Last night’s game against the New Jersey Devils was a tough one for the Edmonton Oilers, which meant an irritated cast on the Tuesday episode of Oilersnation Radio. On today’s podcast, we looked at Connor McDavid’s recovery, Monday’s shutout loss to the Devils, a minor-league trade, and more.

We started the Tuesday podcast with a delicious debate about the letter grade everyone would give the Oilers after three games without Connor McDavid in the lineup. With a 2-1-0 record without their captain, the fellas gave their notes on what’s been happening over the last three games and why they assigned the grades they did.

Changing gears, the conversation turned toward the Oilers’ special teams and how they’re losing games because of areas where they’ve been solid historically. Put another way, if ever you were going to make a list of the issues the Oilers might have during the 2024-25 season, there’s no way anyone would have included the power play.

Getting into the news from the week, we started with a discussion about when Connor McDavid will return to the lineup after being cryptic about whether or not he’ll be available for Saturday’s game in Vancouver. Is McDavid coming back the reason that the team loaned Drake Caggiula to the Condors? If McDavid does come back for Saturday’s game, does that mean Derek Ryan might hit the waiver wire?

Finally, we wrapped up the Tuesday episode of ONR by looking ahead to tomorrow’s matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights. One of the weirder things about Vegas’ season is that they’re currently undefeated at home but have yet to win on the road. It’s one of the stranger stats you will ever hear, but the goal of the podcast is not just to entertain but also to teach the audience a few things from time to time.