Oilers’ recent struggles not only on goaltending

The Edmonton Oilers suffered another loss Tuesday night, this time an 8-3 defeat at the hands of the Dallas Stars. Edmonton has now lost four of their last five games and hold a 10-10-5 record through their first 25 games of the 2025-26 season.

Much of the blame for the Oilers’ struggles has been placed in the crease, with Stuart Skinner and Calvin Packard posting a combined .868 save percentage, dead last in the NHL. But after Tuesday’s loss, Oilers’ captain Connor McDavid stood up for the pair, saying the team itself needs to be better.

“I really feel like goaltending is a team thing,” McDavid said to reporters after the game. “I don’t care who it is … when the team in front of them isn’t playing up to their standards, (it’s) tough for a goalie to look good. I felt bad for both of them tonight.”

On Wednesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discuss the Oilers’ struggles and how much of it falls on the goaltending.

Tyler Yaremchuk: The Oilers know what the problem is, and they seem to know it’s effort-based.

It’s frustrating that on one hand, the goaltending stinks. On the other hand, the Oilers’ big guns aren’t playing well, and this season with McDavid and Draisaitl off the ice, Edmonton is getting outscored 33-13.

They stink when their big guns are on the ice, they can’t get a big save when they need it, they give up too many high-quality chances, and without those two on the ice, they don’t have a hope in Hell of scoring on the other team.

Every facet of this team is an absolute disaster right about now.

Carter Hutton: I’m with you, and sometimes, it’s not necessarily a skill-based thing or working together.

In defense of the goaltending, because I am a goalie and I’m biased, but the team doesn’t really give them a good chance to see the game. There’s other teams you put on and it’s locked down in the defensive zone, things are to the outside, and the game becomes predictable.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here…