Ex-Oiler D Ethan Bear appears to call out his former Edmonton teammates

Former Edmonton Oilers defenseman Ethan Bear was dealt to the Carolina Hurricanes this past offseason, and he's been enjoying a productive campaign with his new teammates as part of one of the NHL's top teams. 

But in a recent interview with The Athletic, Bear appeared to be calling out the leadership of the Oilers for what he feels was a lack of support following his costly turnover in Game 4 of their stunning 1st round sweep at the hands of the Winnipeg Jets. 

Take a look for yourself: 

In the third period of Game 4, Bear attempted a pass up the middle from the right corner of the defensive zone, which was intercepted by Jets captain Blake Wheeler. Within a few seconds, Mark Scheifele scored to tie the game.

Bear put his head down and whacked his stick on the ice in disappointment. He didn’t see the ice again until the third overtime period, when he got one shift just before Kyle Connor ended the Oilers’ season.

By that time, the commenters were already out in full force.

“If you watch that series again, I had a really good series,” Bear says. “I had one mistake on a game-tying goal, and it was like I gave up the whole four-game series. That’s what I’ve never understood. It was the one thing that people wanted to point their fingers at.”

The Oilers returned to Edmonton. With end-of-season meetings and players ready to go their separate ways for the summer, team camaraderie wasn’t running high.

“The one thing that sucked is I didn’t feel like I had much support when it happened,” he says. “It was such a weird thing to go through, and it just felt like I was alone.”

Of course, it didn't hep that Bear, an Indigenous Canadian, had to deal with racial abuse on social media soon afterwards. However, he made it clear that he's loving his time with his new team. 

“Going to Carolina was the best thing for me,” he says. “It gave me that spark again, to want to prove to people that I am a good player.

“Once it happened, it was a relief for me. Going into the season, I don’t know how I would have survived going through all that again.”

Is Bear calling out his former teammates here?