The Edmonton Oilers have struggled mightily this season. They have lost four of the last five games overall, with the only win being a Stanley Cup Final rematch over the Florida Panthers. The team saw another low point on Tuesday night, falling to the Dallas Stars 8-3 at home.
After the game, Darnell Nurse shared his thoughts about the lack of a home ice advantage.
“You want your building to be a hard place to play and ours hasn’t been at all to that level,” Nurse told the media afterwards, according to the Oilers' official X, formerly Twitter, account.
The Oilers are 5-2-2 at home this year. Since the calendar turned to November, the team has played just four games at home, but has had two embarrassing losses. The Oilers fell to the Colorado Avalanche 9-1 back on November 8, and then suffered an 8-3 loss last night. Edmonton was never in the game on Tuesday, giving up a goal less than four minutes into the first period, and falling down 4-0 after 20 minutes of play. The team was then down 6-1 after two periods.
“There’s definitely been two significant (games) where we let it get away from us, both here on home ice and both unacceptable,” captain Connor McDavid said after the poor performance. “We have to find a way to generate our own momentum, our own energy, and find a way to get ourselves going.”
Edmonton fans booed the performance of the team, but the fans are still showing up in droves. According to the latest attendance reports, provided by HockeyDB, the Oilers are ninth in the NHL in attendance, averaging 18,274 fans with a capacity of 18,347.
“I don’t know what the gap is between us playing our best and where we’re at right now, but it’s obviously pretty far,” McDavid said, understanding the frustration of the 18,000-plus fans.
While Nurse is annoyed by the fans not giving the team a solid home ice advantage, the team needs to play better as well. Getting drubbed at home is not going to lead to excited fans. The blue liner did not help his argument with his play on the ice. Nurse had a minus-two plus/minus rating in the game and did not register a point.
The Oilers are now 10-10-5 on the campaign. They hit the ice again on Saturday, but are back on the road, visiting the Seattle Kraken.
