The Edmonton Oilers have been out of the playoffs for two weeks now, but much of the off-season discussion on Oilers Now with Bob Stauffer has been about forwards Jordan Eberle and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. Neither player scored a goal in the playoffs.
On Tuesday’s show, Oilers TV analyst Drew Remenda was asked by Stauffer about which of the two he would sell if he were in the shoes of Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli. This resulted in Remenda questioning Eberle’s practice habits. You can listen to the clip below.
On Wednesday’s show, Oilers head coach Todd McLellan made a surprise off-season appearance. He stated that he strongly disagrees with those comments.
“Those comments were very scathing when it comes to Jordan,” explained McLellan. “I’m on the ice everyday with Jordan. I see his practice habits. I see what he does before practice in the gym. I see how he reviews his video. I know how much he cares.”
“I’ve been around a lot of players in my 12 or 13 years where there care factor is nowhere near where Jordan’s is.
“People are entitled to their opinions, but unless they are in the tent with us and see how young men prepare, I think it’s really unfair to throw certain individuals under the bus which is happening with Jordan.”
McLellan also talked about the fact that the Oilers as an organization have had a couple of weeks to decompress following their Game 7 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. McLellan said it has given them a chance to sit back and evaluate the team from day one of the season all the way to the end of the playoffs.
He made it clear that the Oilers lost as a team and not because of Eberle or Nugent-Hopkins being held off the score sheet.
“First of all we have to look at getting to the playoffs. RNH and Eberle were big parts of that,” said McLellan. “Is there more in them during the season? Absolutely, but that’s why I still think we are a growth team. We need to continue to push those players and get more out of them.”
“Playoffs wise, there is different ways to evaluate. There is the checking role that Nuge played against San Jose and Jordan was part of it too. So maybe they helped us get into the second round which was a big step for our team,” says McLellan.
“In the second round, there is a lot being made about them not scoring an even strength goal and what not. But we did have a 3-0 lead and we did give that up to open-net goals in Anaheim and that had nothing to do with them scoring or not scoring,” McLellan said.
“We had plenty, we had enough to win and we just couldn’t get it done as a team.”
The discussion around those two players will continue on throughout the summer. We don’t know if both Eberle and Nugent-Hopkins will be back. But when it comes to Nugent-Hopkins, McLellan says the plan heading into next season is to try and get him to commit to being a more dynamic offensive player.
“There’s more in his game, especially offensively,” he said. “He’s become such a responsible player, that at times he doesn’t take the risk necessary to score. It’s okay to be a risky player sometimes. You have teammates that have to cover for you. You can’t always be the safe guy, but he’s convinced he’s going to be a well-rounded player. I respect him for that. He puts every ounce of effort into doing it both ways. I think we can see his defensive skills have really increased and he’s played against some tough opponents.
“With that said though we need him to be a little more productive so we’re going to encourage him to take a little more risk to try and be a little more productive offensively.”
McLellan also hit on the Andrej Sekera injury, some of the challenges his team will face next season with heightened expectations, and the fans in the playoffs. You can listen to the interview below.