- Mike Babcock put the blame on himself and his staff after the Oilers lost 7-2 to the Maple Leafs
- He said Toronto’s group outworked his in Edmonton on a Saturday night
- Read below for the full quotes and what comes next for the Oilers
Mike Babcock isn’t pointing fingers at his players. He’s pointing at himself.
The Oilers coach took the blame after Saturday’s 7-2 loss to the Maple Leafs at Rogers Place, saying Toronto simply worked harder than his team did.
Babcock talked about the effort and who should answer for it.
“We can blame anybody we want as a group, as a coach,” Babcock said. “Jim Hiller had his group playing harder than my group, so that’s on me.”
Watch the full postgame session from the Oilers:
He kept going on the preparation side. Babcock said the staff didn’t get the group ready, and a home game on a Saturday night shouldn’t need extra motivation.
“In your own building on a Saturday night, that should be automatic; should never get outworked,” he said.
Babcock also talked about the bottom six forwards. He wouldn’t single anybody out.
“Their bottom-six was better than ours, but the bottom line is they were better than us,” Babcock said. “To blame the bottom-six forwards tonight, it would be unfair, I think.”
Zach Hyman said the same thing in the room. “They just beat us in every area today,” he said.
The game got away in the third period. William Nylander’s power-play goal made it 4-1, and Hyman called it the big one. Toronto added two more before Nylander hit the empty net for his 300th career goal, which we covered in our recap of the Nylander milestone. Here is the goal that made it 4-1:
Edmonton still sits at 8-2-1, and McDavid extended his point streak to 11 games to start the season with two assists. Leon Draisaitl scored twice to push his goal streak to six games.
Toronto saw the challenge coming, as Auston Matthews explained in our look at the McDavid hot streak before the game. Edmonton gets Detroit and Calgary next, and Babcock made it clear he expects the effort to look a lot different.
