Oil Spills: A podcast on the Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers are losing ground in the multi-team race for the wild-card playoff spots in the Western Conference as the NHL heads for the all-star break.

A pair of weekend home losses — to the Calgary Flames and the Carolina Hurricanes — saw the Oilers slip a few points behind the pack while their rivals won games.

Opportunities to get at the forefront of the wildcard race: Gone. Lost.

Considering the Oilers changed coaches just two months ago, and considering they’ve won eight of thei

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Inconsistency has dogged the Edmonton Oilers for the last month — indeed, since the team lost both Oscar Klefbom and Kris Russell to injury from its defensive corps a month go, with Klefbom yet to return — resulting in them sitting on the cusp of a wildcard playoff berth in the Western Conference.

And while the Oilers have been stuck in a win one or two, lose one or two type of rut as of late, at least the half dozen other teams also in the wildcard hunt have been plagued by inconsistencies, too. For

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So, what’s it going to be — the bad Edmonton Oilers we saw play the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday night, or the Oilers that shut down the Anaheim Ducks the very next night?

Saturday’s wretched shutout loss to the Kings showed the Oilers’ definite lack of motivation — not a playoff attitude, head coach Ken Hitchcock said after the game — while Sunday’s win over Anaheim showed the Oilers can play well when they want to.

Podcast host Craig Ellingson talks to NHL beat writers Jim Matheson an

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Part 2 (of 2) of our mid-season look at the ongoing hot-button topics surrounding the Edmonton Oilers.

Jim Matheson, Derek Van Diest and Craig Ellingson talk about:

- the surprising Alex Chiasson

- the impact of injuries to defensemen Oscar Klefbom and Kris Russell

- the play of forward Jesse Puljujarvi

- and the hot seat Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli occupies.

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Part 1 of a look back at the Edmonton Oilers’ season so far — a mid-season report of sorts as NHL teams near the halfway mark of the 2018-19 schedule.

Jim Matheson, Derek Van Diest and Craig Ellingson talk about three simmering, ongoing subjects surrounding the Oilers, including:

- the rise of Mikko Koskinen to become the starting goaltender.

- the Nov. 20 coaching change that saw Ken Hitchcock replace Todd McLellan as head coach.

- the ongoing saga of Milan Lucic, who has struggled to scor

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Hockey Hall of Fame writer Jim Matheson talks to Oil Spills host Craig Ellingson about the Edmonton Oilers’ successful stretch of games under head coach Ken Hitchcock, taking points in 10 of 13 games — eight of them wins — since he replaced Todd McLellan on Nov. 20, 2018.

The team finally looked, shall we say, human in Vancouver on Dec. 16 in a 4-2 loss to the Canucks, a team behind them in the NHL’s Western Conference standings.

While it’s important to win such games if you’re a team such as

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The Edmonton Oilers have enjoyed a successful start to the Ken Hitchcock era, with the adjustments brought in by the legendary NHL coach tightening things up defensively and creating more scoring opportunities.

Their play is also being bolstered by the solid goaltending by the tandem of Mikko Koskinen and Cam Talbot, and has led to a flurry of wins.

All this success with a bit of a blast from the past as former Oilers captain Andrew Ference recently sounded off on the team’s dressing-room culture of a f

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We found out what a superstar-less Edmonton Oilers team is like, and it wasn’t pretty when Connor McDavid sat out his team’s game on the road against the Dallas Stars when he fell ill.

While it was just one game, short of expecting McDavid to be the ultimate iron-man, illness and injuries do happen, and the Oilers certainly looked like they were running on a lower-octane fuel minus him. What it did was magnify the team’s current lack of depth on the wings.

Podcast host Craig Ellingson talks to hock

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Ken Hitchcock has had a good glimpse at what ails his new team, what works and what doesn’t early in his tenure behind the Edmonton Oilers bench.

With other teams who had gone through a ‘rebuild’ phase at the same time as these Oilers finally realizing success — like the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Buffalo Sabres — is there anything Hitchcock, the third-winningest coach in NHL history, can do to jumpstart flailing Edmonton?

Oil Spills podcast host Craig Ellingson talks to Oilers beat writer Rob

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Todd McLellan is out, Ken Hitchcock is in as the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers.

The move comes after the team lost six of its last seven games heading into a road trip to California, sitting a game below .500 and sitting outside the NHL playoff picture.

Host Craig Ellingson talks to hockey beat writers Jim Matheson and Derek Van Diest about the coaching change, why it happens now and what we might expect from Hitchcock, an Edmonton native and one of the winningest head coaches in NHL history.

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