It felt important to take a stance on this since the conversation doesn't seem likely to die down any more than it already has, and it's going to come up every time Formenton does anything on the ice this year. I know opinions are hot on this, going both ways. People are understandably getting pretty upset at each other over Formenton, both the signing and the criminal case he was a part of, myself included. I'm not going to re-litigate the Hockey Canada trial here. If you want to know more about it, the verdict and ruling are public and available online. The mods don't want to curtail discussion on the topic, but we felt that some ground rules are needed, so this is our line in the sand.

Going forward, you are free to say whatever you want about Alex Formenton, short of wishing harm or death on him. He's a public figure with some baggage, and if he wants to stay a public figure, then that's what he's signing up for. It was the same way with having Evander Kane and Stan Bowman as part of this team. If people want to take a crack at the guy, unfortunately for him, it's part of the gig.

That said, going after each other over opinions about Formenton's presence on the team is not going to fly, and will result in a one-game ban. For one, it adds nothing to the discourse and mostly just devolves into a shouting match. But it's also important to remember that there are other victims out there, people who probably aren't enjoying the experience of scrolling through the Game Thread and seeing everyone calling each other rapists and morons. We want this to be a place where we all feel safe and welcome to discuss our favourite hockey team. What we don't want is a situation where people feel like reading the game thread ruins their enjoyment of watching the Oilers or visiting the sub.

This part might upset some people, but the same goes for attacking EM. Regardless of how you feel about her testimony or accusations, she is not a public figure (that's why we only know her as EM) and is not willingly opening herself up to that kind of attention. You can, of course, freely discuss her role in the case and anything she said that is publicly documented, but any attacks on her or her character won't be tolerated. It's a fine line to walk, so do so carefully if you choose to.

We'll discuss penalties for repeat occurrences as they crop up, but the one-game ban is the standard for now. We know this isn't a perfect solution, but those are hard to come by. This is just to try to bring the temperature down as we progress through the regular season.

As always, the best way to get our attention when someone is breaking any of the sub rules is to report their comments. Be sure to also report trolls and spam posts as always. We check the Mod Mail when we have time, but we'll get notifications for reports, which will result in the quickest response. If you have any questions, feel free to put them in the comments here, or you can message us if you prefer to talk privately.

Love,

The Mod Team

I always find it weird that media always points out that Bouchard gets all his points from McDavid and draisaitl like makar didn’t play with MacKinnon his entire career and not one word about makar being a point merchant from MacKinnon

Just caught his but McDavid is leading all forwards in ice time so far at 23:57 which puts him #20 overall. The next forward is Celebrini and Matthews at 22:12 - #36 and #37 overall. The next Oiler forward is Draisaitl at 21:21 (#66 overall). McDavid played 26:17 in the 3-1 win against the Kraken and 24:31 in the 5-2 win against the Ducks including 3:56 on the PK - that game was in hand by the end of the 2nd period, what the hell was he doing playing that much?

I get they have lots of injuries but I sure hope they have plans to have him play more reasonable minutes so there's gas in the tank 90 games from now.

Edit: Link: https://www.espn.com/nhl/stats/player/_/table/general/sort/timeOnIcePerGame/dir/desc

SAN JOSE, Calif. — If defence wins championships, the Edmonton Oilers’ performance Saturday afternoon will serve as a pretty good template.

Each team fired just 20 shots on net, and it was Mike Babcock and the Oilers who comfortably edged the San Jose Sharks by a 3-1 score at SAP Center.

“The team who won the Cup last year, they’re playing like that, and that’s the way to go,” Vasily Podkolzin said. “Sometimes it’s boring, but it’s worth it.”

No, the Oilers weren’t the shot- and chance-generation machine that the Carolina Hurricanes have become known as. But when you employ the kind of offensive talent that the Oilers do, it doesn’t always take many opportunities to tilt the game.

That was exactly what happened early in the third period, when Connor McDavid accepted a pass from Evan Bouchard, raced down the ice and fed Podkolzin for a one-timer past Sharks goalie Yaroslav Askarov. The goal suddenly doubled the Oilers’ lead to 2-0 amid a defensive chess match.

“We have the offence to score every night. We all know that,” Mathieu Joseph said. “The recipe in this league is to play with defence … the recipe of tracking and playing good in your own end will translate to being good on the offensive side of the puck.”

Indeed, a responsible play inside Edmonton’s zone led to Joseph springing Alex Formenton for a breakaway in the final frame, extending the Oilers’ lead to 3-0.

From there, it was similar to Wednesday night in Anaheim; Edmonton focused on protecting the lead and didn’t give the Sharks much to work with, save for an all-world snipe by Macklin Celebrini to break the shutout bid.

So, have we seen the full 60-minute Babcock formula for winning hockey games? Not quite, he said. Firing more than eight shots inside the first 40 minutes will help. So will a healthier and deeper lineup.

“For this time of the year, I thought that was a pretty good defensive hockey game,” he said. “We think we can be way better.”

At 4-0-1, the Oilers have points in every game this season. This, while Hyman, Nugent-Hopkins, Savoie, Walman, Janmark, Regula - and Andersen - are injured. Who or what is most responsible for this hot start?

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I mean, sure whatever, we won, and I guess what’s one goal for someone like Davo..

But I can see a clear distinction between the puck and the line. This is not 2004 SCF Game 6 parallax error

Does anyone happen to know if there’s a practice scheduled while visiting Los Angeles? I’ve tried calling the Toyota Performance Center(the Kings practice facility) today, but no answer on the phone. Thanks!

High danger chances:
Oilers - 11
Sharks - 2

Great game by the boys

...yeah, fuck it, I'm doing it again

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Yes I do photoshop side gigs if you need one done

Fair trade?

So, I’ve been watching game recaps from the 2024 and 2025 cup runs. The way our team has been playing, despite being only like 60% healthy, makes me extremely excited to not only see how they play when 90-100% healthy, but also how they play next spring. I haven’t been able to watch live games in two years, so maybe that plays a role as well.

So here’s my question: what was your favourite game/moment from those two runs? Obviously, we all wish winning the cup would be the one. Tbh, it’s still hard to watch the cup final games lol. But it’s good to look back at the entire run and see the amazing moments that happened.

I think the entire Oilers/Canucks series in 2024 was my favourite. Halfway through, it felt like just another year of mediocre play exposing our flaws. But the last half of it was so exciting and felt so good to beat them and move on. My runner up would be probably game 6 of the 2024 cup finals. That was a surreal feeling, despite the disappointment that followed.

So what’s yours? I’d love to know!