Frustrations boiled over for the Edmonton Oilers on Saturday. Easy to see why, really. The Oilers fell by a final score of 8-1 to the Calgary Flames on home ice.
And yes, for the second time this season, a disgusted fan threw an Oilers jersey on the ice sometime during the third period.
However, another incident that garnered attention on such a night was a heated exchange at the bench between Oilers coach Dallas Eakins and star forward Taylor Hall.
Hall had thrown a water bottle on the ground in frustration. However, water flew up at caught Eakins. He grabbed a towel, dried himself off, threw the towel behind the bench and he and Hall had a brief verbal back-and-forth.
You can view the incident here. Both player and coach tried to defuse the situation afterward.
“The best way to put it - and I don’t know if everyone will understand this or not - it’s an emotional game. In a game like that, frustrations start to run high and that’s what it was. It was frustration and emotion and it happens,” Eakins told reporters.
“Sometimes it happens out in the open. Sometimes it happens behind closed doors.”
Hall also spoke about the incident.
“That stuff happens. Dallas and I have a great relationship. Sometimes frustration happens,” he said, as per Gene Principe of Sportsnet.
Now, as for the game itself, well, this one got out of hand in the second period when the Flames scored four times in just over three minutes to turn a 1-1 hockey game into a 5-1 game. It got worse after that.
“Everything snowballed negatively... We failed to come out with that spark we needed to have coming into the second period,” said Oilers’ defenseman Andrew Ference, as per the team’s Twitter account.
“I know that was probably the longest last 15 minutes of a game that I’ve ever been involved with. I apologize to the fans that were here tonight that had to watch that. It’s painful on the bench and I’m sure it’s painful in the stands,” added Eakins.