TSN: Ryan Rishaug when asked what else the Edmonton Oilers can do to turn their season around. GM Ken Holland needs to do something.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Jennifer Hedger: “Oilers reporter Ryan Rishaug, and Ryan I guess Oilers are gonna have to start getting creative. They’ve already waived their goaltender Jack Campbell. They’ve already made a change behind the bench. They’ve reunited Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. What else can this team do to try and turn things around?
Rishaug: “Yeah, well let’s, let’s point some fingers and see if we can figure out some solutions right. For the players. I mean, they just haven’t been good enough. Flat out not enough players on this team have been anywhere near the top end of their game. Their confidence, a lot of them is completely shot, the frustration level continues to grow.
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But there’s no white knight riding on a horse to save this group. They’ve got to find it in that room. Once again, night just for them to be in the situation they’re in and come out and start the game the way they did, and play the first couple of periods the way they did. It’s just it’s mind-numbing that a team so many thought was a Stanley Cup contender can be this far down the rabbit hole and completely lost and without solutions. They have to keep grinding.
Now let’s take it upstairs to management. Ken Holland’s gonna have to do something right? Waiving a goalie, letting a coach go, a couple of moves there for sure but he’s gonna have to do something to change the dynamic in the locker room even more, right?
Whether it’s bringing in a depth player. Just bringing in a different face, swapping some things out. Yes, the cap situation is tough, and yes fellow GMs are only handing him boat anchors I’m sure and not solutions, but sitting on your hands while you’re Stanley Cup contending, apparently, team is languishing like this. Doing nothing through this would be fireable, quite frankly. So Ken Holland and his staff are gonna have to figure out a way to try and elicit some different results by shaking things up even further.
Hedger: “Well, disastrous as this start has been, there is still a lot of hockey to play. As bad as this team has looked, you look back to last season and the Oilers were among the NHL best teams after American Thanksgiving. They went 40-13-9. Now, in order to make the playoffs this season the Oil are likely going to have to go in a similar run. Is that something that you believe they’re capable of at this point?
Rishaug: “Well, I mean, if history is any indication, yes. I mean, this team with mostly these core players, Jenn, was one of the best, if not the best in the league from the trade deadline in last year.
So yeah, it’s in there somewhere but good luck finding it, because we have not seen it at all this year. So it’s all completely lost. And is it a total write off? No, we’ve seen what this team can do but they’re a shadow of themselves right now.
That whole Thanksgiving stat, that they’re just gonna have to put that out of their minds, right? We do know how much better this team can be than what they’ve been so far. And I think for Oiler fans, that should give them some hope. It hasn’t even been close yet. And Jenn, if it starts to be close, maybe they’ll make a fight out of this thing. Or maybe not.
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Hedger: “They can only win one game at a time they will get their next opportunity to get that win on Friday afternoon against the Washington Capitals. Thank you, Ryan.