The Oilers were shut out last night against the team that has become arguably their biggest rival, the Florida Panthers. And while a loss is a loss, the team looked lifeless, listless, and completely disinterested. Here were Kris Knoblauch’s post-game comments:
While the comments are completely tone-deaf and missed the mark of what happened, the line “the guys worked really hard, and I thought the effort was there, and we just couldn’t find a way to score a goal” stood out as particularly egregious.
When pressed by those in the room as to whether the Oilers should have played harder against their two-time Stanley Cup Final foe, Knoblauch pushed back, saying, “I don’t see it that they didn’t show up to play tonight. We came out strong. The first 10 minutes, I thought we had the majority of the play”.
What?
Panthers 4, Oilers 0: What actually happened in the game
While you have to give full marks to Panthers’ goalie Sergei Bobrovsky for stopping all 21 shots he faced, the Oilers were playing a depleted Panthers team that was without Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart, and Brad Marchand. They sit seventh in the Atlantic Division, just one point ahead of the struggling Toronto Maple Leafs. They aren’t going to make the playoffs.
They had nothing to play for in this one, but the Oilers did. They are fighting for standings positions for the top-three spots in the Pacific Division. These games matter.
However, the effort simply wasn’t there tonight. The team was led by surging rookie Matt Savoie, who had four shots and five high-danger chances. Great to see leadership from the rookie, but where was the leadership group? Connor McDavid was largely invisible, and the rest of the team was largely the same with him. Without the injured Leon Draisaitl, the team needs more from their top players. They didn’t get it.
To make matters worse, the Panthers got goals from the bottom of their lineup, with former Calgary Flame A.J. Greer and Cole Reinhardt scoring two of the team’s four goals. Just a bad night all around for the Oilers.
What the rest of the Edmonton Oilers said
At least the rest of the Oilers had better comments than Kris Knoblauch post-game.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins got right to the root of the problem: The Oilers don’t have any consistency this season. “If we could put our finger on it, we’d correct it fast. It’s a hard league to win consistently in, and we haven’t done a good enough job this year doing that.”
Adam Henrique put it perfectly when he said that seeing the Panthers’ sweaters on the ice should have gotten a rise out of this team. There was no rise.
Knoblauch’s Post-Game Comments Have Been a Problem All Season
Knoblauch has a pattern of sheltering his team in his post-game comments, and while this may be nice for the players in the room, it stands in stark contrast to what actually happened and comes across as him gaslighting the fans watching the game. You cannot have watched last night’s game and say that the effort was there. It wasn’t.
Just like after the team’s 5–1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres, he commented that the team “let up a little bit, whether it was confidence or emotion. We just didn’t have the same jump we had starting the game.” While he did comment that the defence did struggle in that game, he refused to point to it as part of a larger trend, saying, “Unfortunately, I’m not seeing a pattern“. It was so disconnected from reality, and the comments rightly went viral for all of the wrong reasons.
Knoblauch may be standing up and protecting the team, but the reality is that it reads as tone-deaf and weak-willed. It’s understandable when it happens once or twice, but when it happens after multiple bad losses, particularly in a big rivalry game against the Panthers, it comes across as denial.
What’s at stake for the Oilers?
This team needs a hot streak going into the playoffs, and with 12 games left in the season, the team is struggling to put three wins together. A struggle they have had all season long – they’re 1–9–2 after two wins in a row. Currently, they are one point behind the Anaheim Ducks for first and one point ahead of Vegas for third in the Pacific. The Los Angeles Kings are five points back of Edmonton with two games in hand. The Seattle Kraken, Nashville Predators, and San Jose Sharks are all still in the hunt with games in hand. This could go any way depending on how the teams do.
This is not a moment for careful language- it’s a time to motivate the team and push them to be even better than they have been this season. It’s time to show the fanbase that this team has what it takes to get over the hump and win it all. Knoblauch has been too passive in front of the media this year. This team needs a change in production, and it starts with a change in tone from coach Kris Knoblauch.
