The Edmonton Oilers can’t possibly be this bad. Last night was such a poor display of hockey I’m reminded of the days of the swarm. It’s different though, Dallas Eakins didn’t have the two piss cutters at center and sure as hell didn’t have this level of defense (the Oilers have a good defense) when things went wrong. However, Eakins paid the price when things got really bad, and that option is not far from entering the chat this season.
The Oilers played without confidence, certainty or conviction last night. If they had a plan, it wasn’t shared with everyone. I’m not going to do numbers or what to expect in November or any of the usual today, because I think the most important item for Oilers fans today is contemplating a change in direction for this organization.
The pressure is on everyone. Change must occur. The coach, the goalie, the breakouts, something has to improve. The current Oilers are unwatchable, and that’s impossible with the Glimmer Twins but here we are. If this organization is the Rolling Stones, we’re halfway through “Mixed Emotions” wondering where the magic wand has gone.
Dallas Eakins arrived amid much fanfare and the promise of a new tomorrow. The early promise bled out before we saw a November dawn. Same as it ever was. However, he didn’t have the horses. This is something else again.
Eakins is remembered mostly for The Swarm. It cut down on chances but the chances given were pure dynamite. I can still remember the puck coming out to Joffrey Lupul and he had all day to hammer it past Devan Dubnyk.
Eakins did other things that were unusual. Playing Nuge 28:20 fresh from an injury was an option, and playing Taylor Hall at center was another. Thing is, he tried and had the freedom to do so, because the Oilers weren’t very good in some very important positions.
That was then, this is now.
One of the quotes I always remembered from Eakins was this one: “We’re trying to morph this team into a team that’s going to use their skill greatly, but be a defence-first minded team.”
I think that’s the Achilles heel of the Edmonton Oilers. I have no doubt Eakins tried, and all the others, too. Kris Knoblauch is trying, God love him, but his team is either confused about the plan, indifferent about the plan, or actively working against the plan. There are no other reasonable explanations for what we saw last night. None.
One more thing: when the McDavid-Draisaitl era is over, defensive awareness and commitment to suppression across the roster, top to bottom, will be one of the reasons this group fell short of the Stanley Cup. Tweaking the words of Craig MacTavish: sooner or later, you have to move the needle defensively. These Oilers need to find a plan, buy in like it’s the last chance Texaco, and play the next game with purpose and conviction. These men owe it to Oilers fans after last night in Buffalo.
On the Lowdown today, we’ll be joined by Daniel Nugent-Bowman at The Athletic to talk about last night’s debacle. The roundtable will make its Tuesday return, and it should be a ring-a-ding-dong-dandy. Noon to 2pm, Sports 1440 and You Tube.
Summarizing!
Lafreniere scored a shortie for his 15th tally of the season and added an assist.
Prospecting takes a break until Freya’s Day.
Someone get Wolf off the Flames before his career gets cratered.
It’s high time for the Oil to be taking Calgary’s goalies again.
Former ‘17-18 Stockton Heat Star – Big Save Dave – just defeated the Dallas Stars and Jason Robertson 3-2 in Dallas tonight. He improved his record to 5-2 for the Islanders, a team that signed him to a one year, one million dollar contract on Canada Day 2025.
If the Oil can sign Mike Smith on Canada Day 2019, as a 37 years old free-agent goaltender coming off a declining statistical season in Calgary with a well earned reputation for inconsistency and puck-handling gambles, then surely we could sign Big Save Dave on Canada Day 2026? And if not BSD then how about Dan? Vlador’s having a moment too. Dustin Wolf maybe shooting for the moon but we should be pursuing.
PS. Where’s my favorite member of the goaltender tandem union, Mikko Koskinen?
Macklin Celebrini joins Connor Bedard with a hat trick tonight.
Sharks beat the Mammoth in OT.
Solid night for Ingram – stops 24 of 26 in a 5-2 win.
The kids continue to be alright (Leppanen is really starting to settle in, Hutson is legit on fire, as is Samanski, Howard, Jarventie, Marjala, Akey making great plays, etc.)….
Just watched the highlights. Hutson and Howard are making some incredible plays, Samanski looks legit, Ingram seems to have gotten his game back after a couple of tough outings, and Jarventie gets another goal (albeit an empty netter).
There’s some good things happening on the farm, and we haven’t been able to say that since Macleod and Skinner graduated,
Hutson to Howard and another far blue line ENG.
Jarventie with the own blue line empty net goal.
Watching the Sharks – Mammoth game.
Randy Hahn, born in Edmonton and Drew Remenda from Saskatoon talking about the Riders winning the Grey Cup.
Condors top line follows up the goal with a massive minute long cycle shift.
Leppanen down low to Jones with a shot from the right circles – hits Samanski but he finds the loose puck and bangs it in.
Samanski’s 3rd multi-point game in the last 5.
Condors first lead, 3-2
Condors with their own wonderful PP1 goal – whip it around for a minute, Leppanen puts it on net, Marala tips it, save, Hutson finds it, doesn’t rush, changes the angle and pots one from the slot.
Whoa, flames with a beauty PPG – goalie from behind his own net, stretch pass to the neutral zone, one touch pass for the breakaway as the catch the Condors on a line change – off the post and in.
2-1 Wranglers early in the 2nd.
Must read:
https://x.com/JhanHky/status/1990941751616622800?s=20
Reading this thread on Twitter with the videos, it seems evident that Paul McFarland is a big part of the problem as are possibly his “quick hit transitions”. 97, 29, 2, 14 have adapted and everyone else is sinking.
@LT Jack Han needs to be on your show to speak to this!
I’ve commented a few times that Adam Oates has this as a criticism of how some teams play offensively. Too spread out and only the top players can still produce
Innovative is great, experimental isn’t for this team in its context. This is surprising given how the panthers have shackled them. Double up on things that are easy to shut down like long bombs, if the other guys know about it. Knobby needs to get things under control
There is a balance between good defense and production, both have been sinking over time. Need to find it
McFarland coached with the Panthers for 2 season (17-18 thru 18-19).
It’s Maurice’s system that has shackled the Oilers.
This puts a very different light on what’s going on with the entire team – running a system only a few people are capable of executing.
KK needs to figure this out.
How is it that teams like Colorado and Vegas can make upgrades, move goalies, and generally keep on winning while there are “no clear upgrades” for the Oilers?
A lot of it is timing. I used to criticize Holland because he constantly backed himself into a corner and then complained about the cap. He was not good at making deals – he could do them, but mostly overpaid and overtermed, often both
It was interesting that when Staios left and was first interviewed and asked about his plan, he mentioned the cap wasn’t a problem. If you can make good hockey trades, don’t cap yourself out in an inflexible way, or bleed out assets too much, when that time comes you can pounce
GMs can say whatever they want.
Currently, Staios manages a team that has not got passed bubble/1st round status.
Brains and balls.
How is it with all these great moves those orgs make, they can’t beat, or go further than, the Oilers in the playoffs the last two seasons?
They’ve won the same number of cups as the Oilers. Could go back one or two more seasons if you want. Oh yeah, that 9-1 game was pretty recent
This is a wild comparison. The ultimate goal is to win the Stanley Cup. The Avs have done so. But not every year. After winning the cup finishing 2nd is the next best. The Avs haven’t sniffed this since winning the cup. The Oilers have the last two seasons. Winning one regular season by a large margin doesn’t make either team’s decisions on players better. They sure did win that game a week and a bit again.
Condors get it RIGHT back.
Akey steps up at blue to thwart the zone exit, Samanski picks it up, drops it to Howard, he does cross ice to Hutson, Huston returns it on shot pass and Howard tips it in for his first.
Beautiful goal.
Scrambly goal against – knucklepuck from the blue line gets knocked down, scramble in front, puck in Ingram’s skates, he flops back and its banged in.
Same lineup for the Condors except Max Jones is back and replaces D’Amato on the 4th line.
Ingram starts.
Saturday was a hell of a fun game.
What’s in store tonight?
I would think personally Pickard next start in Washington or Tampa will be the 2nd biggest of his career. If he has a terrible game I think Bowman pulls the chute. I’m obviously cheering he has a great game and gets a badly needed win. What’s James Reimer up to or Fluery I’m kinda kidding but I think either one of these 2 could still get hot. Bowman needs to make a move if we lose the next 2 games we need a stop gap Goalie Now.
Lose the next two games and it likely won’t matter much at all.
You would think Bowman would of had a plan B? Most of Hockey pundits knew that Goaltending was going to be iffy at best. Maybe Bowman has become soft and he needs to be replaced by someone that’s proactive and has more vision.
Now that, is a classic troll
Just math.
Moneypuck currently has the Oilers with a 22.2% chance of making the playoffs.
Lose the next 2 games and that will drop into the low teens.
When is American Thanksgiving anyway?
You should have said that mentioning your reasoning and sources. In reality, that isn’t true, because of the players on the Oilers, and what they have shown what they can do. Not that it will happen, but we know that they can – barring injuries. A side effect of having two all time talents on one team, and a bunch of other very good players
Are you suggesting only the Oilers have elite talents?
As we speak, both Connor Bedard and Macklin Celebrini have scored two goals apiece (11 and 12 for both) half way through their respective games.
The time are a changing.
Bedard with the a hat trick (11,12,13) as the Hawks win 5-2.
Now within 1 point of McDavid with 2 games in hand.
Gregor’s latest at ON this afternoon suggests the likely return date for Nuge is the 29th in Seattle
Prospecty!
A two-goal, 1st-star performance last time out has Tommy Lafreniere at 14 goals, tied for 5th in the Dub. Ten helpers gives him 24 points in 21 GP on the season.
Will he fill the net some more tonight? All will be revealed when the luck drops at 8 p.m. Silver Sands time.
A mural depicting Colby Cave is being unveiled in his hometown of North Battleford, SK.
(FYI, the Stars logo in the lower left is not for the Dallas but rather his SJHL team, the Battlefords North Stars.)
Such a great thread. As a coach I love the discussion about tactics but unfortunately it’s the one part of the game we have so little access to and I don’t care who you are; you can’t really see anything with the naked eye. And none of the journalists with access are (hockey) smart enough to really dig in on this stuff. Bruce Curlock has the chops but doesn’t have the access. So it really ends up being all on Stauffer leaking out whatever the team wants him to leak out.
We know what true Stanley Cup pedigree looks like for the Edmonton Oilers;
This level of play takes luck and even goaltending away as variables and only injury costs you a Stanley Cup. The Colorado Cup win is the perfect example.
The Oilers have been oh so close to checking all of these boxes over the past few years.
In 2022/23 the year they got Ekholm that 5-man unit hit 61% xG once he arrived. Leon didn’t have the running mates for dominance (51%) and it all came crashing down against Vegas when he, Nuge and Nick Bjugstad took turns joing Nurse and Ceci against Eichel and getting destroyed.
In 2023/24 McDavid’s unit was the very best the NHL has seen in recent years. Hockey perfection to the tune of 62.5% xG in Hyman’s case. But even better news, Leon Draisaitl (with McLeod and Foegele) finished the entire season with an xG of 58%. This will be looked back on as THE preeminent team of this Oilers era. I think the nerves of the Cup final put them in a hole which their dominance almost pulled them out of.
Last year was also a dominant group with >60% from all of Hyman, Leon, McDavid and Ekholm. And the upgrade of Ceci to Walman gave them 3,4,5 defensemen ALL over 54%. But they couldn’t get a save and almost every player saw their GF% lag their xG% by 5+ points. Then the injuries hit and the limp to the finish line and if we’re being honest, they were a “worst play of the decade” play by Byfield from being eliminated by the Kings in round 1. They whipped the Knights and had a wild “score effects” series against the Stars that drove DeBoer over the edge (never led once!). But Hyman got hurt and Florida honestly was just monstrous by the time they added Jones and Marchand.
Now here we are and knowing full well what Cup Pedigree looks like. It looks like McDavid, Bouchard, Ekholm, Hyman and Nuge putting teams in a 70 second spin cycle and generating scoring chance after scoring chance. This ain’t that.
McDavid’s unit and Leon’s unit are around 53% xG, below average for a first line, and we can see it with our own eyes. They get cycled on more than they cycle others. They are choosing to share the Ekhom and Bouchard minutes rather than giving them only to McDavid and here’s why.
Darnell Nurse has seem his game crater to below 42% xG (40% GF%). That is 7th worse in the entire NHL among qualifying defensemen. And that’s with most of his minutes with either 29/97. The other guys around him are 3rd pairing guys on bad teams but if you want a fireable offense….
The Coaches have played Nurse the second most minutes in the NHL at 5v5, 2 minutes behind Gavrikov and his 57%xG. He’s played 10 minutes more than Werenski. 50 minutes more than Toews. 70 minutes more than Heiskenen and Makar. 100 minutes more than Charlie McAvoy (same games played).
Is Mr. Stuart watching?
This ia great way to frame things. Thanks for so succinctly laying out your take.
Great post.
I long for the days when the between period coverage was not “here’s where and how to bet on sports” but a guy with a screen drawing lines about what is happening in the play. It would do the fan base so much good to have a tactician outline what is happening on the ice instead of talking heads discussing “heart” and “effort.”
Howie Meeker was ahead of his time.
That kind of analysis is available but, unfortunately, it is not in Canada.
Wayne Gretzky, Henrik Lundqvist, Anson Carter and Paul Bissonette are the between periods panel on TNT and they are exceptional.
Blake Bolden, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Ray Ferraro, Mark Messier, AJ Mleczko, T.J. Oshie, P.K. Subban, John Tortorella, Kevin Weekes and Dave Jackson (Rules Analyst) are all part of the ESPN analysis crew.
Even Amazon Prime Video does a much better job.
Analysts Jody Shelley, Thomas Hickey, and Shane Hnidy are very good.
And anchoring the Prime Monday Night sports desk all from on-site are Adnan Virk, Andi Petrillo, analyst Blake Bolden.
Sportsnet should be ashamed of itself.
I love every away feed i try that is TNT. Like it’s nice to see leon and mcdavid laughing in interviews actually enjoying it.
Yeah, quite a contrast to answering the same old trite questions from the Canadian sports media.
I guess that is why monopolies have universally been seen as bad by anyone credible. Canada is a smaller market, but not for hockey
Thank you.
McDavid isn’t able to do 1 though – he is 38% without Drai this season and was a tick below 50% last season. He was at 59% the prior year but I’m not sure he has that regular season game in him
Last season the team got caved without McDavid/Drai, until the playoffs and they were 24-11 goals in the playoffs – I don’t know how the team didn’t win the cup with the McDavid/Drai off minutes being dominating on the scoresheet.
What do you mean by “isn’t able”. He IS able. I showed that in three straight “seasons” (after Ek counts) he or his proxy for his 5-man unit has been over 60% xGF. That obviously includes some time with Leon but his 5-man unit has to get to near that number for me to believe this team is anything but a dart through.
Get him away from Nurse and let him cook with 14/2/18 and see if they can tilt some games.
OP has been saying McDavid isn’t generational now for well over a year, doesn’t matter what McDavid does as far as OP is concerned he’s a down trending player that is only going to worsen over time.
It’s tiresome but he’s determined for everyone to pat his back If McDavid isn’t putting up 2pts per game every game while defeating every attempt the opposition throws at him every single time out.
Hitting 100pts in a injured 67gp season is nothing special and should be treated as if he’s fallen off of a cliff.
I’ve never once ever said that – ever.
Kindly do NOT reiterate my positions considering you are unable to ascertain nuance.
What I mean is that, well, in recent seasons, he hasn’t done it, and I’ve show that he hasn’t.
Is he “able” probably – he used to be but he used to do more things that he can’t or doesn’t do now – including commit to making correct defensive decision.
FYI, this season, McDavid/Nurse without Leon is 55%, take away Nurse and McDavid is down to 25%
But that’s what I’m getting at. He did it last year. And the year before. And after Ekholm arrived the year before that. In all of those situations his xGF% was roughly 60%.
Of course he’s miles off the pace this year on that we agree but You seem to think there’s been this natural tail off but what I’m showing you is that this is a massive departure from every recent season.
Now on-ice metrics aren’t individual stats so have lots of noise but him reaching 60% xG is the line in the sand I’ve set as a required parameter. He’s done it before. Why isn’t he now?
He didn’t do it last year – he was below 50% without Leon (not near 60%).
Expected goals is something that I provide value in but always take it with a grain of salt (in particular on NST) but his regression in his defensive play over the last few years (eye test) are part of that.
The Nurse cliff isn’t his issue this season – as per my post, without Drai he is even worse if you take away Nurse as well (as far as actual goal share).
I didn’t state “without Leon”. I said that in all 5by5 situations he did indeed do it. So yes, some time with Leon, some time without but over a much larger sample size he achieved the needed 60%. Now if you want to point out that there are some other things to be concerned about in his numbers over recent years by all means.
Your set up had a McDavid line at 60% and a Leon line at 55%.
So, in order for McDavid to do that, he would have to be away from Leon.
Am I concerned? Yes, of course.
Am I catastrophizing the first quarter of the season, firing coach’s and closing windows? Absolutely not.
This team is exactly one win behind last year’s team and many ahead of the prior year’s team. Ya, ya, I know, OT wins and it “looks different” this year – I get it.
Yup, it looks different this year but it also looks the same – team underperforming expectations in many areas and as individuals.
Maybe this is the year it doesn’t turn around, certainly a possibility.
At the same time, I don’t presume McDavid will be a 38% goal share player away from Drai and I expect him to dial in his 2-way game – as one example.
I expect Walman to be much better.
I expect Nurse will get better (yes, I know, he’s not a $9.25MM player but he IS much better than he’s played)
In any event, vibes are low, I get it, last night sucked – a Monday night game in Buffalo in November in the middle of 11 games in 11 different cities – shit happens.
Even if these team doesn’t make the playoffs or bows out early, lets not forget, the McDavid savings come this off-season when Bowman does have the ability to re-tool the team with a ton of cap space – even with the big cap commitments.
Also, Condors play tonight and they are super fun – always reason to be excited.
I think at some point something needs to happen to catalyze a change in the way they are playing. I agree, points wise, they are still right in the thick of it, but really that is by luck and they are good in OT. The OT prowess likely stays, but the luck may not. The minutes they are feeding to McDrai to try to stay in games is not sustainable. They will wear down in a condensed schedule. They need more from the rest of the line up and they need it soon. So what happens that snaps them out of it? Fire the coach and get a goalie.
There is a major difference this season.
The teams that have been in rebuild mode are arriving en masse making it much more difficult to recover from a poor start.
In the WC, Anaheim, Seattle, Chicago all hold down playoff spots and even the Sharks are much better at .500 with games on hand over many above them in the stands.
Moneypuck currently has the Oilers finishing 5th in the Pacific and with Colorado and Dallas staring to pull away from the pack the number of available spots is diminishing.
The offseason may not be the salvation you think it is as the list available, desirable UFA’s is shrinking fast and the Oilers $18,7 million in cap space will shrink quickly once they attempt to sign TWO legit NHL goaltenders, sign Roslovic (he’s gonna get paid) and a replacement for Kulak.
And here’s a taste of the free cap space the rebuilders will have in the offseason:
SJS – $54.4 million
CHI – $53.7 million
DET – $41.8 million
ANA – $41.4 million
MTL – $27.9 million
UTH – $27.7 million
While these teams have not been prime free agent destinations for awhile, you can count on that changing as their elite young stars continue to grow.
I was actually impressed when i looked at how much wings will have. I shpukdn’t be cheering for detroit but i honestly like the team.
They’re actually fun to watch as are many of the teams on the rise.
There are always changings of the guard. And many of those teams will cap out, make decisions that don’t turn out, or whatever. It’s a very hard thing to do to go from competitive to Cup challenging over years
I had faith in the last few seasons at this point when very few did. I saw a lot of chaos and discombobulation. But the outline of a great team was there. My refrain was, talent doesn’t just up and die.
But maybe it can be killed? This year the spirit is missing. The will. It must be an emotional lobotomy to go to a second Finals against a the same team twice and to have no answers.
This is what i worry about. Total burnout on the mission. And I sometimes wonder if taking a beat this year will benefit the middle term. This is why I think the best bet right now is Howard and Savoie in the top 6 with a separated Leon and Connor. Balance, pride, development….
People will say “the NHL isn’t a development league!” yeah but c’mon. There is enough raw talent on this team that if you “forget” about winning and focus on fun (ie. playing the game cause you love it) and fundamentals (focus on the immediate — not over extending but learning from each other) in an atmosphere where mistakes are OK but accountability is modelled, then you will win enough to buoy you to an even stronger position when the cap opens up.
To me, it looks like this team took just fundamentally the wrong philosophical approach to a very particular season.
It’s the compressed schedule bit that should elevate concern higher on current operations.
Need a competent 2 goalie system as too many back to backs and 3 in 4’s plowhorse teams are goimg to regret it i bet… we presently have 7/16th of such a thing.
At the minutes drai and mcdavid are at and thst both obviously will be playing in best on best olympics after two as extended as one can get without a cup ring battles to death -> elevated risk of horses not finishing trip if something doesn’t change
I remain hopeful.. but not due to any empirical evidence that shows me I should.
Last nights game was frustrating due to it being against Buffalo which is an assumed win despite schedule, so not being in the game at all is frustrating. There are many possibilities/excuses I could come up with for last night, not the least of which is schedule and travel.
The game, imo, that showed we have a systems issue is the Colorado 9-1 game shellacking. That was at home after 3 days rest, the same that Colorado had. Those two teams seemed leagues apart. The Oilers are ‘caught in between’ at the moment. It looks like they are not trying but I believe they are thinking too much, not playing by instinct.
I am not a coach so I’m not sure what system(s) they are trying to implement but it’s not working. Do coaches abandon systems at this stage or do they double down and just talk of poor execution?
I don’t think these systems fit our personnel from what I can tell.
This years schedule does not allow for time to work on systems enough so if players are confused or caught between, as it appears, there isn’t time and space to fix it. You just cross your fingers and hope they start executing..
or
Fire them all! Coaches I mean.
The Oilers have won something like 3 of the past 10 against Buffalo.
I don’t know if its us who lack the long/medium-term memory, the team, or both.
#FIRETHEMALL
Are we actually seeing a new system? I don’t know that we are. I think what we’re seeing is a few things:
I was relieved when it atarted looking like they made some set plays and adjustments to PP as it was just disturbingly stagnant at start of year and teams clearly had the tutorial on how to chest for locked in.
And that’s a big reason why, for the first time in quite awhile, coaching is number one with a bullet this round for me.
Like they just kept doing it. Goalie is prematurely sliding across expecting drai shot, forward is skating out aggressively when puck starts heading to bouchard. And they kept just banging head into wall. To not see that required adjustment (like needed to try some other options) game after game there was driving me bonkers.
The Oilers have a lot of creative players. Imagine being one of them and the coaching not catching up to it. Frustrating for sure. When you have a veteran team with this much skill, I don’t see why you can’t keep the other team on the back foot with creative coaching
The guys should be able to do it, and I don’t mean turning full ass hat, I mean augmenting the base with new tactics to score, and keep evolving as the league tries to keep up. Worked before, in a time when nobody thought anything new was possible
Remember when we had a promising young coach who lost to Vegas, went back to the drawing board, and implemented a completely new system, and was fired a few months later? This season has the exact same feeling to it.
The most disappointing coaching firing was seeing Woodcroft go out the door. Those losses in the playoffs seem to do to something to the minds of the coaches in Edmonton, where they focus more on the loss than what got them to the playoffs in the first place. They abandon what was successful in order to pursue a game plan for the one team that beat them.
When Woody slammed the bench door arrogantly after a series win I knew bad things were brewing. There are things that don’t fly – Hall talking about the stench of the season, DeBoer trashing his goalie etc etc. Either it isn’t palatable, or it reveals a character flaw that needs attention
Coaching candidates I would interview:
Mark Messier
Gardiner MacDougall
Dan Watson
Steve Hamilton
Ryan McDonald
Peter Laviolette
Gary Roberts
Doug Weight
Adam Nightingale
And that was just from a quick bit of research with no insider info. I’m sure there are more interesting folks out there as well.
Laviolette would be brilliant choice IMO. Seems to be able to quite effectively slide in and get solid results pretty much anywhere he’s been.
An extremely experienced winning coach who is older than players by solid step change seems ideal ahe difference wise to have more authority figure respect built. Right idea over another wetting their beak 1st major league coaching job in 40’s.
I heard a radio interview with him a few days ago.
He says he’s been watching a lot of hockey and refining has approach to the game and wants to get back in.
I was impressed with his candour and intelligence.
He’s a good coach and owes this city a Stanley. Let him pay his debt.
Oh gmhe seems like great get.
Young enough and willing to go back to AHL hungry to get back in and guy whose track record shows pretty positive impact in a variety of placs after he arrives by anf large.
A guy who has shown he has whst it takes to maximize what he has available. Adaptability assured to a bit higher degree and that’s needed with this team.
The only guy missing from that list that came to my mind was maybe boudrea might be a good fit.
The offense would surely improve at least.
I don’t know much about Laviolette but this team could sure use this speech from when he was coaching the Flyers:
https://youtu.be/YvBsTrPO0p0?si=RBV1Rth0jGBaUC78
Interesting thing about Laviolette is his systems are similar to what KK is running now. Forwards fly the zone early (especially in period 2), they don’t break out as a 5 man unit but like the defense to skate it out.
He might be good on a 12 month contract but his effect with his players wears out quickly.
He appears to be: flexible, a “study and improve” type, bring fire, and will bring the respect of having won before.
I like that combo.
And give me a 12 month boost to a Cup any day – you can figure out what comes next after the parade.
Was watching their dzone play closely the last couple games, especially against Carolina and Buffalo, and come the theory that the wingers are collapsing too quickly, often when there is no reason collapse at all.
This leaves the cycle wide open and keeps them hemmed in far too long. The wingers should collapse only when there is an uncovered player in the slot. Far too often they’re standing in the middle of the ice covering no one when the play is the opposite side. It then comes back around and no one is there.
Wingers need to play tighter to their dman and not get too far away from the boards so they can cut it off and get up the ice. Everytime they miss that assignment it’s asking a lot of your dman to shift over quickly and break the cycle. After two or three rotations the D are tired, lose their man, and makes it extremely tough to get it out under control.
Watching other teams, especially Carolina and Columbus, their wingers hold their position and either cut it off, force the dman back out of the zone, or into a soft dump where their D have it sealed off.
The oilers are spending far too much time in their own zone and, for me, it’s primarily due to collapsing too soon then expanding too late and tiring themselves out in the process.
If pucks get out quicker a lot of their other problems will solve themselves.
Especially last night – the forwards collapsed to take away the middle of the ice – let the other teams have the outside.
Challenge is where do you go when you finally get puck possession? First thing you think about is a 7-iron lob or an attempted stretch pass.
I’m far from a coach so thank you for explaining this. Makes a lot of sense.
Another thing I find defensively for the Oilers is that they are incredibly poor at clearing the front of the net and during the playoffs when teams are aggressive, it’s even worse.
The amount of times one of the goalies is in position but the shot is tipped just in front of the net and goes a completely different direction is crazy. Many times I say “That wasn’t a bad goal” because it wasn’t a goalie mistake, rather the forward was allowed right in front, usually with the defenceman next to him or right behind him but not actually attempting to let the goalie track the puck the whole way.
I feel similar about Hellebuyck as during the season he is able to track the puck very well but during the playoffs, they no longer have players like Byfuglian or Trouba to clear the front of the net and he loses the puck more often.
I always think about Bieksa saying Luongo would yell at them to get out of the way so he could see the puck and make the stop. Doesn’t mean don’t be in passing lanes and part of the shooting lane but make sure the goalies eyes are clear. Can’t stop something you see for half a second then it disappears into players and tips through.
Did Manson go with Woodcroft to Anaheim? What about Coffey for head coach and Manson for D?
Manson is in the AHL as an assistant with San Diego at the moment.
Manson likes glass and out apparently as Desharnais said. That’s not going to fly and it’s not good hockey outside of an emergency play
A ugly loss in an ugly season so far.
It was reasonable to expect some fatigue and burn out so some turnover was required. The additions of Mangi and Lazar weren’t the answer, at least not in isolation. Neither is helping this team. Same Frederic. Sure hope he’s still working the kinks out of that ankle.
The rookies have been mostly banished. Everyone would have more patience if there were some stinky losses because the rookies were cutting their teeth – short term pain for long term gain. This isn’t what’s happening though.
Coach KK has a new assistant in McFarland and an elevated Mark Stuart. We haven’t seen evidence that either are helping. Neither have stellar resumes either.
Coach KK helped this team to Cup finals, regardless of what anyone says. It seemed he was out coached in last year’s final for not making adjustments to counter what the Panthers were doing. Is this why we are seeing a new system this season? Why wasn’t this being ironed out in the preseason? His general approach to preseason is frustrating, so is his overplaying of McDrai. Does he have any answers?
So many players playing far below their established levels. Is this the fatigue and disinterest in the regular season? Or is this the new system and new coaches? Guess we will find out how good of a GM Stan Bowman is as he’s the guy that needs answer the tough questions.
Lots of stink. Lots to sort out. Waiting for a huge turn around like the last two seasons doesn’t seem reasonable. Either figure it out soon or accept the season for what it is and use it to retool. Wandering in mediocrity doesn’t work.
Perry seems to be doing alright for a fossil. It’s our system we need more offence but we must continue to play trap because of weak Goaltending. Only way we win is baby our stellar Goalies and and go 2-4 on PP night in night out
— I’ve been chewing on this theory about how the compressed schedule because Olympics has resulted in a really mushy standings for the most part
— I think the greatest independent variable : a teams schedule, is contributing significantly to league results where so many teams have near identical records.
— Oil have been on 4 planes in last 6 days and they just played an opponent who have been at home since a quick flight from Detroit on Sunday.
— we tend to make over reaching pronouncements, getting tricked into conclusions based on variables that are not as significant.
— I agree that this team has lots of flaws. By far the single variable that influenced the result yesterday is the variance associated with the relative short-term rest and wear of the respective teams..
— Not an excuse but this is a unique season and there are going to be lots of games where one team has had a lot different schedule coming into any single game that will take the whole season to at least sort itself a bit
— From the 25th of November to 2nd week of Dec Edmonton is going to be facing a lot of teams that are going through travel schedules like they are currently.
— If they don’t “eat” in those 7 games yeah a bigger problem IMO
Yes. This point cannot be understated.
Travel has a huge impact on results. Happened last year too.
— yeah. There is some truth to all the things identified. League mushy is because teams are facing each other tired more.
— By order of magnitude it’s the respective schedule of each team last night (4 planes 6 days vs at home after flight from Detroit Sunday) that attributes yesterday result IMO.
— then we magnify the other stuff, give too large weighting to them and yeah team not as good for sure.
I dunno, the Sabre’s schedule for the last week looked pretty similar to the Oilers. They traveled to SLC, then B2B in Denver and then had OT in Detroit. Both teams had Friday and Sunday off.
They have played two less games than the Oilers though.
— it’s not the cumulative games rather just the difference in the 2-4 days leading up to the game. Buffalo had 2 nights at home and an easy flight vs Edmonton 4 flights in 6 days on road
— that’s a massive difference in recovery for elite athletes. It’s the single biggest factor last night IMO and has not been factored into the in depth analysis of all that is wrong with the Oil.
Yes especially for Western Conference teams. This is why teams use the 2 Goalie system more and more because a tired team still has a rested Goalie hopefully keeping your tired team in it and all it takes is a lucky Goal or a timely PP Goal and you steal a point or game.
Great points. Still, there’s being a bit sluggish and getting beat to or on plays you are actually in, and there’s completely blowing it, and the constant clean looks at our net, right in front, lots of broken plays and odd man rushes against
That’s what concerns me, I don’t think that has to happen much, regardless of things that make it hard to be at your best. When it’s not happening, playing a smart simple game and sticking to the system, playing together, is how you deal with it. They need to get there, somehow
These Oilers are not committed. They lack the intensity and commitment to do what it takes to win.
They still have oodles of skill, they have experience, they have the knowledge. Yet they are not willing to do what it takes.
I have been on about it. Not to be confused with fighting, not exactly rugged edge, just sheer battle will and intensity to win. This is the reason Florida edged them out, it wasn’t skill. Oilers were not honest in their self assessment, chasing skill and more goals when they should have been chasing Holloway and 3 more like him.
Oilers still have skill, that is the hardest part. But skill cannot play all game, so much more is needed in all the hard areas of the game. High intensity players need to win all the small battles before puck goes in the net. Creating a goal or defending a goal, so much happens that goes into support or lack of support.
They need direction, leadership, inclusion, culture, and coaching. This is why Frederic was the player in Boston and a different player in Edmonton, this alone.
The final two games of the SCF Oil showed no belief, no hope, and consequently little effective effort. And that includes Knob not finding anything in response to FLA two years running. That pair of games remains my worst Oilers memory ever, counting the whole of the DoD start to finish.
I’m not convinced there is “oodles of skill” beyond the big 3.
Is the ineffectiveness of the roster due to lack of skill or lack of execution? I hope for the latter, but fear it is the former
I’ve said before, pro scouting is the Achilles heel of this organization.
Mangiapane has been a disaster. Athansiou without the boots.
Frederic. This was actually galaxy-brain level. Trade a second rounder for a guy out with a high-ankle sprain. Watch him be completely ineffective for the playoffs and decide you need to give him. 8-years at $3.8 million cap.
All these years, we really just needed a Dubas, a guy who could string together a bottom six that could tread water and score a bit on the cheap.
Tomasek too.
14GP 1G 2A 3P GF% 22.2
Yes, totally agree. There was some improvement during the Holland years but in general this has been bad forever. Remember the TDL load-up of 34 year old Jerrod Smithson?
Although you have to give credit that most of the major D acquisitions have worked quite well (Ekholm, Walman, Kulak), which is even more surprising considering they were all deadline deals.
Frederic is sunk cost fallacy in action, preceded by poor decision-making process in who to target. Considering the organization just saw their star player deal with a high ankle sprain, that was their deadline target? Were they trying to play cap shenanigans hoping he would return for playoffs?
Then he held all the leverage in negotiations, which again points to being the wrong target, but was anyone really offering him that rich of a contract on the open market? It felt like they negotiated against themselves after they painted themselves into a corner
An 8 year contract for Frederic is truly mind blowing stuff.
One cannot fix everything at once. The thing that has to be fixed first is the breakouts. Nothing else can be fixed without fixing the breakouts. All the marginal forwards will be better offensively if the breakouts are fixed.
Florida is successful because they play the simplest system that only requires hard work and effort to be successful.
There is a lot I don’t like about Knoblauch’s roster deployment, but it is hard to criticize a guy who has gone to two finals for roster deployment.
Knoblauch is also not playing an offensive system that Mangiapane and Frederic can play. These are straight line players that have to play a direct to the puck/net game, not this ring around the perimeter BS. They need to play in a play direct and fast offense.
Pure snipers like Jeff Skinner and Ike Howard are also basically useless in a ring around the perimeter game (because everyone has to be able to battle, and if one is playing around the perimeter, there are no soft spaces to sneak into opportunistically. Snipers are useful in play fast offenses. The slower the offense is, one needs multidimensional players, not specialists.
I think the Oilers play for zone time, i.e. play slow around the perimeter, when the rush chance fails because they are such a poor defending team.
I think playing McDavid and Draisaitl together a signficant amount is just plain dumb. It limits both the team’s and Draisaitl’s upside potential.
I’m curious what you think the O-zone plan is besides play to perimeter for zone time? Surely the coaches want to score some goals.
Nice post.
I believe due to Oilers construction he should view it as two halves of a roster that need coached differently.
Let me add what I think is the second fix. Pick up your man.
Don’t stand beside him, or just try to intercepts the puck. Or hope to lift his stick. Get your man and get engaged. Netfront, high slot, backcheck, simply pick your man to the point they cannot get to the net, a rebound, an open look.
Oilers are small, skilled, they want to disengage quickly to get open and up the ice. Drive shots and chances down by effectively picking up your man will reduce goals. Regardless of system, this will have an impact.
When your game is struggling, keep it simple.
100% agree that the breakouts (d zone structure) is the major Achilles heel to the team. It is what allows other teams to hem them in and prevents the offense from moving out with pace. Start with that and then once it is working better then fix the other stuff.
Lowetide wrote: “However, Eakins paid the price when things got really bad, and that option is not far from entering the chat this season.”
I think many people have justifiably been questioning the coach ever since he made it clear his plan was to run McDrai together for so long, while playing them way more minutes than makes sense.
I agree with others… losing Coffey was really unfortunate. If the Oilers continue to struggle, they *need* to fire the defensive assistant coach in the next couple of weeks. The alternative is to admit that this is another burnt year from McDavid’s and Drai’s careers. 🙁
It is hard to not judge the coaching system with so many players from past struggling at the same time. This is the worst I have seen Nurse but the same could be said for Kulak. Also Walman looks bad and the Viking and Bouch. All these defenseman didn’t suddenly turn garbage overnight.
Im not defending the Trent Fredric contract but he may be in the same boat as the rest of the team. Look at his two previous full seasons with Boston who was not a playoff team and he put up the goals, assists and total points. He was big and hit allot and had good speed. I can see why they wanted him.
Just for clarification, Frederic’s two big years were with Boston being a playoff team, 22/23 the Bruins had 130 something points. I agree with the comment besides that one point.
The Cassidy and Montgomery Bruins played direct and fast on offense. As a player, one does not have to think much, because everything unfolds quickly.
Pretty much the same with Mangiapane in Calgary.
Most teams funnel the play to the net, which simplifies the game of hockey. The Oilers do not.
I think part of the problem with the Oilers defense is that they practice against the Oilers offense.
Thanks for correcting that error. Either way Edmonton was a Stanley Cup finalist the last two years, aka making them the 2nd best team in the league 2 years running so I can see it reasonable to think he would perform as good or better than he did on a Boston team that wasn’t number 2 in the league.
Totally agree, seems he is still hurt, was playing on a team that was having a really good season and inflated his numbers, or this system does not fit him. Given the other players currently sucking, it looks like it might be the system.
I dunno. every year since the lockout/bubble season has been the ‘worst’ I’ve seen Nurse
The loss of Coffey.was tremendous. Coffey worked to the strengths of the players and they were a different team. He also clearly felt that that team needed the speed and more bite which is why there was allot of print about how he felt about Kane being traded. I would bet he wasn’t happy about Holloway either as his contract was not that high and he was young, fast, big and hit.
It is hard to imagine this team making a deep playoff run anytime soon.
The poor roster construction and asset management is going to come home to roost one day.
How many years will the Oilers McMiracle themselves into the finals?
The McDavid Oilers have never won a presidents trophy. That is embarrassing.
Once again, the team has mediocre goaltending, abysmal defending and terrible forward depth. Oh and a coach determined to make things worse.
I think that we have to be concerned about making the playoffs first before even entertaining how far they can go. As they are playing currently, I don’t believe that the playoffs is a given.
Playoffs? Playoffs? Im just hoping they win a game!
The core of this team that has played 200+ games In the past 2 seasons looks like they are sick of hockey. They aren’t interested in doing the dirty jobs that are in their job description.
When they are done playing in April they will feel relief.
Not disagreeing with your content but who cares if you win the Presidents Trophy? 2 of the last 3 years the Panthers barely sqeaked into the playoffs and have gone to the finals all 3 years with two cups. Winnipeg won the Presidents trophy and had tee times not long after Calgary.
I agree, not winning a Presidents Trophy has little to no bearing on anything.
Winning a president’s trophy is one indication that a team is a dominant team. Most Stanley Cup winners have won a PT within a few years of their Cup win.
It matters because it’s further evidence that the Oilers are not a dominant team and have generally failed to put together a dominant team. McD teams have been successful because of McDrai Magic.
Much of this roster showed it can play defence going to 2 straight Cup Finals. The GM decisions have been poor but this looks like either burnout/fatigue and we may not even make the playoffs, or if you’re glass half-full, they hugely disinterested in the regular season and trying to save energy for the Cup run.
They can’t score.
It isn’t the defending.
The record is actually being propped up by McDrai’s proficiency 3 on 3
The record in November is 5 losses and 4 OT wins.
They have yet to secure a regulation win in 9 games.
It’s hard to climb the standings when you gift the opposition 1 point half the time.
“It’s hard to climb the standings when you gift the opposition 1 point half the time.”
It’s harder to climb the standings when you gift the opposition 1 point half the time, and 2 points the other half…
The Oilers are 9th in the league in GF and are 30th in GA.
27th in 5 on 5 GF/60 (19th in overal GF/60).
Oiler have played up to 3 more games than a lot of teams and its still early enough to skew those numbers.
Oilers can’t score – I agree with the statement high level.
It starts for the defensive transition though.
LMHF didn’t state they can’t score 5v5. I was responding to his exact comment.
As Bowman stated yesterday, it al starts with the defending and, in particular, the inability to get the puck to the forwards in a transition game – that is like a combo of the d-men, the forwards and the systems.
Burnout and fatigue is real. This is why new players needed to be added AND played by the Coach. Playing the burnt out and fatigued player more isn’t the answer.
This isn’t on the head coach, this is on the roster construction. You had a GM a full year and a half into developing this roster.
He added Roslovic .
Dropped good players so he could add the worst defencemen the Oilers have ever put on the ice,
‘Analytics aren’t being used in roster construction, if they were we’d be seeing a completely different team.
you have 3 players maybe 4 doing anything.
this team isn’t making the playoffs and a good coach is going to be fired over a horrible GM
im pretty sure bowman didnt add nurse to this roster.
It’s the coach. Either the players aren’t doing what the coach wants and he isn’t holding them accountable to do it, or they are doing what he wants and It just doesn’t work. Either way, it’s the coach. I will blame the GM for not getting a goalie.
Are you talking about Walman?
HDCA/60 is middle of the pack. xGA/60 is middle of the pack. HDSV% and 5v5 SV% are worst in the league.
Team has too much offensive talent to be this unproductive.
Need 2 new goalies & a new coach.
Need some guys with decent size/awareness/intensity and puck tracking -> to go into dirty areas and shovel a bit more for rebounds.
By moneypuck measures:
1. oilers sit 27th best in league as far as rebound shots generated.@ 37 total. This is with a couple more games played than most teams in league (TBL @ 62 is 1st, SEA @ 25 is 32nd).
2. Oilers sit 19th best as far as total shots allowed off rebound @ 47 total. (CGY @ 31 is 1st, VCR @ 64 is 32nd).
* So, 1.3 ish rebound shots attempted per game vs 2.3 ish rebiund shots allowed. Likely a decent factor in the High Danger percentages for and against quite frankly. So lets check this factor in straight goals
3. Rebound GF = 2 (30th), GA = 9 (31st)
Yeah problem huge problem. Clear to eye. They aren’t defending home plate overly well with whatever this system is and they aren’t attacking it worth a damn either in a way that really matters. It’s slmost like they haven’t had any players willing to do dirty work…i imagine these numbers start improving with hyman by a degree but like magniapane/savoie/howard aren’t those guys. Yes they aren’t wallflowers but they simply aren’t going to power through with stick on ice to stand a chance. Nuge ain’t that guy either (nor do you really need him to be but i do truly think he has always seemed to be a much more dangerous scoring threat in middle of ice than defering to mcdavid or looking other side of net to send or recieve tap in.
Nuge’s benefit is less goals against when playing with mcdavid, great offensive awareness that he uses to be impressively effective at his part in cycling when needed like i couldn’t name a smoother winger on the boards. Underappreciated skill of his as he does it so gracefully most don’t really see it because it’s near collisionless somehow.
Dude is still my favourite. So understated and just thinks/sees the game so damn well it’s brilliant. But yeah, i think he has more to give than complimentary winger/defensive concious/secondary scoring threat. I think if you put him in charge of his own line and feed it respectable minutes this team is closer to contender than pretender.
I’m not writing off magpie by any stretch yet but frederic is a nightmare level miss so far given capstrung this team was.
Like my god holloway and foegle sent packing for what benefit? Like it just seems so nuts we let go off two of the type of player we really need and have spent as much or more of that money on undersized replacements. Just because oilers until i die lol.
But anyway i’m sure if i tried to dig further in ways to correlate what seems obvious by eye i swear the team still surely has some “raise the puckitis” factor that’s impacting the mid & high range danger chances.
Like goalies cover the bottom of the net more effectively thst anything and smacking it into their pads more often than not adds up to decreasing shooting percentages in noticable manner.
In short:
If another level of more finite measuring was available for “quality of chances” pretty sure we’d see A+ against and A- for being out of whack which sort of shows up anyway by just how bad their less detailed conversion rates are in comparison to other teams playing.
Skinner is not presently that big of a an issue. Backup clearly is. And team has lost it’s edge of outscoring mistakes. That there is biggest difference between this team and the past 2 years.
KK has managed to do the impossible: He’s taken the most electric, creative and exciting player of the last 30 years and made him boring and predictable. The system is riddled with meaningless point shots, killing momentum constantly. There’s no breakouts to speak of. Woodcroft was let go for much less, at least that team HAD good underlying numbers. This team flat-out stinks.
Fans have endured alot the last 25 years of Oilers hockey and this is the first team that is literally unwatchable(well maybe 2010 too). There is a palpable lack of effort from the top down.
Bowman has already shot himself in the foot by re-signing KK, failing to recognize how awful goaltending is, and giving Frederic the worst contract in team history(He BRINGS NOTHING). The coach won’t hold Nurse(who is one of the worst defensemen in the league this year, regardless of contract), or any player for that matter, accountable.
It’s a travesty that they have 2 of the greatest players of all-time and have wasted their prime years countess times. 4 regulation wins. FOUR.
It’s beyond embarrassing and McDavid, who gifted this organization with his re-signing, is out the door if they don’t do something soon. FIRE THE DAMN COACH
I don’t necessarily disagree, but I do question the premise (in this and other posts). If KK has buttoned them down to the point that they have stifled offense and creativity, wouldn’t that show up in the goals against? Wouldn’t a more expected score be a 2-1 loss to Buffalo (as an example)? It seems like they’re playing bad team defense and bad team offense. Indifference? Cup final hangover x 2? Coach lost the room? Multifactored combination? Hard to say from the couch… (except for we all know bad hockey when we see it). Every year I want them to cruise into the playoffs, befitting the talent they have and every year they disappoint. I still expect them to turn it around, hope it happens soon.
I don’t think so. He has the entire team collapsing around their own net, thus the other team has the puck. The other teams defense constantly hold the line (remember the days when the opponents d-men used to start backing off the second we got possession). Because the other team has the puck in our end and all our players are back around the net watching the puck handler decide what he wants to do with it.
I don’t like (or understand) what coach KK is doing this season, but I don’t see him being fired in short order. Not saying I agree, but I would think 2 trips to the Finals have bought him the opportunity to figure it out.
I don’t like how they are playing of course. The Panthers aren’t doing much better, but they have more injury issues
For me the line in the sand is what is happening that is causing the failures. Being in the play and getting beat by younger, more rested in the big picture, teams and players that want to knock off the McDavids is not great, but it’s understandable and in context
Complete breakdowns and an inability to execute NHL hockey is a different story. There are a few reasons why, it’s Bowman’s job to know what they are, as it is for any good NHL manager. He doesn’t seem like he doesn’t get the plot, so he needs to start moving if he isn’t, 20 games have come and gone
He says the goalies are being let down by the D, which is true. The emphasis seems to be on D play from the org as the core of the issues, that I’m not sure is completely true. It’s not Nurse’s fault when we get to see Connor do the ‘Gagner looking at the rafters also in photo’ thing after not taking care of his goal scoring check properly
We’re blaming 97 for Nurse being a complete liability now? Lol
No, I said that Connor blowing his responsibilities isn’t Nurse’s fault. His mistakes he owns as well
When Nurse starts leading the team to victories due to his dominant great play, sure let’s focus on a goal that McDavid missed his cover on.
Why can’t we focus on BOTH? McDavid and Nurse are both playing piss poor defensively.
Mcdavid is second in the league in scoring, McDavid is one of only a few players contributing to winning at all currently.
I’m not going to be on the bus blaming the best players when there’s an entire bus of players that deserve far more criticism and a critical eye compared to McDavid.
Nurse is literally one of the highest paid and worst defenders in the entire league, I’ll focus on the glaring obvious and not take any light away from that by dumping on McDavid.
Since Nov 1 Connor is up to GF% 50 5v5, so he’s getting his game together. Nurse and Walman are at 33%, the other 3 are no GF and 20GA at 5v5. Weird
The only F at 50% or better are Drai CMD and Hyman. Fred, Philp, Lazar, Janmark, Howard and Tomasek who round out the bottom in TOI (Nuge and Hyman not counting) have no GF. Hard to tell if it’s the D as Bowman says or the F
not without Leon – he’s 40% without Leon in November.
This is the thing
Great article LT. Only quibble I would make is I think this reminds me less of “Dallas Eakins swarm” and more of the final days of Woodcroft when they tried implementing the system change after losing to the Knights.
That was some of the most disorganized hockey I’ve seen them play, and they had most of the core they have today. Nobody knew their assignment and we were not getting the bounces then that we are this year. Their record could be much uglier today with a bit worse luck.
I think most would agree that they’re fortunate to have the record they do, which IMO is a double edge sword. A turnaround is still possible, but I think it’s also masking how bad they’re actually playing. “They’re only a few points out of Pacific lead” but which direction do we think they’re going to go? I know where I’d put my money…
At this point, I don’t see how things improve without a major change, and that starts with the coach(es). There’s too much talent to be playing this poorly.
I have had the same thought watching the oilers this year. It seems like they’ve theory crafted some kind of 4D chess strategy, but once put to real world use it just falls apart.
When KK took over, they didn’t have time to implement any fancy strategies. I believe he’s on record saying they just wanted simple, effective hockey and that’s what they got to the tune of two SCF appearances. I don’t know why they felt they had to go a completely different route like this, but it’s frustrating to say the least
Remember right after the SCF McDavid said something like “we can’t keep doing the same thing over and over again” and I believe his comment was targeted at their ineffective breakouts. Fast forward to now, Knoblauch has changed the breakouts but here we are in the same exact spot again. I refuse to believe the coaching staff and players don’t realize what’s not working, but they are doing the same thing game after game with the same (poor) results (but possibly expecting different results) which is widely understood as the definition of insanity.
Watching Nurse at the world juniors I thought he would be a premier 1/2 defensemen on this team for years and an easy Team Canada choice. Last night he was backing up so fast he was giving the opposition offensive rush so much room thought he was going to end up in the first row of the seats behind Skinner. Confidence must be very low.
The year Nurse scored 16 goals, his game changed forever after that . His D game went right out the window.
What coaches are available that would be a good match for this team?
Todd Nelson?
I would love Nelson, but he just signed on as an assistant coach in Pittsburgh, as the experienced guy beside Muse. I cannot see Pittsburgh allowing the Oilers to talk to him or let him go, considering Pittsburgh’s situation with a rookie coach.
Paul Coffey
Peter DeBoer
No way Debooer lol.
It can’t be a rookie again. DeBoer or Gallant are the only ones I can think of. It comes down to personality for me, I’m not sure about either, but didn’t like DeBoer throwing his goalie under the bus and getting himself canned
On the other hand we can complete the coaching switch with Dallas. In his last 9 seasons he missed the playoffs in 2022, got the pipe in 2020, the rest of the seasons went to round 2 in 2018 and round 3 the rest. Perhaps like Maurice he’s due. He also knows the Oilers well already, and isn’t an offense averse coach I don’t think by how Dallas played
DeBoer’s Win% for the last 9 is .637, Gallant in 8 is .601, Knoblauch in 3 is .614. But KK’s Win% goes .703, .616, .524 this season. Declining Win% preceded the firing of DeBoer and Gallant. Well DeBoer also his mouth. Hmmm
There, I talked myself into it, DeBoer it is, 18 years NHL HC experience. It took Cooper 8 seasons to win his first Cup, I worry KK needs a few more seasons to get his thing completely down, and we don’t have them
Woodcroft
Same situation as Nelson. Newly hired as an assistant coach beside Quennville. I cannot see Anaheim letting the Oilers talk to him.
Torts
haha. Well that one at least made me smile
That team last night showed no interest in playing a hockey game NONE!
It’s like they went onto the ice thinking if we just show up we will win.
A couple guys were ok but that’s it. Nurses worst game I have ever seen.
Every goal on skinner was side to side which he seems to always have trouble with. The other kid was good, but the Oil didn’t have a lot of high danger shots.
This team is broken. Over 20 games in and pretty much the same story all year.
There really are no reinforcements coming and especially now that teams are pretty much going to fleece them in any trade.
I see Boston placed Johnny. Beecher on waivers. Big 6.4/220lb L/C. Guy is great on the draw and a really good 2 way bottom 6 guy. ( 4th liner) , not a big offensive player,but will hit and muck it up. Skates ok. Not sure they need any more Cmen but do something ffs. Send a message?
Have they quit on this coaching staff? Who knows. But this team is really struggling right now . I also think when the coach goes McDrai it’s hard for the bottom 6 ( especially the 4th line) to get into the game.
They are lucky right now that the Pacific division is not very good.
Not sure when this team shows up this year or if they ever do.
Calgary claimed Beecher.
I’m going to go ahead and reframe last year as part of this discussion.
They never did “turn it around”.
They did their minimum, and had one stretch of good hockey in the playoffs. That’s really it. It wasn’t even as good as they could be.
The current version of this organization loves to coast and to hope. Their attitude toward goaltending or upgrading good players to very good players (something they never do) being among the best examples.
Agree. This team has never really reached their potential. Chronically slow starters for years and quick to be satisfied with themselves after a good game or even a period. I expect a better effort next game but it will likely be right back to the lazy low intensity play if they have any type of success against Washington. Problem is throughout the organization with coaches not holding players accountable and management accepting long term under achievement.
Oiler had the second highest P% in the league during December-January last season.
I really don’t know how much longer you can run with Knoblach as the coach. Expectations are high, as they should be, with this roster and recent years of success. We are right in the heart of our Stanley cup window. Maybe even a little past it. There is no time to waste and despite the points percentage not being catastrophic, the Oilers have only played 2 or 3 good games in the first quarter of the season. This is totally unacceptable. Fire the coach. Get a goalie.
I see the players trying to executing the breakout as the coach wants. Its not working! Players are always held accountable for their play but coaches never. The coach’s comments after the game tell me he’s out of ideas. The sooner they make a change the sooner they can try to get the season on track.
To add there has been zero improvement since the start of the season this is 100% on the coach. And there are a lot of issues with individual player performance and they should be called out as well but they wont get anywhere with the same coaching staff.