Mikko Koskinen Fires Back at Tippett and Oilers For Recent Criticism

Apparently, goaltender Mikko Koskinen isn’t going to take heavy and isolated criticism without a bit of a retort. After being called out by head coach Dave Tippett for a number of mistakes and a bad game against the New York Rangers on Monday, Tippett doubled down on comments about his netminder, saying he didn’t like the third goal Koskinen let in either.

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It was an aggressive approach to getting his goaltender’s attention just hours before going back to a healthy Mike Smith in net against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday evening. Tippett is taking some heat for almost exclusively calling out Koskinen and making it seem like the Oilers’ woes are the responsibility of one goalie and Koskinen didn’t like it either. The netminder responded and spoke to Tommi Seppala of the Finnish publication YLE, and said:

“That’s how it usually goes in this business. When a team is doing badly, either the coach or the goalkeeper is sacrificed. It doesn’t feel nice to anyone when thrown under the bus, but those coach comments didn’t evoke any more strange thoughts in me. You just have to go to the next game.”

He added, “I have to be better, but at the same time, we scored seven goals in my last six losses. I can’t score goals.”

Everyone Is Pointing Fingers

Tippett calling out Koskinen publicly was not a good move and Koskinen’s response demonstrates exactly why. Tippett took heat for saying what he said and now the goalie is taking heat for throwing his teammates under the bus because they aren’t helping him out by scoring goals. This has become a game of finger-pointing and it can’t be good for team morale.

Everyone, including Koskinen, probably knows that this season will be it for him in an Oilers’ uniform. The team will either try to trade him or buy him out. They’ll certainly let his contract expire if neither of those things happens before the summer. But, on his way out, the last thing the Oilers need is this kind of tension, especially as the team struggles with 10 losses in their last 12 games.

Things aren’t going to get any easier for the Oilers either, as they’ve learned that Connor McDavid, Derek Ryan, and Tyson Barrie will all be out of the lineup with COVID and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins injury is said to be at least 3-4 weeks.

Next: McDavid Misses Second-Straight Practice, Tests Positive For COVID