Sunday Scramble: Connor McDavid\u2019s frustration, the \u2018pillow fight\u2019 Pacific Division, and the NHL\u2019s playoff format delusion<\/p>\n
Connor McDavid<\/a> 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<\/a> would want to be, and they got to see it in their 5-2 loss<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019s top line of Anthony Cirelli, Brandon Hagel, and Nikita Kucherov.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Connor McDavid gets hammered on one end of the ice, and on the other end, Nikita Kucherov scores to give the Lightning a 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcf9: Sportsnet <\/p>\n I believe Connor McDavid is a man who wants to play winning hockey. I believe his Players Tribune piece<\/a>. This was not a good night for him, and he knows it. He looked like a man who\u2019s carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders when addressing the media<\/a> Saturday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey got a great system. They\u2019re perfectly coached. They all know what they\u2019re doing all over the ice. It\u2019s impressive. They are a great team,\u201d said McDavid, who is overtly complimentary to an opposition team.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re extremely well coached, they\u2019re extremely well organized. They\u2019re very, very rehearsed in everything that they do. It\u2019s very impressive, and when you do break them down, they got a heck of a goalie to backstop them.\u201d<\/p>\n The quote that leads to questions and speculation is the follow up about how the Oilers get to where the Lightning are at.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a coaching question. You can ask Knobber that question. Obviously, we\u2019ve been playing together a long time, and we feel like we\u2019re somewhat rehearsed and organized, but not to their level.\u201d<\/p>\n Knoblauch was asked<\/a> whether he thought that level of organization and rehearsal was lacking from their game, compared to the last couple of seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think so. I think we\u2019re an organization that\u2019s fine. We\u2019ve got a lot of new players with the injuries that we have. We have some turnover,\u201d said Knoblauch.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve 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\u2019re playing well, but they\u2019ve got a lot of good players,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Something is wrongI 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\u2019s quotes<\/a> heading into the Olympic break, where he said the coaching and team overall have to be better.\u00a0<\/p>\n McDavid just spent a couple of weeks with Cooper in Milano and then played a game where they outplayed the Oilers and his line.<\/p>\n He\u2019s frustrated. He\u2019s trying to do it all.<\/p>\n But bringing up the coaching isn\u2019t nothing, either.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The blender<\/p>\n There\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n But with three players in the lineup who haven\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n The Oilers changed the lines after the victory over the Sharks on Tuesday for the Panthers game. The Oilers changed the lines for Friday\u2019s practice<\/a>.\u00a0Then, before the game on Saturday, the lines changed again.<\/p>\n The @EdmontonOilers<\/a> warm-up:<\/p>\n RNH-McDavid-Hyman Ekholm-Bouchard Ingram<\/p>\n Knoblauch stressed the importance of puck touches<\/a>, as well as the power play, after Friday\u2019s 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<\/a>, 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019ll have that opportunity.<\/p>\n But is it used enough? Is 15 minutes the Dickinson sweet spot?<\/p>\n Power play adjustment<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Being as flawed as they are, they need the power play to click.\u00a0<\/p>\n Jack Roslovic needs the chance on the right flank. He\u2019s a shoot-first option for a group that needs a shooter.\u00a0Savoie has played well since the Olympic break, but with what the Oilers need from their power play, I believe Roslovic\u2019s skill set is best suited to fill the void.\u00a0<\/p>\n On a team with a non-existent second unit, Roslovic has three power play goals this season. I\u2019d make this switch.\u00a0<\/p>\n Leave it to McDavid to sum up the situation.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously we\u2019re fortunate to play in this division,\u201d he said. \u201cA lot of teams are fortunate to play in this division. It\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Since I wrote about the Sharks surging up the NHL standings in last week\u2019s column<\/a>, 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 \u201cBest of the Rest.\u201d They\u2019ll face the Buffalo Sabres tonight.<\/p>\n Seven of the team\u2019s last 11 games are against the Pacific Division. Flawed they are, the whole group is flawed.<\/p>\n Pillow Fight Division this week: 6-12-2 <\/p>\n #LetsGoOilers<\/a> #NHL<\/a><\/p>\n “Obviously, we’re fortunate to play in this division.” <\/p>\n Connor McDavid, when asked about the Oilers not losing any ground in the division after their loss tonight.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udcf9: @EdmontonOilers <\/p>\n Oilers record this week: 2-2Oilers home record in 2026: 8-9-1Record vs Pacific: 10-5-3Away vs Utah Mammoth on TuesdayAway vs Vegas Golden Knights on ThursdayHome vs Anaheim Ducks on SaturdayBettman defiant on playoff formatTremendous news out of the general manager meetings<\/a> this week, everything is going great.\u00a0The playoff format is working, the Department of Player Safety is doing its job, the salary cap is going up.\u00a0<\/p>\n I kid, of course.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m an advocate<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Commissioner Gary Bettman doesn\u2019t see an issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt gives us a sensational first round, probably the best playoff first round in any sport,\u201d said Bettman. \u201cWe 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, \u2018Well, I\u2019d like it to be different that year.\u2019 But if you look at the body of work that our playoffs represent over time, what we have now works extraordinarily well.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n The first round is great because the instant leap from regular season player performance to playoffs is great. It isn\u2019t because the Oilers and Kings have played four straight years.\u00a0<\/p>\n Hockey is a game of randomness, much more than basketball or football. It\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Obviously, as Wild GM Bill Guerin knows, no matchup guarantees a series. That\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no perfect system, but in my opinion, the second-best team in the league shouldn\u2019t be playing the third-best team in the league in the first round,\u201d said Guerin.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other years, it was the Atlantic Division. Heck, it could even be the paltry Pacific Division in two years.\u00a0Who knows. But the Utah Mammoth, sitting in the top wild-card spot, must be laughing.\u00a0<\/p>\n Conversely, the 3-2-1 point system folks are growing on me. I bet you\u2019d never guess that the Edmonton Oilers have more regulation wins than the Minnesota Wild.<\/p>\n Hughes looks silly<\/p>\n Since Jack Hughes scored the gold medal-winning goal, the United States has only reinforced stereotypes of the \u201cignorant American.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n 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\u2019s tremendous victory itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n There was one last gasp this week, when the hero in Hughes called it \u201cbulls***\u201d that he doesn\u2019t have the game-winning puck.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m trying to get it. Like, that\u2019s bulls*** that the Hockey Hall of Fame has it, in my opinion. Why would they have that puck?\u201d he told ESPN\u2019s Greg Wyshynski, saying he wanted to give it to his dad.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t see why Megan Keller or I shouldn\u2019t have those pucks,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n The hot-take Sports Industrial Complex in the United States latched onto the story, with full-throated opinions<\/a> from voices you rarely hear discuss hockey, and making the issue about nationalism.\u00a0<\/p>\n How dare the Hockey Hall of Fame, which is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, hold a historical hockey artifact!\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019m not trying to gatekeep, but did he actually expect to keep the puck?\u00a0Maybe in Canada, we\u2019ve just become too familiar with the protocol of certain historical artifacts, like Sidney Crosby\u2019s overtime puck from the 2010 game.<\/p>\n \u201cUnfortunately, in the easiest words, it was never Jack\u2019s puck to own,\u201d Philip Pritchard, vice-president of the resource centre and curator for the Hockey Hall of Fame, replied.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ouch.\u00a0<\/p>\n Since the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, the International Ice Hockey Federation has made a habit of donating artifacts to the Hall.\u00a0Hughes then showed off his great technique and pivoted in an about-face later.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like the most special place in hockey,\u201d said Hughes<\/a>, per Wyshynski. \u201cSo yeah, I\u2019m honoured that it\u2019s there. Obviously, I think things were taken crazy (this week). That\u2019s just the way I felt.\u201d<\/p>\n I won\u2019t vilify Hughes, as he isn\u2019t the first one to ask the Hall for memorabilia. On the other hand, it\u2019s a bad look.<\/p>\n Equipment capersAfter Crosby\u2019s 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>.\u00a0A week later, Hockey Canada said<\/a> 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n Crosby\u2019s 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..\u00a0<\/p>\n In terms of NHL mysteries, it\u2019s still unknown<\/a> where Patrick Kane\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n A year later, it was shown that linesman Steve Miller had taken the puck out of the net. But he claimed he didn\u2019t remember what he did with it.\u00a0<\/p>\n The whole search included a $50,000 reward from a Chicago businessman, and the FBI was involved. But still, no dice.\u00a0<\/p>\n That series was full of puck controversy, as Flyers\u2019 defenceman Chris Pronger<\/a> took vulcanized rubber after Game 1 and 2 to try and get under the Blackhawks\u2019 skin.\u00a0QuicklyAlex 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\u00a0single\u00a0shift in the defensive zone<\/a>. Not one. It\u2019s 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<\/a> was still far too light. George Parros will have a major decision on Panthers\u2019 forward AJ Greer, who launched Connor Zary dangerously in the boards in the type of hit that wrecks a spinal column. To me, Greer\u2019s season should be over.<\/p>\n Connor Zary leaves the game following a hit from A.J. Greer<\/p>\n I would recommend Matt Larkin\u2019s \u201cStanley Cup Ingredients\u201d series on\u00a0Daily Faceoff<\/a>.\u00a0So 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<\/a> post-2005 lockout, as he sits tied for third at the moment. Johnny Gaudreau posted a plus-64 in 2021-22, while Flames\u2019 linemates Elias Lindholm (plus-61) and Matthew Tkachuk (plus-57) are right there at the top.Only one team heading into Saturday hadn\u2019t 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<\/a>, but it\u2019s nervy. However, the New York Islanders are being exploited.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n ARTICLE PRESENTED BY bet365<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday Scramble: Connor McDavid\u2019s frustration, the \u2018pillow fight\u2019 Pacific Division, and the NHL\u2019s playoff format delusion Connor McDavid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752],"class_list":{"0":"post-554915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nPodkolzin-Dickinson-Kapanen
\nSavoie-Samanski-Roslovic
\nJones-Henrique-Jarventie<\/p>\n
\nNurse-Murphy
\nWalman-Emberson<\/p>\n
\nANA 2-0-1
\nEDM 2-2
\nLA 1-1-1
\nSEA 1-3
\nVGK 0-3
\nSJ 0-4 <\/p>\n