A lot of Elliotte Friedman’s latest 32 Thoughts column on Sportsnet talked about the Edmonton Oilers and the leadership of captain Connor McDavid. Following a heartbreaking postseason elimination at the hands of the eventual Stanley Cup champions Vegas Golden Knights, many players, including Evander Kane spoke about what the Oilers were missing to be as strong as a contender with the gritty forward adding his perspective:
“I’ve had a lot of playoff series against Vegas in my career,” he said. “I was probably more aware than anybody the type of team they are, how good their transition was and they can score goals. Obviously we can score goals, but they have some firepower that can put the puck on net. Especially the games we lost, we got into a little too much run-and-gun with them. They’re probably the best transition team in the league, believe it or not…We made the mistakes we made and the goals that we gave up were just too easy.”
It later prompted him to hint at some structural changes coming to Edmonton, which has fans raising their eyebrows at Kane’s statement via Friedman.
Kane did not make any specific suggestions, but I don’t know how general manager Ken Holland feels about his comment. The GM recently mentioned how the team is staying focusing on reaching the Cup Final did mention the possibility of a trade to improve the roster drastically to get to there.
Friedman believes a change could come “like more of a box-and-one in the defensive zone.”
Not sure if that’s what Kane had in mind, or even if that will be the avenue taken by Holland ahead of the trade deadline.
Stay tuned…
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