Hello, Oilersnation! My name is Arun Srinivasan, and I’m the managing editor at The Leafs Nation. I’m here writing from the Scotiabank Arena basement ahead of tonight’s game between the Oilers and Maple Leafs. These contests tend to produce some spectacular highlights and good banter between both fan bases.

Before the puck drops, I’m here to provide an outsider’s view on the 2025-26 Oilers. Hockey imitates life, and things often aren’t as dire as they seem to be.

I’m not here to rain on anyone’s parade, but in retrospect: was Stuart Skinner really that awful? Skinner is in the rearview now, I’m sure, after the Oilers acquired Tristan Jarry (and Samuel Poulin) from the Pittsburgh Penguins in exchange for Skinner, Brett Kulak and a 2029 second-round pick. Conventional thinking suggested that the Oilers required a much-needed upgrade in goal, but I’m not sure if Jarry constitutes a major change.

Skinner has saved 6.9 goals above expected at 5-on-5 via MoneyPuck, the 24th-best total in the NHL. Jarry ranks 17th, with 9.8 goals saved above expected, and considering that it’s a cumulative stat, it’s clear that he’s been the superior goalie this season. In a vacuum, Skinner isn’t an awful goaltender, or anything close to what his popular reputation suggests. When you’re two games away from lifting the Stanley Cup, is your starting goaltender detrimental to the cause?

Edmonton typically starts the season slowly, before catching fire when the new calendar year begins. I don’t think the sky is falling, for a hyper-talented offensive cohort that has won the Western Conference in consecutive seasons. And while Jarry constitutes an update, is he the differentiating piece between the Oilers winning the Cup and losing? Skinner appeared to be a popular scapegoat for the Oilers running into tour-de-force performances from Sergei Bobrovsky and Gustav Forsling in consecutive years. This is the same franchise that turned their backup goaltender into the 1990 Conn Smythe Trophy winner, which is a different era, of course, and if Jarry lifts the Cup, this entire passage will look silly. Time will tell if Skinner was holding the Oilers’ back from their championship ceiling.

Although the Maple Leafs’ gap control and exits have improved over the past two weeks (in large part due to Troy Stecher!) they started the year as the NHL’s worst defensive team. All of this to say that we’re keenly aware of what poor individual defence looks like, and Evan Bouchard’s woes appear to be greatly exaggerated.

Bouchard is sporting a plus-two at 5-on-5, while the Oilers control just under 52 percent of the expected goals at 5-on-5 when he’s on the ice, via Natural Stat Trick. This isn’t Cale Makar or Adam Fox territory, but the idea that the Oilers are submersed in defensive chaos when he takes the ice appears to be the byproduct of frustration from a fan base firmly in win-now mode. Bouchard is the type of player the Leafs, and 30 others teams (I’m excluding the juggernaut Avalanche) would salivate over, if he ever were made available.

Some of the Bouchard discourse stems from the corrosive Olympics fallacy: virtually every young, ascendant players’ season will be contextualized in the arena of whether they’re a candidate for their national team. Who cares! Team Canada will roll out an all-star team, Bouchard ought to be in contention and pointing to his giveaway-turnover ratio, while ignoring that it’s a function of a high-volume offensive player transporting pucks, seems like a disservice to Bouchard. Lifestyles of the rich and famous, baby! If you guys don’t want Evan Bouchard and can’t live with his defensive mistakes, see how the open market reacts!

There’s a natural inclination to write about McDavid, and a potential homecoming. While I’m tempted to join my comrades from Leafs Morning Take in teasing Oilers Nation about McDavid inevitably coming back to Toronto after his contract expires, that’s not where I’m going with this, I promise! I was fascinated by the notion of McDavid in decline, as a study on the cruel passage of time.

McDavid has been the subject of national attention since he was a kid, and I was there for the early stages of it! Dave Feschuk of the Toronto Star wrote an editorial about McDavid midway through his final minor hockey season, and he exploded during the second half of the campaign. Watching the OHL Cup, McDavid displayed NHL-ready skating ability and puck skills as a 15-year-old. And it’s remarkable to think that was half a lifetime ago for the Oilers’ captain.

If this is what constitutes a decline for McDavid, Oilers fans ought to be thrilled. McDavid perhaps isn’t at his apex, but a slight decline for the transcendent star often seems to be a rounding error. McDavid’s scrum drew the largest throng of reporters that we’ve encountered this season, and even if he isn’t the clear-cut best player in the world, at worst, he’s the third-best player in the NHL. and will be for at least another six years. It’s also somewhat frightening to consider that McDavid is turning 29 in January and should be subject to the mid-career LeBron James treatment: win a ring, and then you enter the pantheon. It’s the only real blemish on his career thus far.

Maybe this is an elongated way of saying we’re getting old, even if we’re young at heart at The Nation Network! It’s remarkable to think that McDavid could be on the downswing of a transcendent career, which has been covered extensively since he was 14 years old. Time is cruel. Let’s enjoy some great hockey tonight, get pucks in deep. Thank you for having me!

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