Leon Draisaitl didn’t call anyone out. He didn’t rip anyone. He simply told the harsh truth about the current state of the Edmonton Oilers.

Draisaitl wasn’t yelling or angry in his post-game scrum after another disappointing loss, the third this season, to the Calgary Flames. Draisaitl just spoke the truth, and he did it how a leader should. He included everyone: coaches, skaters, leaders and goalies. But if you read social media, you’d think Draisaitl had torn a strip off his teammates and insulted their families. The overreaction to Draisaitl’s comments, while not surprising due to the time we live in, was over the top and inaccurate.

Draisaitl acted like a leader. He was blunt and direct in his post-game assessment of the entire team, because if the Oilers are going to go on another long playoff run, they need to coach better, play better defence and play better in goal.

“We are just giving up too many goals. Can’t defend. The penalty kill is not great, and there are many things that are a part of it. Just not good enough right now,” said Draisaitl.

Tristan Jarry spoke before Draisaitl, and he said he needed to be better. He does. He made some key stops on breakaways, but then he let in two goals he should have stopped. The Oilers need to limit the high-danger chances, and Jarry needs to reduce weak goals.

Draisaitl was honest about Jarry’s comment on how he needs to make more saves.

“It goes hand in hand,” began Draisaitl. “We have to defend better, we have to make it easier on him and then, I’m sure, he can be at little bit better too. It is a two-way street, and it starts with us in front of him and then the game becomes a bit easier for him. I think there are saves our goalies need to make at some point.”

That isn’t calling out Jarry or Connor Ingram. It is simply stating a fact. The players need to be much better in front of the goalie, and there are shots the goalies need to stop. Both can be true at the same time.

Draisaitl was asked if they’ve reached the point where they should be concerned.

“We’re not consistent enough,” Draisaitl said. “This league’s too hard to just lollygag through games and try to get winning streaks going. You need everybody. It starts with coaches. Everybody. You’re never going to win if you have four or five guys going. It starts at the top. We can be better; our leaders can be better.”

Bingo. It isn’t just the goalie. It isn’t just one defence pair, or the bottom six. It is all four lines, three defence pairs, both goalies and the coaching staff. None of them have been consistent enough.

Draisaitl doesn’t believe they can just rest on past experiences to get through this.

“We’re a different team. We’re not the same team. We’re not as good right now. We’re not even close, and we need to understand that. When we come back (from the break) we have to get going,” said one of Germany’s flag bearers for the 2026 Olympics.

When Draisaitl mentioned it starts with the coaches, some quickly jumped to that meaning Kris Knoblauch is on the hot seat. I don’t see that. He needs to take the three-week break and come up with a different approach, but so do the players. Here’s what I see as some things that need to improve.

Knoblauch needs to stop loading up Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. It is not working like it has in the past, and it makes Edmonton an easier team to play against. The team is better when those two are on their own lines, so outside of the shift after a penalty kill, keep them on their own lines. Stop going to the nuclear option full-time in the first and second periods. It hasn’t worked and in fact it weakens your team this season.

Draisaitl is +9 at 5×5 away from McDavid, while when those two play together, they are only +1. The coach needs to stop playing them together early in games (outside of the shift after a penalty kill). It makes it much easier on the opposition. When they are on separate lines, the opposition needs two lines that the coach feels can contain them, but they only need one when you load them up. I understand the urge to want to play them together, but Knoblauch needs to fight the urge to go to them so early in games.

The penalty kill is a wild story. It was very consistent up until 10 days ago.

In October and November (26 GP) it was 80.6 per cent.
Then in their next 27 games they killed penalties at an 81.1 per cent clip.

The PK was ranked 10th in the NHL through their first 53 games at 80.8 per cent.

But then it imploded in their last five games before the Olympic break.

Anaheim went 3-for-4 on the power play. Two of the goals were due to weak clearing attempts that the Ducks scored on right after.

San Jose went 0-for-2.

Minnesota was 2-for-3. They scored their first on a stretch pass from Quinn Hughes inside his own blueline to Joel Eriksson-Ek at the Oilers blueline.

Toronto was 2-for-2. One was a 5-on-3 goal and the other the Oilers allowed a pass through the seam from the high left point to low right circle.

Calgary was 2-for-3. They too scored on a stretch pass, this time to the outside of Jake Walman.

For 53 games, the PK was working well, but it cratered in four games allowing nine goals on 12 chances. Each of the past few seasons, the Oilers have had a stretch where the penalty kill was horrific. Last season through the first 15 games the PK was an abysmal 59 per cent allowing 16 goals on 39 kills. Then in the final 67 games the PK was 82.6 per cent allowing 29 goals on 167 kills. Last year they changed their PK after the awful start, but this season the PK was running smoothly until they got exposed on stretch passes, and some bad clears cost them. So, the coaches need to look at why they got exposed on stretch passes and fix it. The defence doesn’t need to be that high in the neutral zone on a regroup, or at least they should shoulder check to see if a forward is behind them. This doesn’t need to be a massive systemic fix. Just attention to details, which seems to be a theme among the players: They lack focus for stretches in specific areas of their game. It has happened for years, regardless of who is coaching them.

Edmonton struggles the most when they try to be too cute with the puck. Blind spin passes at the offensive blueline, high-risk passes through legs, lack of focus on pass attempts out of the zone. We’ve all seen this for the past decade. This is a player issue, not coaching. When the Oilers decide to manage the puck better, magically, their goals against go down.

This season illustrates accurately, again, their Jekyll and Hyde personas with the puck.

In their first 26 games, the Oilers ranked 30th in GA/GP at 3.58 — brutal, as they allowed 93 goals.

Then they decided to stop being fancy, and over their next 25 games there were tied for third lowest GA/GP at 2.56, allowing 64 goals.

But then they reverted back to playing loose, and the Oilers surrendered a league-worst 4.67 GA/GP in six games.

They went from allowing 64 goals in 25 games to giving up 24 in six games.

No team in the NHL can turn it on or off as quickly as the Oilers. This is 100 per cent mental. When they commit to playing smart, controlled hockey they are a good team, but when they don’t it is ugly.

Like the skaters, the goalies, mainly Tristan Jarry, need to play better.

“I think I could have made some more saves,” said Jarry after the loss in Calgary. “I think ultimately if I can keep that game at two (tied), we come out with a better outcome. I could have played better to start and that will happen moving forward.”

Jarry was asked if the defensive play in front of him makes it hard for him to find his game.

“No. It starts with me. I could be more accountable, and I can play better. If I play better, we will have better outcomes. It starts with me, and I have to be better moving forward,” said Jarry.

Jarry needs to be better, but so does the defensive coverage. If anyone thinks it is only the goalie who has been the issue lately, I have beachfront property in the River Valley to sell you.

Jarry made some big stops against the Flames, mainly on breakaways and odd-man rushes. If the Oilers continue to give up those types of chances, the goals against won’t go down. Jarry needed a save on the opening goal, but the Oilers still gave up too many high-quality chances.

Draisaitl was very accurate with his assessment of the goals against being a two-way street. Goalies can improve, but the play in front of them has too as well. He was correct in his overall view of the team.

Everyone, from coaches to superstars to defencemen and forwards, must be better. The Oilers have 12 days off before an optional practice at 2 p.m. on February 17th. The first non-optional practice is scheduled for Thursday, the 18th, except for players in the Olympics. When the team returns, the players and goalies need better focus, and the coaches need to make a few adjustments to help this team be more consistent.

The Oilers can’t afford to start slow coming out of the break. They need to be ready to compete right away. They play in Anaheim on February 25th, are in Los Angeles the next night and in San Jose for an afternoon game on Saturday the 28th. It is not an easy start with three games in four days.

The Oilers are four points out of first place, but they are also four points out of ninth place, and the Kings have two games in hand.

They’ve tended to struggle when returning from a break, but the coaches and players must ensure that doesn’t happen this time.

General Manager Stan Bowman needs to do his part as well. If the Oilers want to activate Adam Henrique for LTIR, they will need to make some roster moves. Josh Samanski likely goes down, as Calvin Pickard was already sent down, although he doesn’t have to report to Bakersfield until the 17th, at the earliest, but Bowman will need to send another player to the minors, or make a trade to activate Henrique.

And then Bowman will have until Friday, March 6th, at 1 p.m. MT to make a trade, or two, to bolster the roster. The L.A. Kings added Artemi Panarin, which improves their biggest weakness, scoring goals. The Kings should be better coming out of the break, and Seattle made a big pitch to acquire Panarin, so you know they are looking to improve as well. Bowman will have to respond, and I expect he will.

The next few weeks will be awesome watching best-on-best in Milan, and that will take us right into a 10-day frenzy leading up to the Trade Deadline.

Draisaitl ‘s comments shouldn’t be viewed as negative in any fashion. He outlined the truth about the team.

They will either improve as a team or lose as a team. They need everyone from management, to coaching to the players to do better and help them improve.