Knoblauch calls out 'passengers' as Oilers lose fifth straight

The Edmonton Oilers fell 4-3 to the Florida Panthers in a rematch of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final on Thursday, marking their fifth-straight loss.

After the game, head coach Kris Knoblauch had some strong words for his team.

“We had some pretty good performances by some guys, but to get out of a funk like this when things aren’t going well… we need everybody," Knoblauch told reporters.

"I thought there was a few passengers. For the most part, most of the guys did everything they could.”

The loss dropped Edmonton to 34-21-4 on the season. The team is still in firm control of their playoff destiny in the Western Conference, sitting seven points ahead of the Vancouver Canucks for the final wild-card slot, but Knoblauch's comments add to a feeling of desperation to figure things out in Edmonton.

"We're in a bit of a hole right now as a team, and it's about resiliency. It's about sticking with it," defenceman Mattias Ekholm said after the Oilers lost 4-1 to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday. "We're gonna have to dig one out here sooner or later and I thought we got off to a good start, but I think at times we're giving them a little bit too easy of offence."

"Everybody knows how we can play, how good this group is when everybody's playing the right way," veteran forward Corey Perry said following Sunday's loss. "And if you recognize that, you can start to start to build and start to look up."

Leon Draisaitl stretched his NHL goals lead to 11 with his 44th goal of the season in the loss to Florida. It was his seventh-consecutive game with a goal.

But outside of Draisaitl, stalwart captain and three-time Hart Trophy winner Connor McDavid (73 points) and defenceman Evan Bouchard (45 points), the Oilers have struggled to produce offensively.

Forward Zach Hyman scored a career-high 54 goals last season and finished with 77 points in 80 games, but his production rate has plummeted to 20 goals and 34 points in 54 games this year.

"Every year kind of brings up different battles and different adversities for every team to go through. This is another one where we get to kind of figure it out as a team," goaltender Stuart Skinner said after Thursday's defeat.

"So it's gonna obviously take all of us chipping in together, talking to each other about what we can do better, and sometimes you got to go through it."

Skinner has been a prominent part of the discourse surrounding the team as the trade deadline approaches on March 7. Talks have linked the Anaheim Ducks and Utah Hockey Club as potential targets for the Oilers to engage in negotiations to upgrade the goaltending spot in a trade.

The team is reportedly giving Skinner a vote of confidence, per TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun, though. 

"It’s [a trade] not that likely at the moment," LeBrun explained Tuesday on Insider Trading. "It’s not a priority discussion within that Oilers front office for a very specific reason. I don’t think the Oilers look at the goalies available on the market right now and say there’s a guy that’s an absolute guaranteed upgrade over Stuart Skinner. Of course the Oilers know that Skinner can play better and is going to need to play better. But they look at his playoff pedigree and feel that that guy is there and will be there."

Skinner has a 20-15-4 record this season with a 2.87 goals-against average and a .898 save percentage.

Despite the continued stretch of disappointing results, Knoblauch did notice some positive takeaways from the loss on Thursday.

"I think the guys competed really hard on the walls and around the net. I thought we had some pretty good performance by some guys, but to get out of funk like this, when things aren't going well and guys are really feeling it or really squeezing their sticks, we need everybody," Knoblauch said.

Edmonton hasn't played at home since the final game before the 4 Nations Face-Off break on Feb. 7 against the Colorado Avalanche. 

Their five-game road trip concludes on Saturday against the Carolina Hurricanes - another team in a funk, having won only two of their last seven contests.

"It's nice now we're heading into Carolina. They're a top team and they certainly know how to win, especially at home," defenceman Brett Kulak said. "So the challenges are big and that's perfect for us right now."