The Edmonton Oilers won on Saturday night against the Seattle Kraken. It came on the heels of a devastating loss to the San Jose Sharks and offers a sliver of hope for fans. Stuart Skinner made some big stops, Zach Hyman scored three, and Dylan Holloway found the net on a night when he let his frustrations out on the opposition. There’s positives in a game like that one, even in a lost season.
THE ATHLETIC!
- Lowetide: Are the Oilers suddenly able to develop their own goalies?
- Lowetide: Do the Edmonton Oilers have enough value contracts this season?
- DNB: Edmonton Oilers’ crisis shifts to embarrassment after loss to the Sharks
- Lowetide: What if the Edmonton Oilers end up in the 2024 NHL Draft Lottery?
- Lowetide: 6 ways the Edmonton Oilers can improve in November
- Lowetide: Oilers already leaning on a push from the AHL. Who could be next?
- Lowetide: Can Connor McDavid come from behind to win another Art Ross Trophy?
- Lowetide: Will Edmonton Oilers redeem themselves after baffling October?
- Lowetide: Can the Edmonton Oilers make room for Raphael Lavoie?
- DNB: Oilers rewarded for their season’s most complete game in Heritage Classic win
- Lowetide: Oilers top prospect Xavier Bourgault is spiking in an important area
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers’ injuries already a major story in 2023-24
- Lowetide: Can the Oilers count on any short-term help from AHL Bakersfield?
- Lowetide: Can defenceman Noel Hoefenmayer help the Oilers?
- DNB: Connor McDavid’s injury only adds to gloom for Oilers
- Lowetide: Edmonton Oilers’ third line showing promise but not scoring yet
- DNB: Oilers, in early-season disarray, left searching for answers: ‘It’s just unacceptable’
WHAT TO EXPECT IN NOVEMBER
- At home to: DAL, NAS (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-2-0)
- On the road to: VAN, SJS, SEA (Expected 1-1-1) (Actual 1-2-0)
- At home to: NYI, SEA (Expected 2-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: TBY, FLA, CAR, WAS (Expected 1-3-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- At home to: ANA, VEG (Expected 1-1-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- On the road to: WPG (Expected 1-0-0) (Actual 0-0-0)
- Overall expected result: 7-6-1, 15 points in 14 games
- Actual November results: 1-4-0, 2 points in 5 games
- Oilers in 2023-24: 3-9-1, 7 points in 13 games
GOOD THINGS
It’s always nice to see a veteran like Zach Hyman deliver in a pressure game. I’m not certain where he ranks among Oilers forwards among the cool kids, but I have him as the top winger after centers Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Both glimmer twins are struggling, with 97 unable to handle the puck with his usual brilliance.
I’m most pleased with Holloway’s game. He scored a goal, went whack job for 11 pims and announced his presence with authority. Ladies and men, this is what needs to happen for the rest of the year. It has to happen with Philip Broberg and Raphael Lavoie. In Bakersfield, it isn’t happening for Jack Campbell. They need to play Olivier Rodrigue.
So I was away from the internet today, and came home to people mocking others about getting cancer. My wife died from Leukemia about one year ago. I didn’t need to read these things.
I think Woodcroft cost us a cup last year by getting out-coached and with his handling of the goalies. Constantly going back to Skinner in the playoffs when the veteran was playing better and getting wins was egregious. Campbell was an important signing – he has not be handled well – and Woody made the GM look very bad. Another goalie disaster for an org which is famous for them. He’ll be a good coach but he didn’t develop fast enough for the situation. The bigger issue is whether this team’s leaders grow up and play the way they need to win. Very unclear if this will change that – and if it doesn’t – they can hire Scotty Bowman and it won’t make one damn bit of difference.
Wow. I did not know.
A lot of hope, I see, that Coffey might cure what ails Boosh and Bro. I read below that his defensive ability is being ridiculed. I’ll say from my POV that Coffey was an under-rated defensive player. He wasn’t Adam Foote or Pronger or Orr in that regard, but he was pretty damn good for an offensive defenseman. In the ’84 Canada Cup in OT against the Russkies, he broke up a two on one and sent the play back up the ice. The puck came back to him in the OZone and he whipped a shot at net that Bossy got his stick on and deflected past Myshkin for the game-winner. It was a highlight-reel perfect microcosm of everything that Coffey could do in the biggest moments.
Does that mean he can automatically fix the two young men? No. But I find the opposite view that he has nothing to offer due to lack of coaching experience equally unsatisfying. Like Coffey has never been in an NHL practice? Broken down video? I mean, c’mon. Considering the lack of options, he might as well take a swing at it. It’s not like Coffey will be designing the practices. There’s three other coaches. Maybe there’s insight there. Empathy. Pretty low cost experiment to find out.
Knoblauch comes with a good reputation, was already getting interviews, has Edmonton history, McDavid history… but again none of that is a guarantee of anything. The men in power have decided to roll the dice on a change. They had made their mental line in the sand–the Sharks game–but it was crossed. Have to follow through, if that’s the case and I don’t mind the option they chose. Clearly they felt there was more risk waiting longer than there was making a change. Everyone’s mileage is going to vary in that scenario, and that’s without sitting in their seats and actually feeling those risks.
I wish all the best to Woody. I think he’s still a little too young to tell you the truth. Has some quirks shall we say that could use smoothing out. He’s going to be around the league a long time I think. Too good not to be. Wish he had been the one, would’ve been a great story but the last chapter needed to take a turn in another direction.
“I’m looking forward to a good night’s sleep on the soil of a friend.”
Woof. A lot of emotion here today. It’s an unexpected move, sure, but I think it’s pretty difficult to call it the wrong move. The guy has a resume. Does it fit with this team’s needs? Maybe. Maybe not. I reserve judgement.
Woody was a real player’s coach: he was great for development. He wasn’t, however, a tactician and that was extremely apparent in both Kings series and the Veg series. I think DeBoer really ate Woody’s lunch in that series. Adjustments were very delayed. I also think gamesmanship is an art when dealing with inconsistent reffing. Woody just didn’t work that angle. And the Oilers lost. They lost to a good team, maybe a better team, but not that much better if they were. I think the collapsing defence and strong offensive net-from presence won the Knights that series.
It looks like Knob has been around the block. I hope he combines a good mix of relationship and skills development with methodical strategy execution. Then, we can hope he has a few tools in the toolbox to be an effective tactician when the temp gets dialled up (yes, I’m assuming he’ll ever coach an important game for the franchise).
At the end of the day: Woody wasn’t the guy that was going to take them to the next level. And a presser isn’t relevant information on the value of the new coach.
Lastly, this could be a shrewd org move. It looks like a McDavid-influenced-in-part hire. This way, if he pulled a Zadorov, he’d look like a prima dona. I really really hope that wasn’t anything more than a sweetener on the decision to hire Knob tho.
For a while now I’ve been trying to articulate your exact thoughts above regarding Woodcroft’s interactions with the refs … on Thursday, they tossed him from the game for what exactly? It would be easy to call the refs biased and that they had it out for him ..: there have been some weird moments between him and the refs, which has had me wondering for a while now. But your take about gamesmanship I think is much more accurate.
Kris Knoblauch is 2 years younger than Woodcroft
Woodcroft was an assistant coach at the NHL level for ten years compared to Knoblauch’s two.
It’s very hard to make a case that Knoblauch has been around more blocks in pro hockey than Woodcroft and on early readings it seems that he’s more of a player coach than Woodcroft is a players coach.
Thats not crapping on Kris, just pointing out that people seem to be incapable of 30 seconds worth of googling to see who’s older than who, who has more or less experience and a better or worse coaching record.
Folks are projecting a lot onto Kris for better or for worse. I’m largely agnostic but was and remain a Woodcroft fan.
It’s going to be very funny if he rolls the same lines for roughly the same time and Lavoie is sent back to the AHL once Brown and Janmark are ready to play. Godot is gonna have kittens if Bouchard sees his ice time go up not down.
I was planning to take the regular season off this year to save myself the pain of another playoff boot. Then tune into the playoff once they reached the Conference Finals.
I had reckoned that this was easily going to be another 100 point team – boy was I wrong.
Now they have another shot at returning to their former selves. I predict a steady rise up the standings until they reach 3rd or 4th place in the Pacific. Now that I have stuck out my neck I think I’ll go and climb back under my rock.
PS: Under these circus like conditions please do not shoot the messenger but I kind of like the idea of Coffey running the defence.
On Oilers Roster in the 80s = turbocharged pension plan.
Gentlemen, the die is cast. For better or for worse this team will move forward with a new coach whose resume is seriously lacking top tier competition. I suspect there will be games where he will be seriously out coached as a result.
If that press conference was any indication of how communication works within management then there is no wonder the team is disfunctional. It’s a case of 3 monkeys who see, hear, and do no evil. Absolutely brutal on all fronts.
These guys are either going to come out of this looking like geniuses or complete buffoons. I want to be proven wrong but I’m not holding my breath.
The oddest thing about the Woodcroft firing is the replacements.
If anything, doesn’t hiring Coffey illustrate that the “Boys Club” is in full effect to some sort of capacity?
It doesn’t even sound like Coffey was seriously interested in having any capacity with being behind the bench. Man has been removed from on-ice hockey from some time, and hasn’t coached. I get its temporary, but how does this help?
I don’t get the Oilers. Yes, the 80s were the dream time of this organization, but ffs, the organization needs to get out of this “dream”.
If anything, the “boys club” from 96-98 or 96-00, should be the ones around the dressing room and hanging around. Those are the true grinders, making it to the playoffs with minimum payroll.
Yea, this season hasn’t gone the way it should. But if you are going to make a splash, clean house. The moves this summer by Holland were questionable at best – contract wise.
I get there was a cap placed on moves (available funds) – but how do deals get handcuffed like Connor Browns – where he hasn’t played in a year but gets a substantial bonus after 9 games?
You haven’t played for a year, have a potential career altering surgery, and have the chance to play with the two best players in the NHL and the best PP in the NHL, yet you get paid in full if you lace up for 1/8th of the seasons games.
OP has made a great argument with some of the other moves (players which have taken up AHL spots now) – and I have to agree.
“I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed”
I don’t think anyone here today had a crappier day than McDavid and his teammates.
They know they underperformed. They liked the coach and in 99% of NHL rooms, the players feel responsible for the coach being let go. I doubt oil are any different.
Suggesting any player engineered this is nonsense. I would suggest there were lots of kind words between players and ex coaches. The team will be rattled for a while, watch for some players to turn it around under the new head coach and some to show resentment due to loyalty to the old coach. It’s normal.
One thing I would like to know is who lit a fire under Holloways ass??? I loved his game against the Barracudas ( too many penalties but still!) It also seemed to rub off on McCloud. Would love to see those two keep playing that way! Hopefully next time we play the Kraken somebody gives Dunn some attention.
My biggest hope with Knobby is not asking Connor to play like Kane
Absolute and utter ridiculousness
I am done with that nonsense
I would have hired Darryl Sutter. I’ve been downvoted for it in the past, but he is perfect for what the Oilers need in a coach.
He creates a strong team identity. He uses the depth. He cuts down goals against and improves the PK. He holds the star players accountable.
This team will have a good PP if they don’t prqctice it once this season. Sutter could have filled in the gaps.
lol – the whole city would have revolted if Sutter was hired. The press conference would have lasted 5 minutes and Sutter would have said three one word answers, then left.
There are times when yes it’s seemed like they could use more of a hard ass behind the bench.
Sutter also famously does not have time for young players. Lavoie would have been buried in the minors the rest of the season, and he would’ve ridden Skinner until he was completely spent.
I think we like the idea of a Darryl Sutter type rather than the actual guy.
Ken Hitchcock was a similar hire and it didn’t go well.
Sutter would have used his depth alright. I can see it now, Oilers down by 1 with 2 minutes to go and Sutter rolls out the depth of Ryan, Janmark and Gagner. On D he rolls out Desharnais and Nurse cause he likes their spirit. When asked why he didn’t play McDavid or Draisaitl he would say “what numbers were they again?”
If we thought Woodcroft was not using his youth enough, under Sutter I could imagine it would be non-exsistent.
That he destroyed the fLames means nothing
They are worse now then when he left.
I’m not sure which firing Ralph’s or Jay’s is worse. Both have bad optics. Oilers really know how to treat their head coaches
Pretty sure Woodcroft wasn’t blind-sided by the news.
Worst record in the N.H.L and it’s suppose to be about feelings doesn’t work that way in the N.H.L results matter.
Ya, not sure these were the same. MacT goes in search for an assistant, then likes what he sees so hires him as the head coach? That was bizzare.
I’m not loving the Woodcroft firing but at the end of the day I don’t think Jay was going to be the guy to push this group over the top. Sometimes it takes a few good coaches to move the boulder up the mountain. They each take a turn moving it part of the way. Hopefully the group remembers the best aspects of each coach and grows. Most of the coaches in Vegas have done well but in the end they changed coaches 3 times in 6 years to finally win it all. If you took a course over the weekend for work would you benefit more from one 6 hour course with one expert or three 2 hour courses with three experts. Jeff Jackson deserves the right to put his guy in the head coaches position. It’s not his fault the team screwed up so many times before him. Quite frankly I would like to see more Jeff Jackson moves in the future.
Why does Jackson deserve to put in his guy? The GM hires the coach. Jackson is the POHO.
I get it he is not the GM but my guess is that Jackson has always had his eye on Knoblauch to be his guy one day. Sounds like he and Kenny are working together on this. Besides do you want Kenny who is going to be gone next year making these decisions on his own or do you want the guy who everybody raved about when they hired him to help out?
Collaboration is always good.
So I have cheered this team since the first WHA team. Edmonton has been blessed with some amazing players, too many to mention. We have won a number of cups so have a history of success. This team has had terrific support no matter it’s success. They have also made great contributions to this city. Today I am not sure what to think. No one saw this team coming out with three wins to this point in the season. It’s a WTF moment! Having said that the amount of vitriol here today is surprising and disappointing. Obviously management felt pressured to make changes and they did. Were they the right ones, were the right people hired, who knows? Perhaps we should wait and see. Plenty of time in the coming weeks/months to lose your shit!
I’ll reserve my judgement on the hire when I see Mcdavid and Drais icetime especially the first game they chase
The team is better than their current record indicates. We will see if the players had quit playing for their old coach or tuned him out at least. The Dead Croft bounce will make the next few games interesting.
Never understood all the too many players penalties the Oil took this year, 3 in one game even. Bench management shows there was a lot of dysfunction and chaos.
I’m not terribly worried about Coffey as a temporary assistant coach. He’s been around the game long enough to have some bona fides. Kevin Lowe went from an assistant coach to head coach to GM in two years.
The path to success is never the shortest line. Betting we will see a different team out on the ice now.
There is this assumption that Coffey is going to be the D coach for the rest of the year, which I think we should be careful with … getting Knoblauch this early in the season was a minor coup. We had all made the assumption that the next head coach would be someone who was not currently employed in the AHL, because NHL teams rarely if ever let their AHL head coach change organizations mid-season. I’m not sure I can recall that ever happening?
No one had Knoblauch on their radar yesterday … given the circumstances of his hiring, it’s going to take some time to flesh out the rest of his coaching staff. I would not be surprised if an assistant coaching hire (or two) happens during the course of this season.
I believe Coffey is an interim hire. I wonder if Manson would’ve been kept on if not for the tragic news of his wife … which was really kept under the radar as well (I don’t think the media had picked up on this until Holland dished it the press conference today). If my wife had passed over the summer, I would have taken a sabbatical. I can’t imagine how tough its been for Dave.
But yes – we will now find out if the Oilers just needed a fresh voice in the room, and a fresh view of the roster, or whether the roster is flawed.
and Holland is the gm, but in charge of nothing; he was a good gm 15 years ago
Hall has played for the Oilers, Devils, Sabres, Coyotes, Bruins and now Blackhawks… has Nuge still had more coaches than him?
He may have, but what’s your point? If the coach is doing a poor job then punt them. We want accountability from the players, but I think too often we fans are willing to give coaches too much rope on that end. There should be accountability from top to bottom in an organization, so I’m certainly not absolving the players or GM in this either.
Which of the coaches that RNH has had in his career as an Oiler should have outlasted their stay?
Yes Hall is so amazing that he’s played for 6 different teams.
Breaking news!
Paul Coffey has hired Grant Fuhr as the new goalie coach for his impressive golf handicap. He figured the Oilers netminders will be hitting the course early this year, and firmly believes cross training to be beneficial.
There’s always the Flames crybaby. You would be lucky if Fuhr let you shine his club up.
Oh, well that would actually be an improvement on goalie coach. At least then we would have a goalie coach who played in the NHL.
Couldn’t agree more. The current goalie coach is like Castro, outliving every coach and GM for the last 10 years.
How that guy wasn’t a part of today’s bloodletting is beyond me.
Maybe they’re saving him for the future “show the fans we care” moment. Like when they sacked the trainers from the dynasty days and made a great big deal of it.
Bold move, Cotton! Let’s see if it pays off!
If nothing else, the Oilers have brought me many laughs. Non-stop comedy show.
This is beyond a dysfunctional franchise. I’m not sure there’s more loyal fans that put up with so much garbage as oilers fans. I read all the hate on Holland, Chiarelli etc. Most of it warranted. But when we were gifted McDavid who would you have chose to be GM and Coach? I’m curious what you all think. Hindsight is 20/20 so I’d like your opinions.
Paul Coffey for both positions 😉
Lol that would have been off the radar to fans at the time, but probably in the owner’s wheelhouse.
Quit crying, you made your point.
I didn’t like Chia from day one. Similar to LT (I think), I would have stuck with MacT as GM. I was fine with TMac as coach when they hired him.
Despite the verbal around here, MacT was a tire fire as a GM (not much different than Chia, Stumbleini etc.). His treatment of Dubnyk, Petry stand as prime examples. Remember, he was the one that traded Gagner after promising him that he wouldn’t and fired Ralph on Skype and brought in the Dementor.
MacT had his issues no doubt. But I also think he proved astute as a coach and would have learned from his mistakes as a GM. We’ll never know, but I’d be surprised if he made the level of poor decisions that chia made.
I would have hired Holland. I think he has mostly done a good job, and brought credibility to the organization. I sincerely believe that the problem is not personnel. From January to April 2023, this was the very best team in the NHL.
The glaring marks against Holland are Campbell (I wanted Kuemper at the time and said so), the Nurse contract (I wanted him to wait four months at the time and said so), and the Kassian contract (ditto).
But I think Holland did very well in signing Kane (I hated it at the time and said so), and then grinding him for the second contract, in grinding Nuge’s contract, in signing Hyman, in trading for Ekholm (I thought it was an overpay at the time). I believe Holland has fixed the bottom six with actual NHL players (Foegele, Janmark, Ryan, Shore for a time). I think the trades to acquire Kulak, Kostin, Foegele, Kulikov, even Keith were pretty good, with only the Athanasiou trade a real strike against him. The draft probably has equal hits and misses, but we don’t know the full story yet.
I also think he did very well in hiring Woodcroft, under whom many prospects developed into NHL players.
Woodcroft took a reasonable risk and it didn’t pan out, and he had to be fired. That doesn’t mean it was the wrong call in the first place. Coaches are hired to be fired.
The other thing I will say about the Campbell contract is that there was *immense* pressure from the fanbase/media to fix the goaltending.
Just like there was immense pressure on Chiarelli to fix the defense, and he proceeded to trade Hall for Larsson and Eriksson Ek/Carlo for Reinhart.
Sun belt franchises with lukewarm fanbases generally don’t get pressured into stupid decisions in the same kind of way.
If you are a GM, or in any senior management position, and media or a fanbase is pushing you to make a rushed decision, you probably shouldn’t have the position.
Great posts!
We will know soon enough if this works – it’s quite a bit easier to predict failure but we simply have no idea. The proof will be in the pudding of wins and losses.
Anyway for me the real head scratcher today is that I remember when we liked Connor McDavid. RIP 2015-2023, Nov11.
Funny, I never thought giving him more control and ensuring he and the team were in lockstep, would lead toward this kind of reaction, necessarily.
When McDavid broke Reilly’s ankles that was a basketball move, so is this. Stars with power. Say goodbye to the narrative “Oilers will push McDavid out” lol we just laid 9 years of that anxiety to bed and we’re ready to manufacture a new one just because this is new and unexpected.
The keys are with Connor McDavid who maybe we should be reminded is the best hockey player on the planet in the last 30+ years. I think we should sink or swim with him at the helm, I say to hell with it, let’s go.
For a fan base that likes to call itself blue collar, maybe a little more faith in power from the floor!
For real. The amount of comments hating on McD because of this is ridiculous. People out here actually mad because potentially the greatest player of all-time is doubling down on staying in Edmonton to win a cup and with that brings rightfully so, an influence on the strategy to make it happen. This is some Toronto fan, Game of Thrones logic to start pushing hate at McD because of this firing/hiring.
From: To hell with this org! McDavid won’t stand for it and he deserves better!
To: Ok hotshot you think YOU know what it takes to run a team?? Brutal!
Literally overnight.
We’re kind of a self-centred fan base, like Toronto, correct. It’s always been “our way or the highway” and now that Connor wants that for himself were jealous of him, Jesus!
I actually would like to see if maybe he does know more than me or you about putting a winning team together around himself.
For me 3-8-1 demonstrates not a single person on this blog knew what was coming. Some humility is in order at this juncture.
Neither did anyone in the Oilers organization, the media or apparently the entire NHL so what is your point? That the fans should have known better?
We’ll they sure act is of though
say what?
Nice to see you back here. Now where’s Zdeno’s Cigar?
What’s the coaches nickname gonna be? Knobs, Knobby? I hope it’s not doorKnob…I kid…
Lauch-step,
As in he and McDavid are.
Keeping Gully and Stuart and hiring Coffey is a reflection of what Sleepy said. He tried to make as roster move but it’s so early nothing going yet
Same with coaches. It’s not like there are a bunch of top notch guys just sitting around waiting for a gig, or teams are going to let their guys go. So some experience around Knobby the rookie and Coffey
Sleepy snookered himself again
Since the team was a hot mess I’m happy to see change.
And with 2 years left on his contract appeasing McDavid is a good idea.
the focus should be on notihng more than winning. Winning is what should appease McDavid, and all other players.
Precisely why it was time to dump Woody. I think we can be guarded on how well his replacement will work, but it’s not like they are hiring St. Louis with no experience.
Hunter, I am reading your posts but just can’t stop thinking about how good the death march predictions would’ve been this year.
Surprised nobody’s mentioned Mark Stuart. I thought it was a strange move to hire him in the first place. Like, who is he? Basically a Dollarama Matt Hendricks for all I can tell,
What, exactly makes him more valuable than any number of potential assistant coaches and has allowed him to survive the guillotine?
Ex-Red Wing?
Dman with zero coaching experience?
Everyone grab a life preserver, this ship is going down. The start of the end🤓
The start??
I can say I’m not surprised but I am disappointed. I wish Woody and Manson the best in their future. I’m sure they will be hired in the NHL soon. As mind baffling as these hires are I hope that the new guys can get this team going. I am optimistic. I’m tired of being pessimistic about this team! So which team will fire their coach and hire Woody?????
Any concern over Knoblauch’s middling AHL record? I like the idea of going to new coaches (without NHL experience), just wondering why an AHL coach with more success wasn’t considered.
Because Oilers. Mind you, Coffey seems prepared. I think he’s watched every games over the last few seasons. Should be good to go😉
To be honest, I really see the AHL as a developmental league. Coaches are not necessarily blessed with an organizations best players. I care less about the teams success and more about how many prospects they graduate to the NHL team.
Because he’s probably the winningest AHL coach who has coached McDavid?
I just saw Knoblauch’s response on changing the defensive system.
Imagine answering a question that poorly in an interview and getting the job. He basically said do the same but faster. lol.
There was something that struck me as odd. He said, I want zone D but more aggressive zone D, that way you cut down on zone time and therefore chances and penalties. When asked about offence, he wants to strike quickly before teams get into their posture.
This struck me as somewhat confusing and contradictory.
My understanding of zone is that you minimize the potential of having a guy winning a 1 on 1 leading to a 5 bell chance. (Note: I was supportive of the change to zone D). So you have layers and you spend less time chasing. There is inherently more thinking with zone. What Knoblauch described sounded like a hybrid or man to man.
It’s almost as if he is saying, a team is vulnerable when allowing prolonged zone time, and a team is also most vulnerable on quick strike attacks. Both are true, yes, but he kind of said them at the say time.
It almost sounded like it was the first time he had answered such a question. Which, to be fair, it probably was.
This franchise is a joke.
Weebo?
Keep in mind the guy just got here and he’s shoved in front of a bunch of media and cameras before answering these questions. The speed with which people are jumping to conclusions based on this presser is hilarious. Emotions are high, I get it. But maybe take a step back, look at the new coaches track record and evidence of how his teams have played. Then take a look at what he implements over the next few months before rushing to judgement.
I’ve looked at his AHL track record. Can I panic now?
I am still looking for Coffey’s track record. 😉
Sometimes this joint reminds me of a North Fork lynch mob.
So he’s basically going to do what Woodcroft was doing?
This place is going to be funny when he keeps the lines and playing time the same and they start winning.
Is he? Based on one person’s interpretation of a coaches comments in a hastily put together press conference?
Woody should of been fired 2 weeks ago he lost the plot. At least we have a chance of making the playoffs now.
Disclaimer: not a hockey expert. But in basketball zone d can be passive or aggressive. Or anything in between. Surely hockey is the same?
Also striking before a d is set up is good. Teams are vunerable then. After a team is set up though, having time and patience allows a team to find good opportunities. These things can both be true.
If this answer is what we are using to call this franchise a joke, then i am not on board.
You should have applied for the job……
I’m going to give the man a bit of a break here. He was just hired and just got off a plane after coaching his prior team last night. He hasn’t even met the other men that will be assisting him and helping him transition.
He’s clearly not as “well-spoken” as Woody is but lets give the man time to pass gas before we critisize his ability to explain what tactics he’ll be using.
I like Woody as a coach, and yeah Holland should have been the one taking the fall. But a GM leaving mid season doesn’t do anything short term. There is nothing else that can be done short term.
This is essentially the same team that lost the Cup winner two years in a row. This start is beyond not acceptable. This is the only real bullet Holland/Jackson had short term to make a difference.
Again, Woody is getting a raw deal but that’s life. Something had to be done to shake the team out of the ridiculous play so far.
How is it a raw deal? His team stinks and it’s his job to make them be better than they are.
I do agree, I guess I was referring to the fact his overall record has been stellar, he’s a good guy etc. But yeah, he should have been fired and ultimately it was deserved.
They is lots of anger on the page today. The new CEO has seen enough to put his mark on the organization.
Clearly Holland is going to be cced to attend all important meeting until his contract runs out.
Jackson is going to rely on different tools and inputs that Holland did and he is getting started setting the future.
Knoblauch won his championship McDavid, Brown, DeBrincat, et al in junior.
Woodcroft won his championship in the AHL with some good players who have yet to establish themselves as elite.
Woodcroft had Cooper like credentials, Knoblauch is just another guy.
Huge difference.
https://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/leagues/seasons/teams/0008792017.html
Neither McDavid nor Brown. DeBrincat and Foegele, though.
I stand corrected, thank-you.
I agree with your point, but McDavid did not win an OHL championship. I believe Knob won in 2017.
and Woody didn’t win a championship either – he won the Pacific division playoffs in the Covid season but the Calder Cup wasn’t awarded.
The Holland era hasn’t been perfect, but every move has come in service if either winning games now, or winning games down the line. I didn’t always agree with every move, but I always felt like they were made earnestly. Overall, it’s been the most pleasant era of Oilers hockey in the last 20 years give or take. This move seems a bit hazy. A bit of a departure from the Holland MO.
I’m going to say something that is more than a little emotionally charged based on the last 24 hours:
The season so far better not be a taste of the Jeff Jackson era.
Very little evidence of that, and all of it is circumstantial, but I’ve got this deep angst in my gut right now. Echoes of Mactavish and Eakins and the OBC.
This feels like a big gamble, and if you’re wagering the wedding ring, you better win the hand.
— Depending on how this season ends Holland is basically what I figured. : just meh.
— I never understood the consensus buy in to him. Admittedly I figured they would win a Cup but was fairly certain he would underwhelm: the game past what his strengths were 15 years ago in a non cap era.
— The team isn’t nearly as bad as their current record however. Holland wasn’t “this bad”. He just hasn’t been an elite GM for 15 years and wasn’t suddenly going to become one coming here
This! Don’t judge a book by it’s cover and see how it goes, but the cover looks scary and I’m very anxious to read it.
Definitely a Jackson move, not a Holland one. Remember, Holland is the guy with the much vaunted record of never firing a coach in-season prior to Dave Tippett.
I just watched Jackson’s comments in the presser.
On potential involvement of players in the decision, a quote from Nassim Taleb immediately comes to mind:
“No rumour is true until officially denied.”
I see people are already repeating what they want to hear on “were the players involved”.
Go back and listen again. Two different questions which rightly received different answers.
There was one question, Holland responded and then Jackson responded.
I’m still PO’d about the Peitrangelo/Nurse incident in the playoffs. Even though Draisaitl took the slash (team player) and Nurse stepped up honourably (for the team)- the Oilers allowed themselves to get bullied (for the umpteenth time) through the NHL’s suspension decision by Vegas. It’s weak.
It is of little wonder that the players feel like they need to advocate for themselves and be sure of the allies they have in the organization. To me, today’s decisions and the hire of Jackson beforehand, look like an acknowledgment of this.
Holy that was a complete sh@tshow. There’s so much pain and cruel hilarity in that press conference I don’t even know where to start to unravel it all. Please be prepared or ignore my Frank Costanza-level airing of grievances:
There’s Holland trying to justify firing Woody by saying the team needed a jump (after they responded well last game) and coming across as a clear “We’ve tried nothing and were all out of ideas” line of desperate decision making.
There’s also the clear evidence of non-existent communication within the org of Kenny saying they consulted the players on the coaching decision followed by Jackson saying they didn’t. Poor Holland looks like he’s a puppet right now whose strings are being pulled by Jackson who clearly has GM control of the team. It’s like seeing Mussolini as the faux leader of Italy after Germany took, it looks sad.
There’s poor exhausted Kris looking so timid like a deer in a headlights trying to answer questions on the hottest seat in hockey right now. I don’t try to judge off first impressions he looks like a hollow yes man who’s here to appease McDavid and to let the top players roll as they do without total team accountability. Like others said this could have been Jackson’s long term guy being thrusted to coach now, but it reeks of him or McDavid having major control of the organization bringing in his junior coach. The optics certainly look that way with Jackson as POHO, McDavid’s junior coach, signing Brown, Foegele and exiling players who don’t seem to fit within the leadership group (Pool, Bear) and keeping those that do who don’t move the needle (Shore). Or even worse, this could be Jackson’s version of the Old Boys Club move of hiring someone based on “I know a guy” instead of a thorough review of who’s available on the market (the Coffey hiring sure looks that way). Either way times sure look like they haven’t changed and the Oilers are forever stuck in the nepotism management hirings.
My favourite/worst part was Old Boys Club member Paul Coffey, with no coaching experience whatsoever flat out saying he had no interest in coaching, is now being tasked to trying and manage the team’s biggest flaw right now. He also looked like he did not want to be there, which is fair since he was literally asked if he wanted to be a coach by the POHO within less than a week I imagine!
I cheered for the Oilers through the whole decade of darkness, but I’m officially tapped out of watching games until this team makes a significant improvements back to a playoff position or upper management decision making. This organization has certainly not given anyone a reason to to be invested in watching games and stuff Katz’ pocket in return for mediocrity at all levels. I’ll still painstakingly look at Oiler news just for the comedic value at this point and they can have their measly web as revenue.
Apologies for the long winded rant but I just had to get it off my chest somehow.
It’s ironic that you say by looking at Knoblauch he won’t bring any accountability, when that’s certainly one of the major issues most people had with Woody.
That’s why I feel they hired the wrong coach, I can very much be wrong and hope I am, but I have a gut feeling that this issue will stay the same. This coaching change feels like a sideways move at best.
I liked that Knob talked about giving players roles.Its been lacking. Now let’s see if he does it
Pretty sure Woody also spoke of giving players roles when he was hired.
Yes that’s why I ‘hope’ he actually does it
Woody was not getting it done and he is gone…this how professional coaches operate. Don’t make more than it is. Do we really care who the four assistant coach is?
Well I certainly hoped the assistant coaches have actually coached before outside of peewee hockey, or is that too high of a bar to hold standards too
I guess what is Knoblauch going to bring that Woody didn’t? Gulutzan stays for stability and PP and can help Knoblauch with transition. Coffey basically says he was voluntold to coach for this season and people are suggesting he might be the next GM or at the least has the ear of Katz. Coffey has no real legit experience coaching and he’ll be coaching the D?
Manson did PK so makes sense to dump him too but now Coffey does PK? Gulutzan?
Without the connection between McDavid and Knoblauch, wouldn’t people be even more confused about this hire? Like get Boudreau or Sutter in for the rest of the year
Does anyone know if Coffey is long term? I wonder if he could be a stop gap until next summer.
I see it was answered be.low, short term
I hope McDavid goes on the heater of all heaters and we’re all charge additional Co2 because of it.
I hope it makes everyone blaming McDavid for everything have to fake cheer in their stew of sadness and when he gets to 1000pts in the near future you sit there murmuring to yourself “bUt DoEs He PlAy DeFeNcE!?! Dddddddiva”
This move is a Hail Mary. But the Oilers have sh#$ the bed in the first quarter of the season two years in a row under Woodcroft.
Holland seems to have sold Woodcroft the bill of goods to go with the stop gap veterans over the young guys, and sold Woodcroft on the status quo narrative and hope for better luck in the playoffs.
The organization drew the wrong conclusions from the loss to Vegas.
I was for keeping all the D, but I thought they were going to play Broberg. If I would have known they were not going to play Broberg I would have been for trading away Ceci or Kulak to force them to play Broberg, but it shouldn’t have to take doing something dumb, like trading away one of your seven D, to play the right ones.
Anyways, I hope for the best, but expect that it will turn out like always.
— it’s actually not at all a Hail Mary. : coach had to go and another one : fairly easy hires that can be undone a lot easier than gallant for 4 x 6 or something
— decks clear for next GM and the two new coaches were available and not costly.
As others here have suspected, Rishaug has confirmed that Coffey is only in place temporarily until the end of the season.
Still no excuse to hire a man with no coaching experience as an assistant coach to hope he turns the bad defense around in the middle of a win-now season crisis.
Jackson was brought in to breathe new air into this organization, bringing a new set of decison making and an expanded network of contacts to help bring in quality staff. This move screams the opposite. Same as it ever was.
agree completely. a rookie HC with an assistant D coach with no coaching experience. a lot of words come to mind, but success isn’t one of those words.
— Woodcroft gets 2mm a year for a few years so there ought not to be hard feelings. He’s going to be fine, probably go the Dallas Eakins route back to NHL
— Mason departing also makes sense
— Would be a good opportunity to change the Goalie coach : it’s so odd he is still there. If “consistency” of goalies is something the goalie coach can do it’s such an epic fail.
— This guy makes sense in that he’s not going to cost a lot, they had to pivot and probably no appetite to sign some big name coach for term.
— What a strange weird juxtaposition of management and coaching in terms of differing ages and stages and loyalties, backgrounds
I’m getting the same sorts of vibes I felt when they brought MacT back. This doesn’t smell like it’s forward thinking. This seems like jumping backwards five years. I don’t think the organisation deserves the benefit of the doubt.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/oilers-held-hostage-voices-past/
https://oilersnation.com/news/monday-mailbag-the-red-wine-summits
Paul has coached midget AAA in the GTA. I don’t think its a stretch to say that nobody else in the NHL would have offered him an assistant coaching gig. Why is that?
Kris Knoblauch might workout, we’ll have to see. Winning OHL Championships is hard. But in the pro leagues, in the AHL, Woodcroft and Knoblauch overlapped. Woodcroft won more, in less time and graduated 1/4 of the Oilers current roster. Woodcroft WON the Pacific division championship largely with the guys being broken in for key roles right now.
This may work out. It very well may. Coffey might unlock the defense, Knoblauch might find nirvana with the forwards. They get to experiment with a very good team and hey it could work out. Maybe they go all in on offense and it works splendidly. I’m actually very open to this idea. So let’s see how they play. I remain very bullish on the team.
But it’s ok to be nervous. The franchise has made a very large choice, again and swerved again. They’ve sidelined the people brought in to calm the chaos and withstand the 80s pressure when Chia was GM. The reigns of the season have now been placed on people directly connected with the Captain and a key player in the 80’s Glory Years, who was also around five years ago when many agreed it was time to end that stuff.
Godspeed to these gentlemen the risks here are enormous but Glory awaits if they can right the ship.
— It’s a smart move by the new head: both Coffey and new coach are relatively low hanging fruit. If it works great. Both are smart and a combo of inside and outside guys in short notice.
—. If not it’s the off season once Ken is gone for the next group to make wholesale changes and/or build on the on the fly necessity of this
Jackson got a coach fired and got his guy made coach. So what you’re suggesting is that if Jackson then needs to fire his guy cause the new guy he hires, likes someone else it’s no big deal? Or is Jackson supposed to fire his coach before he hires his new GM?
Only the Blue Jays would love that sorta pretzel.
The Habs made a peewee HC. Different spots for sure
I’m not mad about the Woodcroft firing, I’m furious.
Pat Beverly made (IMO) an unfair comment about the Raptors earlier this season, where he basically said none of their players had “that dog” in them.
McDavid, Draisaitl, Nurse, Ekholm have all struggled this season, yes?
GF%
McDavid 38
Nurse 43
Draisaitl 50
Ekholm 47
McDavid got his winger (Brown), his president (Jackson), now has his coach (Knoblauch). He gets 100-120 second power play shifts. He gets to choose his line mates, and dismiss them. He actually had a linemate (JP) that did some of the things that he doesn’t like to do (back check, play defence, chip pucks, etc), and ironically is now learning that some of those things do require some skill/effort/will power.
Will 97 play defence? Will 97 backcheck? Or will 97 mope and whine until his boxcars look better?
Draisaitl is in a funk and Ekholm is hurt. Both have struggled but have modified their game in such a manner as to not leak so catastrophically defensively.
McDavid and Nurse? Their solution has been less effort defensively and more turnovers. 97 is making passes that make zero sense. His EV P/60 is 1.37. His offence and his D, together, are that of a near replacement level player. Nurse is the worst player who could have the puck when there is o-zone pressure because you know it’s a wrister to nowhere; the pass skillset is just not there. There’s a chilling, dumb hockey play parallel between the two, in that both got trapped in recent games by the offensive zone blue line doing too much.
97 is a terrible general manager and, this season thus far, he has also been a terrible hockey player. Fact.
There just isn’t any dog in McDavid. Book it, stamp it, whatever you like. He’ll never win a ‘ship as a number 1 option. He’s whiney and entitled. Nurse is the same.
Draisaitl, Ekholm? Those guys you can win with.
Now, you’ll read this, and say, Bling, you’ve gone too far.
This org has twisted itself into a pretzel to appease McDavid. What exactly have they ever done to appease Draisaitl, who played on one leg vs the Kings and willed them to victory? What, maybe Kahun? They sent 29 back to the WHL. They sent him to the AHL! But Leon has that dog in him.
Look at the difference.
Who gets the hard (really hard) questions from the press, and answers with something resembling honesty? Ask yourself, who is not the face of the team, but its real beating heart?
Only one of McDavid and Draisaitl has that dog in them. Both are talented! Only one has that dog in them.
And if you are defending the Connorland Oilers today, you’ve lost the plot.
Good luck and godspeed, Jay and Dave. The source of some headaches are head cases, and in hockey as in life, sometimes you are better off moving on.
— I think being mad at the team doesn’t absolve the Coach. He just didn’t adapt, was often out coached and the team sucked this year with questionable tactics
— A better GM last 4 years would have helped a lot though.
Yzerman and Hull learned to play a 200 foot game … if u get 22 mins a night u have to play a 200 foot game
Hull never really did, but he did just enough to get a gentlemans C from Hitchcock. Modano did, and Lehtinen right up there with Tikkanen and Kurri as elite complete NHL players.
Bling, I think it’s fair to question McDavid as a leader and player. This seems more like a Lebron thing and Lebron is one of the greatest players. He can also be a controlling diva. Or Ronaldo. You’re dealing with hyperfocused freaks with massive egos and expectations.
But McDavid has come back from injuries in record time and seemingly with no loss of function.
His playoff series against the Kings 2 seasons might have been the most impressive playoff performance I’ve ever seen.
To say he has no dog in him is flat out wrong. How many games has he single handedly won for us over the last several years?
If the professional loses the coach probably loses his job, What is there to be furious about?
The new CEO is building a different type of hockey operation, and he getting his guys around him.
Trade Taylor Hall! Ship that bum out of town.
This reads like one of those preachy diatribes, about whatever bothers the commentator.
: p
Guilty as charged! 🙂
I think a lot of people here have already made up their minds.
Rip on Holland for not getting Nurse locked up earlier for much cheaper and for the Campbell contract. Those are deserved.
But I’m not going to hate on Coffey just because he’s a member of the glory days club and I’m not going to hate on Knoblauch just because he was McDavid’s junior coach.
If they suck, I’ll let them have it, but I’m willing to give them a chance and I’m certainly not going to start from a place of hoping they fail.
(Also, when did we flip to hating McDavid? What’s that about???)
It’s the usual bull shit. Some here think they know more about hockey than an absolute elite player. Just not possible. They should ask themselves whether they would be happier if he was playing for the Leafs.
After Kenny brought it up, I was dying for someone in the media to ask Kenny by Knoblauch over Nelson this time when it was the Nelson over Knoblauch last time, and Nelson won you a Calder Cup championship, and won another one last year in Hershey.
Because Kenny had nothing to do with the hiring.
I didn’t want the answer, I just wanted the question.
Is Knoblauch’s title “interim”?
Ie, is a head coaching search still ongoing with KK possibly being relegated to asst coach?
Gonna miss Woody waxing eloquent. Im sure Kris is a nice guy, but man is he boring. For a team that supposedly needs a jolt, this is more of a life vest
I’m not. The guy talked like he thought he was the smartest man in the room.
Considering he’s a Rhodes Scholar, he likely was/is.
Source? Trying to sound like the smartest guy in the room often means that you’re not.
Jay Woodcroft was not a Rhodes scholar … that would imply he went to Oxford for a PhD.
Um… google says he graduated from the university of alabama.