TSN: Ryan Rishaug on the Edmonton Oilers defensive woes and how the lack of player accountability ended up costing Jay Woodcroft his head coaching position.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Laura Diakun: “Another eventful day in Edmonton as we welcome in our Oilers reporter now, Ryan Rashad and Ryan, look, a lot of things have gone wrong for this team so far this season, but how much can we put on Jay Woodcroft?
Rishaug: “It’s such a good question, right? What’s fair in a sport where things aren’t fair? I would say given just how dire the situation is, enough of this is his fault that I understand why they did what they did today.
Jay Woodcroft came into this season with the express intent of making this team better defensively, and it has been a train wreck on that front. There’s no other way to put it. They’re near the bottom of the league in goals against per game. Some of the main metrics you look at to figure out how the team is doing defending the middle of the ice, near the bottom of the league. They’ve gotten worse. So there’s that.
Then they say every single day that it’s not the system, it’s about individual mistakes. Well, it’s the head coach’s job to figure out how to cut those down to and he was never able to implement a level of accountability for this group.
So I understand why they’ve done this. And with that said, these players can’t be let off the hook. It hasn’t been close to the consistent effort level that is required. It starts with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. We know McDavid He’s working his way through an injury but these are the engine that drives this team, and they have not been anywhere near up to their standard. It trickles throughout the entire lineup, goaltenders defense. These players are not bringing it consistently enough and that cannot be lost on them as another head coach and an assistant coach and Dave Manson get fired out the door.
Diakun: “And here come the new faces now right? Chris Knoblauch the head coach. Paul Coffey coming in as an assistant. Is there a lot of risk with these new hires here considering the lack of head coaching experience at this level?
Rishaug: “I definitely think there’s some. I mean when you’re doing this for the first time at the NHL level, some early speed bumps would maybe be anticipated. That the Oilers have absolutely no margin for error here. Now they’re still within striking distance over the long term of catching up playoff spot, but if there are some early bumps and some early issues, Chris Knobloch doesn’t have experience head coaching in the NHL beyond just on an interim basis during COVID.
So there are some early bumps who would be surprised but this team doesn’t have the leeway to have early bumps. Paul Coffey and with all due respect to his playing career, hasn’t done this before either on this level.
So, you could say the same thing about Jay Woodcroft, Right? He hadn’t been a head coach in this league before and it worked out great. But anytime you put somebody into a position to do something they have not done consistently before there is an inherent risk. That is one the Oilers are taking.
There’s a familiarity here between Knobloch and Connor McDavid going back to Junior. I think they’re relying on some of that relationship. The situation is critical here in Edmonton and new faces need to figure out how to elicit new results that’s, far from a guarantee.
Diakun: “Okay, so some good news. The losing skid is over. Oilers are back at home and we’ll get our first look at Knobloch behind the bench Monday when the Oilers play host to the New York Islanders.”
