The Edmonton Oilers made their bed and now they get to lie in it.
This mess wasn’t all made by general manager Stan Bowman but it’s his job to clean it up — and quickly.
Thursday night saw the Oilers extend this losing streak to five games, their longest since they dropped seven straight between Dec. 29, 2021 and Jan. 20, 2022, thanks to another lifeless performance on their road trip from hell. It came with the Oilers unable to find that extra gear in the third period after being tied at 2 through two, reminiscent of Game 7 when the Oilers needed a goal to stay alive against these same Florida Panthers in the same rink.
About everything that could go wrong for the Oilers is these days.
The face of the franchise, Connor McDavid, looks like a shell of himself right now. Everybody not named Leon Draisaitl in the top-six seems allergic to scoring, while the rest of the forward group look like deer in headlights every time they have a chance to shoot the puck.
The bottom-six, meanwhile, looks old, slow and outmatched, incapable of driving play. The coaching staff has shuffled the lineup more often than a Blackjack dealer in Vegas, hoping he somehow hits a 21, instead walking out with a light wallet. Disappointing newcomers and re-signed pending free agents haven’t helped, either.
The blue line is making mistake after mistake all the while their No. 1 goaltender, Stuart Skinner, is talking about how great he feels despite posting a 2-6-1 record, .887 save percentage and a 3.44 goals against average in his last 10 starts.
Paging Mr. Bowman. It’s time to take the gloves off. No more Mr. Nice Guy ahead of next Friday’s trade deadline.
He has seven days to do what he can to give this team a punch in the arm they clearly are asking for. It’s not going to be easy, but when is it ever?
The Oilers are handcuffed by Evander Kane, with more questions than answers about his status recovering from abdominal surgery he underwent in September and knee surgery in January. Will he be back in the regular season? Will he be unable to play until the playoffs? Those are questions management is still asking.
If he’s back this regular season, the team won’t be able to dip into the $5.125-million LTIR Pool they otherwise could if Kane’s out until the playoffs. But even if Kane is to return in the regular season, that can’t be an excuse for the team to sit on their hands and only nibble around the edge of the trade market.
The Oilers need to be aggressive in the trade market, full stop, and if that means trading away some of the players they brought in this summer, then so be it. Viktor Arvidsson, Adam Henrique, Jeff Skinner, Mattias Janmark and John Klingberg should all pack light over the week, because if the Oilers need to clear some salary from their books they’re all viable candidates to be moved.
Bowman can’t be concerned about hurting feelings, and that should be easy given the only one of that aforementioned bunch wasn’t signed by Jeff Jackson last summer.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.
