey players who routinely make the calibre of defensive mistakes that this one makes?

What else would you call a team of NHLers who eschew the basic defensive tenets of the sport that are taught to Canadian kids long before they are able to drive themselves to the rink? The very things they mastered so long ago that paved their path to this level of the game?

Defensive details like getting a puck deep, clearing a zone with certainty, boxing out with authority -- all are foreign concepts here, on the team the standings forgot.

“We haven't played 60 minutes…” said Evander Kane, his voice trailing off — as if he knew it was a worn-out plea following a 6-3 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday. “It's … it's … I don't know. I don't know what to say.”

It is a team full of forwards who are not mindful to take on a defensive posture when their defenceman rushes right past them, up ice with the puck. It is that same defenceman who enters the offensive zone, then passes the backwards, catching everyone unaware, a cardinal sin.

It is four Oilers milling about the slot as if on a smoke break, not one of them aware enough to tie up the fifth player — an opponent who finds the rebound that has eluded the puck-focused Oilers.

continued

Game highlights are below.

Evening Line -Pierre LeBrun

11/16/2023 at 6:27pm EST
“I think it’s bullshit that Jay Woodcroft was fired when he was. I think he should have been given more time. I think the under-lying numbers suggested a team that was about to turn it around. I do not believe he lost the room. The guys were still playing hard for him. And I would have given Jay Woodcroft more time...."

-Pierre LeBrun. David Staples of the Edmonton Journal has more on this topic.

Video- Leon Draisaitl Fined For A Dangerous Trip

11/14/2023 at 12:37pm EST

Watch below.

Jay Woodcroft Done In Edmonton

11/12/2023 at 12:30pm EST

Edmonton Oilers Fall To The San Jose Sharks

11/10/2023 at 3:25am EST

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

It’s likely over for Jay Woodcroft, the whip-smart head coach who simply has run out of answers for his Edmonton Oilers.

Edmonton lost 3-2 to the woeful San Jose Sharks on Thursday, dropping into a tie with San Jose for 32nd place in the 32-team National Hockey League. Edmonton is 2-9-1 on the season, and is already 14 points back of third place in the Pacific Division.

With only the faint hope of a wild-card berth as their fading goal, if general manager Ken Holland still believes his team has a playoff prayer, he will fire Woodcroft on Friday in Seattle.

For this team to be in this position — with a roster of this pedigree — is a firing offence. It’s time for a new set of eyes and a new voice, before this season becomes a long, painful march to the World Championships.

“I worry about taking care of my daily business and my daily process,” said Woodcroft, when asked about his level of concern about his job. “Making sure that I give my players something to focus on and concentrate on.

“No one's happy with where we're at. We all own it.”

continued

Highlights are below.

The Issues In Edmonton

11/09/2023 at 4:50pm EST

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

One of Ken Holland’s challenges, like he doesn’t have enough of those these days, is to make a trade for a goaltender when no one wants his goalie in return.

Historically, a team trading a goalie requires one back. Usually, they’re moving their No. 2 guy and need a replacement because now they are short a netminder in their organization. On the other side, teams only need so many goalies — you don’t want too many, or somewhere along the way you run into ice time and practice issues.

But in trying to replace Jack Campbell, who is expected to start for the Bakersfield Condors tonight in Abbotsford against the Canucks’ top farm team, it’s nigh impossible to ship that contract back the other way. Although most teams could stomach Campbell as a backup, if was being paid as one, nobody wants a backup with nearly $20 million owed over the next four years.

Holland met with Campbell before placing him on waivers, telling him to work on his game as if he will play in Edmonton again soon. And our sources say he can expect lots of work with Bakersfield, who ironically play in Abbotsford on Thursday and Saturday, then have a Tuesday-Wednesday set in Calgary against the AHL Wranglers next week.

But that’s Plan B.

Holland’s Plan A is to find a guy who can share the crease with Skinner, taking the pressure off the sophomore to be “the man” in the Oilers' net. If that plan can be executed, there is no place for Campbell in Edmonton, barring injury.

continued

Now What Mr. Holland?

11/08/2023 at 11:19am EST

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

It was the summer of 2022, and Ken Holland succumbed to the pressure.

His Edmonton Oilers had just suffered through the Mikko Koskinen years, and Mike Smith was ready to retire. Edmonton’s goaltending pipeline consisted of a rookie named Stuart Skinner, and nothing else of NHL pedigree.

The steward of Connor McDavid’s Stanley Cup future, Holland simply had to come back in September with a No. 1 goalie. He owed it to the sport, but at that moment in time, the pickings were slim.

Detroit had snapped up the untested Ville Husso and signed him to a three-year deal with an AAV of $4.75 million. Today, Husso awaits his first season with a save percentage exceeding .896 in Detroit.

The other viable option was the oft-injured Darcy Kuemper, who had rejected Edmonton’s overtures the previous summer. He took his talents to Washington, D.C.

So Holland and Campbell were the last two at the dance. Bedfellows by chance.

At that moment, the Oilers GM had two choices: Overpay and over-term a guy who had briefly found his game in Toronto — but had serious question marks regarding his mental game. Or walk away and temporarily solve his issues in the trade market.

Choose the latter and fail, and he would have been crushed by Oilers fans. They had suffered through the Three Metres of Koskinen, and borne nervous witness to the puck-handling foibles of an ageing Smith.

Now they wanted a true No. 1, and it was Holland’s job to provide. To those who much is given, the old saying goes, much is expected.

Holland jumped to his fatal mistake, choosing Campbell. And today, that chicken roosts on the National Hockey League’s waiver wire.

continued

Give Jay Woodcroft A Chance

11/05/2023 at 8:50pm EST

from David Staples of the Edmonton Journal,

This in from former NHL referee Tim Peel, now a hockey commentator on the Snipes and Stripes podcast with former Blackhawks star Jeremy Roenick, his viral and provocative suggestion that the Edmonton Oilers should fire Jay Woodcroft and hire Joel Quenneville as coach.

Peel’s suggestion is, of course, setting hair on fire. It’s gone viral on social media, just as most wild-eyed things do. I’m not going to dig into Quenneville’s case, partly because I think his hiring is a non-starter in Edmonton, but mainly because I’m surprised to see fans and pundits so quickly abandon Jay Woodcroft.

Yes, the Oilers now have the second worst record in the NHL. But talk of axing Woodcroft has escalated rapidly? But to what end? What good will it do? Is it not far more prudent to allow a successful coach like Woodcroft and his successful players some time and space to work their way out of this? Ten more games at least?

We’re going to hear plenty such talk “Fire Woodcroft” in days to come, with plenty of names mentioned as possible replacements for Woodcroft. That talk will only end when Woodcroft gets this team winning again. But I expect that will happen.

continued

It's Getting Ugly In Edmonton

11/04/2023 at 8:05pm EDT

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

The consensus pick as the eventual Stanley Cup champion by predictors across the National Hockey League only a month ago, absolutely nobody saw what is unfolding here in Edmonton.

The Oilers lost again on Saturday, a dispirited, soft and defenceless 5-2 loss to Nashville, and sit at 2-7-1 after 10 games of the 2023-24 season.

A playoff miss is very much in the cards, and as such, everything is on the table in Edmonton. That includes firing head coach Jay Woodcroft, whose non-competitive, lackadaisical team looks exactly like the one that got Dave Tippett fired, and Todd McLellan before him.

“I thought we lost a lot of puck battles today. Didn't like seeing that,” assessed Woodcroft after the game. “We gave up a couple goals that were specifically right at the net. Not a good sign for us. That's an area that we have to control a lot better.”

Those two goals comprised two-thirds of a Ryan O’Reilly hat trick, as he twice out-muscled Edmonton’s top defenceman, Darnell Nurse. It was a metaphor for a team whose best players haven’t been their best players at all, and on Saturday, O’Reilly took Nurse to school.

continued

Game highlights are below.

Too Many Mistakes By The Edmonton Oilers

11/03/2023 at 3:38am EDT

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

Boy, oh boy. Could this have been a night to remember.

Sam Gagner — “Poppa Oiler” — rolled back into town and scored twice. Edmonton forged a wild comeback with 50 shots on goal. A victory at home, and the first back-to-back wins of the year.

What a story!

Instead, it was the same old story: a defensively derelict team made enough egregious errors to give up their usual four, and the Edmonton Oilers lost again — this time by a 4-3 count against the Dallas Stars.

“We just made too many boo-boos tonight. Again,” said Evander Kane, who continues to outplay Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl here in Edmonton. “Three of their goals are odd-man rushes, and they end up in the back of our net every time. We can’t expect to score four, five goals every night. It’s just not realistic.”

continued

Below are the game highlights.

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