Veteran forward calls out entire team including Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl
PUBLICATION
Sam Hutch
December 24, 2022 (6:48 PM)
The Edmonton Oilers are barely holding on in the western conference, fluctuating in and out of a playoff spot more often than they should at this point in their rebuild. It's now gotten to the point, that frustrations are boiling over.
After last night's loss, Oilers depth forward Derek Ryan let loose after the game, sounding off on the team as a whole, but particularly, their two best forwards. Take a look:
I saw the same thing as you. I don't think scoring goals is the problem here. I've said that a million times. We've got to work on playing defence, and that's not the defencemen, that's the forwards, everybody
From the sounds of it, Ryan is taking aim at the two star players in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, both have earned the nicknames �powerplay merchants', putting up a ton of points, but are not committed to the defensive side of the game at all.
If your two best players cannot be bothered to play defensively when needed, that will bleed through to the entire team, especially if one of those players is your captain.
Maybe if those two started playing more of a 200 foot game day in and day out, the Oilers would buy in a little more and start winning games.
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