The Edmonton Oilers have had an interesting start to the 2025-26 season, and while they have shown flashes of being a championship contender, their inconsistency is becoming concerning as the quarter mark of the season has come and gone. After their second blowout loss of the season, where they took an 8-3 beating from the Dallas Stars, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid spoke honestly about the team’s overall struggles.
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“It’s very concerning,” Draisaitl said. He continued: “Everything’s very concerning, though. We’re nearly 30 games in, and still don’t seem to have it down or know what we are. I don’t really know what to say. It’s just not good enough right now.”
McDavid gave the fans something else to talk about, mentioning that the team still had self-belief and is confident they can turn things around.
“We’ve still got confidence,” McDavid stated. He added, “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but there’s still an overarching belief that we’ll figure it out. Obviously, doesn’t look that way right now, but at least I still feel it.”
Draisaitl also defended the Oilers’ goaltending, considering both Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard have faced criticism online after slow starts to their campaign, by placing the blame on the rest of the team.
“What are they supposed to do?” Draisaitl said when asked about the goaltending. He continued: “They’re part of the team too, and I’m sure they would tell you themselves that they can be better at times. We don’t need to leave them out of everything at all times, but there’s not much they can do. Like, we’re giving up Grade A look after Grade A look. You can’t expect a goalie to stop every single one of them and win the game 3-1. It doesn’t work like that.”
Takeaways From Their Post-Game Interviews
It is very positive that the leadership group seems to still have full confidence in the rest of the team and believes they can turn things around, similar to how they have done so in previous campaigns. The underlying analytics would suggest they are wrong, and they need to make changes before they can start to win games, but having confidence is a step in the right direction.
At the end of the day, the brutal truth is that the Oilers were playing like they had given up on Stuart Skinner. They were letting him see every high-danger scoring chance, they weren’t protecting the front of the net, and there was little to no effort on their breakouts or back checks.
Now, this isn’t a full-blown defence of Skinner, who has been inconsistent this season, but the fact that the team in front of him isn’t doing any favours can’t be ignored.
In regard to the post-game interviews from McDavid and Draisaitl, it’s always a good thing to see them willing to take accountability and own up to their lazy play while defending their teammates, because that’s what leaders do.
However, there has to be a point where they stop prioritizing friendships over championships. The fact that they reportedly went to bat for Calvin Pickard behind closed doors, who has been one of, if not the worst, goaltenders in the NHL this season, shows they don’t truly care about winning and would rather just have fun off the ice. If that mindset doesn’t change, the Oilers can kiss their Stanley Cup dreams goodbye.
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