Oilers Criticized For Breaking Hockey Code After Slash to Stuart Skinner

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Liam McCormick
October 14, 2024 (1:46 PM)

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The Oilers are having a frustrating few games to begin the regular season, but last night they got beat by their biggest rival with no physical response.

Connor McDavid and the Oilers leaders called upon the group to have a better effort before the game, but still dropped a disappointing effort to a rebuilding Flames team - and then they got punked by Calgary. Captain Mikael Backlund laid a number of huge hits on star players last night, and even clearly slashed Stuart Skinner in the back of the leg. Backlund was running the Oilers all night, and Edmonton didn't have a single player get a shot back on him in response. It's hockey code that a player can't mess with a goaltender and leave without at least a face wash.

Edmonton lost a number of their younger and more physical players in the offseason, and are without Evander Kane who led the team in hits last season. Still, in a rivalry game and in desperate need of their first win on the year, some Oilers should've had more of a physical presence in the game.

Darnell Nurse and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are two players in particular who are expected to be leaders, but are not making any positive impact. Depth players like Vasily Podkolzin and Ty Emberson should be using their physicality as much as possible too. In the intermission last night, both Bob Stauffer and Jason Strudwick emphasized the Oilers needed to have a response.

Its understandable that the Oilers perhaps don't want to go looking for body checks when instead they can score a few goals to get back into the game, but you can have both. Being more physical everyone on the ice has benefits of wearing down the opponent, especially when they're also throwing the body.

Simply put, it doesn't send a good message to the NHL when a division rival takes a cheap shot at a goaltender with no response in return. The Oilers need to rally around each other and dig in to win their next game.