Oilers fans have every right to be skeptical, but their team is playing for right now, whether they make the playoffs in 2019 or not. (via SportsnetSpec)
CHOOSE PLAN Ken Hitchcock won’t be back next season, but if he can leave a legacy to the next guy it will be a team full of players who don’t cough the puck up in the neutral zone and slowly meander their way to the bench for a change. It will be, as he likes to say, leaving behind a team full of players who “play for with each other.
Had interim GM Keith Gretzky cleaned house on Monday, the roster wouldn’t have been able even to compete down the stretch. They’d have given up like in so many other seasons. Rinse and repeat. Alex Chiasson for another mid-round draft pick. It’s pretty clear that extra draft picks aren’t the solution to solving what’s wrong with “the water” in Edmonton. On trading Chiasson, Gretzky said the deal “had to help us today and tomorrow.