EAST MEADOW, N.Y. (AP) — Mike Babcock has preached accountability since taking over as coach of the Edmonton Oilers, tasked with getting Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl the Stanley Cup that has eluded them for over a decade together in the NHL.
The Oilers can't hoist a trophy in October, but Babcock is making his approach loud and clear early in the season with lineup decisions. First it was underproductive forward Trent Frederic being a healthy scratch last week, and now it is inconsistent defenseman Jake Walman sitting out back-to-back games after having his ice time reduced.
“It sends a message that you’ve got to be on your game every night," veteran Mattias Ekholm said after practice Friday on Long Island. “This coaching staff has done a good job of keeping guys accountable. That’s what that is.”
Walman skated just over 13 minutes in a 4-3 shootout loss to Detroit on Monday, then did not play Wednesday when Edmonton beat rival Calgary 4-0. He has just one point and has a team-worst minus-7 rating.
What next?
“Well, he sits down and meets with me again here today, and we go through the whole process," Babcock said. “And then you have a look at, ’What am I going to do?'”
Babcock recalled teaching his kids when they were younger about not letting a coach be mentally tougher than them or anyone else determine their direction. He wants his players to take on that mentality.
“When you get prepared for your opportunity, when you get it, you’re normally ready,” Babcock said. "When you feel bad, when you don’t put in the work and you feel sorry for yourself, when you get the opportunity, you’re not ready. Now, I’m not trying to pretend life is fair. But I’m going to say to you, ’Embrace whatever you’ve been given and make it better.'"
Walman being on the outside looking in for a matinee at the New York Islanders on Saturday is obvious to teammates who want to be supportive but also let the 30-year-old work through his struggles.
“Wally is a veteran, and I think he knows what he needs to do to get back in and impress our coaching staff in a way that they’re not able to take him out anymore,” Draisaitl said. "Wally’s been in the league, and he knows how to deal with it.”
Walman was with the Oilers when they made their second consecutive trip to the Cup final in 2025. But he was also around last spring when they got eliminated in the first round, prompting the firing of Kris Knoblauch, the hiring of Babcock as his replacement and other moves designed to prevent another early playoff exit.
Babcock is building the foundation of that now, with Walman the latest example of what has changed for a team with championship expectations.
“I can’t — anybody on our team can’t — play for him," Ekholm said. “He knows that too. But at the same time, we can also help him. We are a family in here, and we all want this team to be as best we can. He’s a big part of that.”
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Edmonton Oilers' Jake Walman (96) defends against Detroit Red Wings' Dylan Larkin (71) during third period NHL hockey action in Edmonton, Alberta, Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. (Codie McLachlan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Edmonton Oilers' Jake Walman (96) defends against Toronto Maple Leafs' Gavin McKenna (92) during the third period of an NHL hockey game in Edmonton, Alberta, Saturday, Oct. 24, 2026. (Codie McLachlan/The Canadian Press via AP)
Christa Pike said Friday she remains in constant pain, struggles to speak and has been largely isolated in a prison hospital after surviving a lethal injection in Tennessee last month.
In her first public statement since, Pike said she's “deeply hurt by the incompetence that has put so many people in this terrible position.”
“I continue to think about my victim’s family,” she said, “and the terrible pain and loss they have endured.”
Pike and her boyfriend tortured and stabbed a 19-year-old classmate, Colleen Slemmer, to death in 1995. Pike was 18 at the time, making her one of the youngest women sentenced to death. Slemmer’s mother traveled from Florida to witness Pike’s execution.
Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital that her lawyers say probably didn't enter her bloodstream correctly and instead pooled in her arms, leaving them burned and blistered. Unconscious, she was hospitalized on a ventilator for days, and at one point her lawyers said they didn't expect her to survive.
“There hasn’t been a moment since that night when I haven’t been in pain. My body hurts. My arms hurt. My hands hurt. My throat hurts. I still struggle to speak,” Pike said. “And the pain isn’t just physical. There is pain in my mind and in my soul.”
Pike said she had been prepared to die in peace, but instead woke up alone and confused in a hospital bed. She said she's “searching for meaning in what happened to me.”
“I don’t know why I survived that night. I don’t know what comes next,” Pike said in a statement dictated to her legal team from prison.
Pike remains sentenced to die, and her attorneys want Republican Gov. Bill Lee to change that to life in prison. However, Lee told reporters this week, “I suspect her sentence will be the same as before unless determined otherwise by the courts.”
The governor has tapped a former U.S. attorney to conduct an independent review of the failed execution, and has postponed the state’s other lethal injection scheduled for this year.
Pike's lethal injection was plagued by problems. Her attorneys had warned that her small veins and diagnosis of thrombocytosis, a blood-clotting disorder, could make IV access difficult.
In a court document, her attorney Randy Spivey said the execution team struggled to get working IV lines in Pike’s arms and expressed concern that a vein might be “blowing.” Pike remained awake for much of the lethal injection, saying her arm hurt and burned before falling unconscious. The execution began just before 7:30 p.m., and an ambulance arrived at the prison about an hour and 45 minutes later.
The failed execution has brought renewed scrutiny to how Tennessee carries out death sentences.
In a 2025 deposition released with court documents this week, prison Warden Kenneth Nelson said the execution team doesn't practice inserting IV lines during training sessions, at the directive of the prison commissioner. Nelson said he did not know why the practice was discontinued or when the order was given.
Practicing insertion of IVs was part of Tennessee’s prior execution protocol, but it is not included in the state’s new protocol.
Dorinda Carter, a spokesperson for the Tennessee Department of Correction, said she could not comment on the filing because of pending litigation.
Frank Strada, commissioner of the Department of Correction, announced his resignation in the wake of Pike's failed execution. His final day is Oct. 31, Carter said.
FILE - In this image from video provided by WBIR-TV, Christa Pike cries after being sentenced to death on March 30, 1996 in Knoxville, Tenn. (WBIR-TV via AP, File)
FILE- This photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Christa Pike on Jan. 12, 2023. (TDOC via AP)
