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Sunday Scramble: Connor McDavid’s frustration, the ‘pillow fight’ Pacific Division, and the NHL’s playoff format delusion
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Photo credit: Perry Nelson-Imagn Images
Michael Menzies
Mar 22, 2026, 15:00 EDTUpdated: Mar 22, 2026, 14:11 EDT
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Connor McDavid looked especially crestfallen post-game after the loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.
The Tampa Bay Lightning are everything the Edmonton Oilers would want to be, and they got to see it in their 5-2 loss. 
Despite scoring the 399th goal of his career, now two points away from 1,200, it was a frustrating game for the captain. He and his linemates were minus-3, often out against the Lightning’s top line of Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel, and Nikita Kucherov. 
After a five-on-three power play expired, he got blasted by Emil Lilleberg. That led to a long stretch pass to Nikita Kucherov for his first career short-handed goal. It made the game 3-1 and was the cushion the Lightning needed, after Evan Bouchard rang the crossbar moments before.
I believe Connor McDavid is a man who wants to play winning hockey. I believe his Players Tribune piece. This was not a good night for him, and he knows it. He looked like a man who’s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders when addressing the media Saturday night. 
“They got a great system. They’re perfectly coached. They all know what they’re doing all over the ice. It’s impressive. They are a great team,” said McDavid, who is overtly complimentary to an opposition team. 
“They’re extremely well coached, they’re extremely well organized. They’re very, very rehearsed in everything that they do. It’s very impressive, and when you do break them down, they got a heck of a goalie to backstop them.”
The quote that leads to questions and speculation is the follow up about how the Oilers get to where the Lightning are at. 
“That’s a coaching question. You can ask Knobber that question. Obviously, we’ve been playing together a long time, and we feel like we’re somewhat rehearsed and organized, but not to their level.”
Knoblauch was asked whether he thought that level of organization and rehearsal was lacking from their game, compared to the last couple of seasons. 
“I don’t think so. I think we’re an organization that’s fine. We’ve got a lot of new players with the injuries that we have. We have some turnover,” said Knoblauch. 
“They’ve been together for a long time that group, our core guys have been together a long time too. When things are going well, it looks organized, they’re playing well, but they’ve got a lot of good players,” he said. 

Something is wrong

I read these McDavid quotes more as envy of Jon Cooper, likely the best coach in the NHL, than a diss at Kris Knoblauch. At least, I see it as less critical than Draisaitl’s quotes heading into the Olympic break, where he said the coaching and team overall have to be better. 
McDavid just spent a couple of weeks with Cooper in Milano and then played a game where they outplayed the Oilers and his line.
He’s frustrated. He’s trying to do it all.
But bringing up the coaching isn’t nothing, either.
Something is wrong here. The Oilers are a baffling team, a bit of tease. They played better than I expected overall against Tampa, but their special teams let them down.

The blender

How often can Knoblauch keep changing the lines with Draisaitl out? 
There’s safety with McDavid and Draisaitl through the middle, creating a variety of looks with different wingers. The line blending is more defensible because those two players create a line on their own.
But with three players in the lineup who haven’t been with the team for most of the season in Max Jones, Josh Samanski, and Roby Jarventie, two of which are NHL pups, it seems like stability is needed.
The Oilers changed the lines after the victory over the Sharks on Tuesday for the Panthers game. The Oilers changed the lines for Friday’s practice. Then, before the game on Saturday, the lines changed again.
Knoblauch stressed the importance of puck touches, as well as the power play, after Friday’s practice. The thing is, the lines on Saturday worked, except the top line of Nugent Hopkins reunited with McDavid and Hyman.
Jason Dickinson with Vasily Podkolzin and Kasperi Kapanen was a great line, outchancing the opponent 7-3 at even strength, and playing an expected goal percentage of 86.48 per cent. They worked against the Tampa top line.
Stan Bowman and Kris Knoblauch both said post-deadline that the acquisition of Dickinson gave them the ability to play more matchups. At home games, they’ll have that opportunity.
But is it used enough? Is 15 minutes the Dickinson sweet spot?

Power play adjustment

In the three-and-three-quarter games without Leon Draisaitl, which include the three chances against Nashville after his exit, the Oilers are one-for-12 on the power play. 
Being as flawed as they are, they need the power play to click. 
Jack Roslovic needs the chance on the right flank. He’s a shoot-first option for a group that needs a shooter. Savoie has played well since the Olympic break, but with what the Oilers need from their power play, I believe Roslovic’s skill set is best suited to fill the void. 
On a team with a non-existent second unit, Roslovic has three power play goals this season. I’d make this switch. 

‘Pillow fight’ division

Leave it to McDavid to sum up the situation.
“Obviously we’re fortunate to play in this division,” he said. “A lot of teams are fortunate to play in this division. It’s a bit of a pillow fight right now. Thankful to have not lost any ground, but we gotta find a way to win some on the road.”
Since I wrote about the Sharks surging up the NHL standings in last week’s column, they went 0-4 this week, losing by a combined score of 21-8. The Vegas Golden Knights lost all three games this week and scored just once. The Seattle Kraken started with a Sunday victory over Florida, then lost three straight. In comparison, the Kings went 1-1-1 and will face the Utah Mammoth on Sunday. The Anaheim Ducks went 2-0-1 and sit as the “Best of the Rest.” They’ll face the Buffalo Sabres tonight.
Seven of the team’s last 11 games are against the Pacific Division. Flawed they are, the whole group is flawed.
  • Oilers record this week: 2-2
  • Oilers home record in 2026: 8-9-1
  • Record vs Pacific: 10-5-3
This week: 
  • Away vs Utah Mammoth on Tuesday
  • Away vs Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday
  • Home vs Anaheim Ducks on Saturday

Bettman defiant on playoff format

Tremendous news out of the general manager meetings this week, everything is going great. The playoff format is working, the Department of Player Safety is doing its job, the salary cap is going up. 
I kid, of course. 
I’m an advocate for the return of 1-8 conference seedings, with the top two spots reserved for divisional winners. The current format allows too often for the situation about to happen where two top-five teams in the NHL will play head-to-head in the first round, with Minnesota heading to Dallas, most likely. 
Commissioner Gary Bettman doesn’t see an issue. 
“It gives us a sensational first round, probably the best playoff first round in any sport,” said Bettman. “We get more games and longer series as a result of the format, and you can always pick at certain situations in any given year and say, ‘Well, I’d like it to be different that year.’ But if you look at the body of work that our playoffs represent over time, what we have now works extraordinarily well.”
The quote smacks of Bettman not trusting his product. The NHL first round being great entertainment pre-dates the 2013-14 season, the year this current format was adopted, and still enabled massive, exciting upsets and compelling rivalries. 
The first round is great because the instant leap from regular season player performance to playoffs is great. It isn’t because the Oilers and Kings have played four straight years. 
Hockey is a game of randomness, much more than basketball or football. It’s hard to win, and over the course of an 82-game regular season, the league does not reward great regular season teams enough for their success over a large sample size. 
Obviously, as Wild GM Bill Guerin knows, no matchup guarantees a series. That’s not the point. The point is to try and get an accurate and fair seeding based on an 82-game, soon-to-be-84-game schedule. 
“There’s no perfect system, but in my opinion, the second-best team in the league shouldn’t be playing the third-best team in the league in the first round,” said Guerin. 
Other years, it was the Atlantic Division. Heck, it could even be the paltry Pacific Division in two years. Who knows. But the Utah Mammoth, sitting in the top wild-card spot, must be laughing. 
Conversely, the 3-2-1 point system folks are growing on me. I bet you’d never guess that the Edmonton Oilers have more regulation wins than the Minnesota Wild.

Hughes looks silly

Since Jack Hughes scored the gold medal-winning goal, the United States has only reinforced stereotypes of the “ignorant American.” 
From the bizarre scenes of FBI Director Kash Patel celebrating in the locker room, to anything and everything President Donald Trump-related, the aftermath of the game has almost become a bigger story than the U.S’s tremendous victory itself. 
There was one last gasp this week, when the hero in Hughes called it “bulls***” that he doesn’t have the game-winning puck. 
“I’m trying to get it. Like, that’s bulls*** that the Hockey Hall of Fame has it, in my opinion. Why would they have that puck?” he told ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski, saying he wanted to give it to his dad.  “I don’t see why Megan Keller or I shouldn’t have those pucks,” he added.
The hot-take Sports Industrial Complex in the United States latched onto the story, with full-throated opinions from voices you rarely hear discuss hockey, and making the issue about nationalism. 
How dare the Hockey Hall of Fame, which is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, hold a historical hockey artifact! 
I’m not trying to gatekeep, but did he actually expect to keep the puck? Maybe in Canada, we’ve just become too familiar with the protocol of certain historical artifacts, like Sidney Crosby’s overtime puck from the 2010 game.
“Unfortunately, in the easiest words, it was never Jack’s puck to own,” Philip Pritchard, vice-president of the resource centre and curator for the Hockey Hall of Fame, replied. 
Ouch. 
Since the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, the International Ice Hockey Federation has made a habit of donating artifacts to the Hall. Hughes then showed off his great technique and pivoted in an about-face later.   
“It’s like the most special place in hockey,” said Hughes, per Wyshynski. “So yeah, I’m honoured that it’s there. Obviously, I think things were taken crazy (this week). That’s just the way I felt.”
I won’t vilify Hughes, as he isn’t the first one to ask the Hall for memorabilia. On the other hand, it’s a bad look.

Equipment capers

After Crosby’s golden goal in 2010, he launched his stick and gloves up into the air in ecstasy. In packing up the gear, officials discovered that the equipment was gone. 
A week later, Hockey Canada said they found the stick and glove, as Patrice Bergeron accidentally packed one of the gloves. The story always seemed a bit suspicious to me, but has been quickly forgotten. 
Crosby’s gear disappeared after the 2005 world juniors in Grand Forks, N.D., as well, and was later found in a mailbox outside a post office in Lachute, Que.. 
In terms of NHL mysteries, it’s still unknown where Patrick Kane’s Stanley Cup-winning puck from the 2010 Final is. The overtime winner was stuck in the twine at the back of the net, and the instant reaction of celebration was muted for multiple seconds before everyone realized he scored to end the Chicago Blackhawks 49-year drought. 
A year later, it was shown that linesman Steve Miller had taken the puck out of the net. But he claimed he didn’t remember what he did with it. 
The whole search included a $50,000 reward from a Chicago businessman, and the FBI was involved. But still, no dice. 
That series was full of puck controversy, as Flyers’ defenceman Chris Pronger took vulcanized rubber after Game 1 and 2 to try and get under the Blackhawks’ skin. 

Quickly

  • Alex Ovechkin is threatening to achieve something that might rival his goal-scoring record. Throughout the entirety of the 2025-26 season, he has not started a single shift in the defensive zone. Not one. It’s an anomaly unlike any I can remember. Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery knows where his bread is buttered. Ovechkin has 25 goals this year while not dealing with that pesky zone.
  • The Department of Player Safety took some abuse from Hurricanes GM Eric Tulsky at the meetings. Good on Tulsky. I thought the Radko Gudas suspension was still far too light. George Parros will have a major decision on Panthers’ forward AJ Greer, who launched Connor Zary dangerously in the boards in the type of hit that wrecks a spinal column. To me, Greer’s season should be over.
  • I would recommend Matt Larkin’s “Stanley Cup Ingredients” series on Daily Faceoff. So far in his estimation, size is a tad overrated, scoring depth is more important than elite scorers, and top-10 quality goaltending still correlates strong to lifting the Stanley Cup.
  • Nathan MacKinnon leads the NHL this season in plus-minus, with a staggering plus-57. He has a chance to earn the highest plus-minus post-2005 lockout, as he sits tied for third at the moment. Johnny Gaudreau posted a plus-64 in 2021-22, while Flames’ linemates Elias Lindholm (plus-61) and Matthew Tkachuk (plus-57) are right there at the top.
  • Only one team heading into Saturday hadn’t lost in regulation in their last 10 games: the Columbus Blue Jackets.
  • The Detroit Red Wings playoff participation is starting to become in doubt. They still have a 73 per cent chance, according to Moneypuck, but it’s nervy. However, the New York Islanders are being exploited.
Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and has been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, he also collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4.

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