Oilers vet Derek Ryan calls out the media multiple times in interview
At times, the Oilers relationship can be strained by an overly-critical media. Veteran forward Derek Ryan has seen everything in his career, and now doesn't shy away from calling out the media's comments anymore.
In a post game interview after the win over the Calgary Flames, Derek Ryan took a few opportunities to let the media know how low and little the team thinks of them.
Ryan was asked about how the team bounced back from a disappointing loss in Dallas, and provided a great answer about how it was a microcosm of the season and the immense belief inside the locker room. Another reporter asked a follow up question if the Oilers use the media's comments as motivation, and he bluntly replied �No.'
Yeah, that's a microcosm of our whole season, you know, with the start that we had, and the character in this room, we were able to bounce back from that. There's a lot of people in Edmonton, a lot of people standing around me right now that were writing us off. Look at us now.
Ryan went on as well to criticize the Oilers media for the narrative of lacking secondary scoring. Ryan explained that he sees more responsibilities to effective third liners that don't get on the scoresheet, like playing sound defensive hockey, penalty killing, drawing a penalty, or more. The Oilers bottom six doesn't have much for scoring threats at the moment, so they have to find way to impact the game like this to be effective.
Plenty of fans were loving Ryan's attitude towards the media and his willingness to stick up for his teammates.
It's great to see the 37 year old Ryan go to bat for his teammates at the end of a long season. With just 5 goals and 12 points in 68 games this season and finding himself as a healthy scratch more often, this could be Ryan's last year in the NHL - and his family has spoken about retiring as an Oiler earlier this year. Winning a cup for Ryan and some of the other vets of this Oilers roster will certainly be an extra bit of motivation for the star players to go the distance this playoffs.
| POLL | ||
Do you agree with Ryan that the Oilers media is too hard on the team? | ||
| Yes, media needs to relax | 566 | 68.3 % |
| No, they're just invested | 235 | 28.3 % |
| See Results | 28 | 3.4 % |
| List of polls | ||
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