“Write whatever the f*ck you want”: DeBoer irritated after loss to Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers are just one win away from the Stanley Cup Final after a 3-1 victory tonight over the Dallas Stars. While they are certainly feeling great about their performance, Stars head coach Pete DeBoer was not a happy camper.

Following the game, DeBoer was quick to praise the Oilers’ effort, saying it was about as good of a performance as a team could have on the road. When asked if he felt his own team’s effort wasn’t good enough, however, he became extremely agitated.

“Listen, there’s always things you can do better,” DeBoer began. “You can sit here and question our character if you want. You haven’t been around all year, haven’t seen you here all year. I’m not going to do it. You can go ahead and write whatever the f*ck you want.”

Oilers have high praise for Nugent-Hopkins

Earlier in the day, Leon Draisaitl smiled while telling reporters Ryan Nugent-Hopkins is probably Kris Knoblauch’s favourite player. It seemed as though the longest serving Oiler wanted to make sure that was the truth, as he put forth his best game of the playoffs so far.

Nugent-Hopkins opened the scoring with a power play tally, before beating Jake Oettinger clean, again on the power play, for his second of the night to make it a 2-0 game.

“I saw Ryan and told him tonight he’s my favourite player,” Knoblauch said with a grin postgame. “Two goals tonight, obviously on the power play he was really big. He’s part of the penalty kill. He had a good game. A lot of guys had a good game.”

Knoblauch was far from the only Oiler who had high praise for Nugent-Hopkins. Stuart Skinner, who was great in his own right with 19 saves, admitted that he’s been a fan of The Nuge for a long time.

“He’s been my favourite player ever since I was a young buck,” Skinner said. “I was that kid watching him on television going ‘Nuuuuge.’ I’ve always been a big fan of him. It’s pretty amazing to see what he can do. He’s a leader for a reason. He’s such a good two-way player. He does everything right.”

Thanks in large part to Nugent-Hopkins’ huge night, the Oilers now have a chance to win the series on home ice this Sunday. Puck drop in that one is set for 6 pm MT.

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