Oilers couldn’t even wait for game to end to fire Peter Chiarelli

At least they let him beat the traffic.

During the second intermission of their game against the Red Wings on Tuesday night, the Oilers met with president of hockey operations and general manager Peter Chiarelli and told him he was fired. The team he built went on to lose 3-2, falling to 23-24-3 heading into the All-Star break.

“I thought it was right that Peter would have the chance to leave the building in the way that he saw fit,” CEO Bob Nicholson told reporters Wednesday at a press conference announcing the decision. “I can tell you I had a good conversation with Peter. He was very professional about it. I’ve already had a couple texts back with Peter. But the focus for me was to be able to get in front of the staff and get in front of the leadership group and the players before they went on break and we did that [Tuesday] night.”

Nicholson clarified that the decision to fire Chiarelli already had been made before the game and that the first two periods going differently Tuesday night — the Red Wings held a 2-0 lead — would not have changed his mind.

“It was really felt, with the way the team was trending, that we had to make this change,” Nicholson said. “Some of the moves we’ve made have not worked, and I felt Peter had done everything he could to make this team better, so we needed a new direction.”

Chiarelli, the former Bruins GM, had taken over the job with the Oilers in 2015. Under his leadership, they went 137-133-26, only making the playoffs in 2017, when they lost in the second round.

The Oilers fired head coach Todd McLellan earlier this season just 20 games in and replaced him with Ken Hitchcock, but still felt the need to make further changes.

“There’s something in the water here in Edmonton that we don’t have right, and we gotta get that figured out,” Nicholson said.