Oilers’ Struggles Highlighted as Mangiapane Benched, McMann Shines

In what many thought should be an "easy two points", Tuesday night’s matchup against the Toronto Maple Leafs highlighted some of the Edmonton Oilers’ biggest challenges this season.

Despite Andrew Mangiapane delivering one of his strongest performances as an Oiler, he was benched after a single turnover, bringing Jeff Skinner vibes to his narrative. Toronto’s Bobby McMann shone, potentially increasing his trade value and cementing himself on Edmonton's radar. Special teams struggled, there was inconsistent bottom-six production, and poor defense, all leading to a lackluster end to a even more lackluster eight-game homestand.

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With one more game to feel good about themselves before the Olympic break, Wednesday's matchup against the Calgary Flames got extremely important. 

Darnell Nurse noted after the game, "You want to have a better result than .500, obviously." He added, "We have one big game again tomorrow against Calgary."

"Our team is at our best when we're not looking at the big picture. We simplify and zoom in on the day, on the game, on the challenge ahead." The big picture stuff is for you guys to talk about."

Andrew Mangiapane delivered one of his best performances as an Oiler, generating chances, finishing checks, and playing with noticeable energy. Yet after a single turnover leading to Toronto’s first goal, he was benched for the rest of the second period.

Coach Kris Knoblauch cited the giveaway as the reason. "There was the turnover; it had an effect on his ice time, yes."

Some feel the decision was excessive and may reflect a bias against the forward. In many ways, Mangiapane feels like the 2025-26 version of Jeff Skinner. Last season, Knoblauch was asked what Skinner had to do to get more ice time, and his response was, "Play better hockey." Ironically, some of Skinner's scratches came after extremely effective individual performances. 

Mangiapane is trying work himself out of his current struggles. It feels like the coach isn't going to give him the rope to do so. 

Bobby McMann continued to stand out for the Maple Leafs, scoring the empty-net goal to end the game. It was hard not to notice his speed, his ability to win puck battles, and his ability to generate offense for his teammates.

The performance could raise his trade value and put him squarely on Edmonton’s radar (assuming he wasn't already), especially as the Oilers look to add versatile, lower-cost forwards to support their top stars.  

The Oilers' bottom six have struggled. Mattias Janmark talked about it after the loss, saying, "Gonna need one to go in at some point. There are a lot of games where you can be happy creating and stuff, at the end of the day, it's a 2-2 game going into the third, and there's a big goal out there. Those are the ones you want to chip in on. So ya, got to find a way."

Ultimately, it was the depth players that gave the game away. Matt Savoie took an interference call to put the Oilers down by a man at 2-2. Janmark took a high-sticking penalty shortly afterward. 

"I feel like throughout the whole game we had plenty of chances, especially in the second period. I thought we played well. Honestly, throughout the game, I thought we were the better team, but you take a couple of penalties and give them a 5-on-3 for two minutes. They've got such good players, it's probably going to end up in the back of the net. That's how it went today, but we got to focus on tomorrow, and it's going to be a big two points for us."

Kasperi Kapanen was frustrated with the way things had gone. His tone was likely indicative of how most of the Oilers feel these days. 

"We haven't been playing our best, and playing eight games at home, we'd like to win more games, but that's how it is now, and we can't do anything about it. Just try to go in tomorrow and get a win and a big two points," said Kasperi Kapanen. 

When it was suggested that the team had to be disappointed with a 4-4 home record, his response was, "If you say so."

With 32 goals against in the eight home games, stopping goals from going in has not been the Oilers modus operandi. 

Kapanen did talk about that too. 

"We can't be letting in five, six, seven goals per game. It's just too much, it's not the right way to win." I feel like we're always trailing... as a good team we can't be doing that moving forward. It's something we've addressed. It doesn't happen overnight. We're trying guys. We're trying. We want to be better defensively as well. That's just the way it went tonight."

Head coach Kris Knoblauch said, "If you go through funks, it's gotta be short. You can't prolong it." 

As for why the Oilers are allowed so many goals against in the home stretch, Knoblauch said, "...a little bit of everything. We got to make sure we reduce those, that's obvious."

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