Boils down to the team doesn't believe. With the offseason and what occurred I didn't either so that its not surprising. Still think team will make playoffs, because Pacific, and win a round once they are there but this is a sorry sorry roster and even older than last year. It was an absolute blunder offseason. The players seem to recognize it.
I'll say it again that the club has only 6 regulation wins in 21 GP. That speaks volumes in itself.
Add considerable fatigue, the loss of Kane, and the standard SC hangover and this was around where it was gonna land.
Even when we get wins its either against Nashville, or its because of McDrai. This feels like 2016 or 2018 again. Except now we don't have the hope of McDrai in prime. We have them aging.
There was next to zero chance J Skinner would come in here and be a positive responsible player. See how the team responds to him as well. Nobody even interacts with him and I wonder if they don't want him on the bench. I figure the coaching staff doesn't.
I wonder how long it takes for both Skinners to be pariahs here. Players like that KILL team enthusiasm. You can't have too many of those types of players.
I say the Oilers will make the playoffs, I say that primarily due to how weak the Pacific is now. You have to be a worse than LA, Van or Calgary club to even not get a top 3 spot.
But we're where we are in the standings and the team has even had the cheat code toothless Nashville Preds 3X. Count up the 3 wins on those as well in factoring in how abysmal this is.