Edmonton Oilers star forward Leon Draisaitl didn't mince words following his team's 4-3 defeat to the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night at Scotiabank Saddledome, the team's final game before the 2026 Olympic break. In a raw post-game interview, the German sniper -- who is off to represent his country in February -- made it clear his NHL club has to be better starting in March, or it's going to be too late. 

Draisaitl scored twice on the power play, but it wasn't enough as porous team defense, missed attempts to kill penalties, and lackluster goaltending left him frustrated and ready to call this team what it is, "not good enough."

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In a very blunt media scrum, Draisaitl called out the entire organization. Noting that it starts at the top and goes all the way down, he emphasized that it "starts with coaches." From there, amid a three-game losing streak and mounting frustrations, everyone is to blame.

He said the leaders could be better, the rest of the group could be better, and goaltending could improve. "...it's not good enough right now," he said. When relayed the message that his goaltender, Tristan Jarry, held himself accountable for the loss, Draisaitl admitted the team has to be stronger in front of him. "We've got to defend better," and make his life easier. And yeah... "there’s saves that our goalies need to make at some point."

"We're not consistent enough, and this league’s too hard to just lollygag through games... You need everybody. It starts with the coaches. Everybody. You're never going to win if you have four or five guys going, and it starts at the top. 

When asked if part of the problem is that the team has been so good for so long and played a lot of hockey, Draisaitl cut off the reporter asking and said, "We're not as good right now. We're not even close... We need to understand that it's time now, but when we come back, we've got to get going."

Something is off with the team, and they haven't been able to figure it out all season. There have been a few solid games here and there, but never a consistent stretch where this group looks like the elite squads of seasons past. There's been no dominance, no stretches of play where they look like they could and should beat anyone. Frankly, in many of the games the Oilers have won, they likely didn't deserve to.

And when they do lose, they either get blown out or they lose in a way that leaves everyone wanting more.

This break needs to be one where the team resets and digs deep. If everyone, to a man, doesn't come back rejuvenized and ready, it's going to be a short playoff run. Perhaps more importantly, nothing is guaranteed. Continued play like this could make the final games of the regular season far more stressful than they should be. 

"We'll take the break and regroup," Draisaitl said. 

While his attention will be in Italy and at the Olympics, representing Germany, some of his thoughts will undoubtedly remain on his NHL squad and on how troubling it is that they're so far off from the game they want to play. It's got to be aggravating.

Outside of himself, Connor McDavid and Josh Samanski, with most of the roster available, Draisaitl can only hope that his teammates and the coaches put on their work boots.

Draisaitl's frustration made one thing clear: this loss to the Flames better be a necessary wake-up call for head coach Kris Knoblauch's staff and the rest of the roster. "It looks like we need a little break right now," Knoblauch said. "We can reset. We've got this time to refocus and make any adjustments we want. The coaches have a long time to look at and evaluate what we want to do. We've got a little mini training camp coming back when we've got about a week to go, so we can focus on things that we need to get better at or any changes that we need to make."

In other roster-related news,  the Oilers have assigned forward Josh Samanski and goaltender Calvin Pickard to the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL.  

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