Mike Babcock expects the Edmonton Oilers to play a lot better than they did on Saturday night.
The stage was set for the Oilers to have a big game. It was a Saturday night at Rogers Place with the Toronto Maple Leafs in town, and the team was coming off two big wins against the Minnesota Wild and Carolina Hurricanes. It may have been the closest you could possibly get to a playoff atmosphere in the regular season, and it should have been an easy game to get motivated for.
But they didn’t, allowing the Maple Leafs to embarrass them on home ice, routing the Oilers by a score of 7-2 and making it look relatively easy along the way. It was a disheartening loss for an Edmonton squad that had been rolling to an 8-1-1 start to the season.
After the game, Babcock met with the media and said that the blame for this effort sits with him and the rest of the coaching staff.
“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.
“You’re frustrated because you didn’t get prepared good enough and work hard enough. Whose that one? It’s on us… In your own building on a Saturday night, that should be automatic; should never get outworked.”
"If you look at our whole group, we weren’t good enough."
Mike Babcock speaks as the #Oilers drop a 7-2 decision to the Maple Leafs. @Enterprise | #LetsGoOilers pic.twitter.com/H0EeJAXUoE
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) October 25, 2026
The loss has only amplified concerns that the Oilers are not getting enough production outside of their top line. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Evan Bouchard combined for six points in the loss, but it was radio silence everywhere else around the forward group.
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Zach Hyman had their looks, but both are coming off injuries to start the season and may not be at the top of their game. Babcock admitted that those guys not being up to full speed could be impacting their play right now.
The third and fourth lines, however, need to bring more to the table, but Babcock says the entire lineup needs to show better.
“We need more for sure,” Babcock said. “Their bottom-six was better than ours, but the bottom line is they were better than us. They were more competitive than us, they were quicker than us, they were better.
“If you look at our whole group, we weren’t good enough. To blame the bottom-six forwards tonight, it would be unfair, I think.”
The loss was a disappointing one, but it was hardly devastating. The Oilers are still 8-2-1 on the season and have a pair of games against the lowly Detroit Red Wings and Calgary Flames coming up.
That will be the perfect opportunity for Edmonton to rebound, but they’ve learnt now that they can’t take any game for granted.
It will be up to Babcock and his coaching staff to make sure the effort is improved over the next couple of games.