We’re two games back from the Oilers’ bye week/All-Star break and Edmonton hasn’t managed to win a game yet. They’ve gone into both matches with a lead in the 3rd period only to lose it and then give up the 2pts in OT. Hey, getting one point is better than none, especially now, but this team has to find a way to stay calm and collected in the third and hold onto these leads.
Truth be told, I’m starting to 2nd guess Hitchcock right now. I was absolutely jacked during his first month, winning AND losing, but now he’s starting to repeat himself during post-gamers saying things like “that was the best 3rd period we’ve played in a long time”. I swear he says something like this every post-game.
It’s not just the things he’s saying, I’m not enamored with how he’s deploying the players either. Who sends Chiasson out in OT simply because he’s right-handed and the faceoff was on the right-side? Nuge was the right guy to have out but I’m still waiting for Jesse Puljujarvi to get his shot in OT. The guy would boss all that open ice. #FreePulju
It’s my belief that the Oilers are looking at a GM/Head Coach combination of Kris Knoblauch (assistant coach in Philadelphia) and Kelly McCrimmon (assistant GM in Vegas) going into 2019-20. I’d be fine with that and if Hitchcock wants to stay on as a hockey ops advisor, I think that would be fantastic too.
My good friend Ryan from edmontonoildrops.ca has another post up regarding Darnell Nurse that I want to show you! Check out a snippet below and then click the link at the bottom to see the full post!
A nod to those old nWo shirts from WCW wrestling. The oBc: Old Boys Clubs shirt is something every hockey/wrestling lover would enjoy! Click the image above to get yours today!
How Did Nurse Fare as a 1D?
Oscar Klefbom is set to return from injury against the Flyers on Saturday. When Klefbom went down, that created an opportunity for Darnell Nurse to take over as the team’s #1 defenceman. I wrote an article about how we were about to find out what we have in Darnell Nurse at that time. His level of success during Klefbom’s injury is a strong indicator of just how high his ceiling is because he is nearing that magical 300 NHL games played number, which is usually when you know what you have in an NHL defenceman.
We can’t say that coach Hitchcock held Nurse’s minutes back at all. The strategy was not to distribute the minutes more evenly amongst the entire D group. He averaged 26:50 in ice time per night during that stretch. He played in all situations. In addition to leading the defence group in even strength ice time (as he did when Klefbom was healthy), he took Klefbom’s spot at the point on the top powerplay unit, and he continued to play on the penalty kill as well.
How did he do? Click here to head to Ryan’s website to find out the metrics in which Nurse excelled and performed poorly in and if Darnell Nurse has the potential to be a no.1 defender in the NHL at some point in the future. The answer might shock you.
Click the pic! Get this kick-ass shirt!A new season means a new design! Click the image above to get the new Pulju shirt!Elias Pettersson’s nickname is “Alien”. Here’s a shirt to celebrate it! Click the image to buy one!
I do not like bye weeks and I’m happy the one for the Oilers this season is coming to a close. That said, the rumors haven’t slowed down any. We’re a shade over three weeks from this year’s and the Oilers have some work to do if they’re to put meaning to Bob Nicholson’s and Connor McDavid’s words.
Today’s post is going to have a Philadelphia theme to it.
PHILLY LOOKING AT OILERS DEFENSEMAN
I know there was a Cam Talbot to Philly for Robert Hagg plus draft pick rumor going around recently and I had asked my source of there was any truth to that. I was told no but the Flyers were looking at Alex Petrovic.
Not surprising. Petrovic has been Adam Pardy 2.0 this year. If the Oilers could rid themselves of that albatross of a contract in return for a draft pick, that would be glorious.
I had a strong feeling that Brandon Manning would outplay Petrovic and he has.
Before the end of the NHL’s trade deadline this season, I really feel like the Flyers and Oilers are going to make a deal here. Too much talk surrounding both teams.
Konecny’s name has come up from time to time and he’d be the perfect winger for the Oilers. He goes to the dirty areas, he shoots like there’s no tomorrow, and he’s got speed to burn. He’d cost though and I have no idea why the Flyers would bother giving up on a young player like him.
(FYI: That video above was re-posted by myself after the original creator expressed his concern only be that some folks get a few laughs.)
OILERS LOOKING AT PHILLY ASSISTANT COACH
Bob Stauffer put out one of his famous foreshadowing tweets yesterday regarding Philadelphia’s assistant coach Kris Knoblauch and I wanted to see if there were any legs behind it. Indeed there are. I’m going to show you Reid Wilkins’ quote-tweet though because I think there’s a valid question to be asked.
Knoblauch played for the Edmonton Ice, U of A Golden Bears, and, oh yeah, he coached Connor McDavid in Erie. https://t.co/lRFQ8nF76i
Knoblauch has had success where ever he’s gone for the most part. The WHL, the OHL, and the CIAU (as a player with the Univ. of Alberta). He’s young, he knows how to get a message across to young players, and I think there’s a bright future ahead for him but I have to ask you a couple of questions about him,
He’s got a pretty close relationship with Edmonton being as he played quite a bit of hockey there. Would there be any risk in that?
Edmonton went the bright young coaching candidate before and it ended in massive failure… THE SWARM!
He coached Connor McDavid in junior but failed to win the OHL championship with him. The championship part isn’t as important here but how would McDavid’s teammates feel about him getting LeBron-like powers within the club?
I’m torn on the idea of bringing in a rookie head coach but that could be offset by having outstanding veteran assistant coaches alongside him. I think the difference between him and Eakins is pretty stark too. Knoblauch looks to be a bit better at handling young minds. That said, Philly hasn’t exactly hit it out of the park since he joined them. What are your thoughts?
Click the pic and grab a 16-bit McDavid tee!
THE RANT 2018-19 VERSION
If you listened to Lowetide’s show recently, he has a roundtable that included, himself, Young Yaremchuk, Bruce McCurdy the Wise, T-Hup (Tyler Hupka), and Mr. Wonderful, Woodguy.
I thought the idea was good but it was not a lot of original ideas being passed around and a lot of echoing of each participant’s opinions. I would’ve enjoyed hearing some more contrarian point-of-views on the show like that of Sean Patrick Ryan’s (@theoilknight) or Heather Marginet’s. I think Hupka tried his best mind you.
But as much as Darcy McLeod (aka Woodguy) can be a massive blowhard on Twitter or in Lowetide’s forums, he went on a glorious rant that I’d like to reproduce for you. I found it here.
“Three things concern me…
1 – People who sell t-shirts online.
2 – People who work hard to sell said t-shirts online and lack credibility.
3 – Emojis… Very concerning.
A nod to those old nWo shirts from WCW wrestling. The oBc: Old Boys Clubs shirt is something every hockey/wrestling lover would enjoy! Click the image above to get yours today!
I’m just kidding (kind of). Here’s the actual rant:
“Two things concerned me…
First off, he was talking about character and leadership to help Connor. This organization has been trying to import character and leadership since Tambellini was GM and it never ends well. Y’know, the current V.P. of Hockey Operations brought in Ference for leadership. The current V.P. of Hockey Operations offered David Clarkson $37 million dollars over seven years to bring in character and leadership. The worst boat anchor contract on the Oilers was brought in for character and leadership. The Oilers spent far too much time, far too much cap chasing character and leadership and next to none of it chasing talent. They need to stop that.
Second thing that concerned about the Nicholson presser is that Nicholson mentioned the new GM has to fit into the Oilers culture.
To me, it’s the Oilers culture that’s the problem…it’s the Oilers culture to push players to return too early from injury; it’s Oilers culture to fast track prospects and put them in the NHL too soon; it’s Oilers culture to give away actual NHL players to make room for their shiny new players which results in half the team playing above their established NHL ability; it’s Oilers culture to blame the best players for the failure of management, to scapegoat anyone but themselves; it’s Oilers culture that lead to the conclusion that they have to add below-average NHL players with long-term NHL contracts to this organization; it’s Oilers culture for 13 years that when their best player leaves the ice they don’t even get 45 percent of the goals; it’s Oilers culture that has lead to them missing the playoffs 12 of the last 13 years.
They don’t need a GM to fit into Oilers culture. They need a GM and a Hockey President–and I think they should go with two different people–to turn the Oilers into a professional hockey organization dedicated to drafting and developing quality hockey players and making all decisions about players based on how they can help the team on the ice and flush their notions of character and leadership and their own culture down the toilet, because it’s that focus that has lead them to the 23rd place team in the NHL in the fourth year of Connor McDavids contract”
Just as a joke, every time WG says “Oilers Culture” in that rant, replace it with “analytics”…
As I’ve said in previous blogs, I think Katz might clean house this summer because if he doesn’t, nothing will change. The fanbase will still cling on to the OBC conspiracy and there will always be some scapegoat. Which is good for the players, mind you. They’ll get let off the hook as another coach is hired and fired or another GM is hired and fired…
It might be time to say goodbye to the Old Boys Club once and for all here. Just in time to hire Bill Guerin as GM and Doug Weight as head coach!!!
I’ll say this though, you won’t find me criticizing Darryl Katz. He’s the guy that came in a rescued this team. Had he not stumped up to buy them, Oilers fans might be heading down the QE2 to cheer for Calgary in their new arena. He’s not made the most of his time as owner of the team but I’d rather have the team we have today than no team at all.
Enjoy the game! GO OILERS GO! Hope the boys can be streak-busters this afternoon!
Elias Pettersson’s nickname is “Alien”. Here’s a shirt to celebrate it! Click the image to buy one!A new season means a new design! Click the image above to get the new Pulju shirt!
**This is a guest post from a very good friend of the blog, Sean Patrick Ryan. You might know him as @theoilknight! He’s one of the more intelligent fellas I’ve come across on the twittersphere and I really dig his message! Take a gander at his latest post here and then head on over to his blog to check out some more. He’s an Edmonton Oilers/London Knights fan from Ontario and knows the OHL pretty intimately, so you’ll get a good idea for some of the Oilers’ prospects playing in that region by reading his material!
Enjoy! – BLH**
Whether it’s midseason or at the end of the year, it is now inevitable that Todd McLellan will be fired as coach of the Oilers. I HATE that we got to this point because I have always supported TMac and given him the benefit of the doubt on so many occasions but the reality is his team has either tuned him out or are just not responding well enough to turn this around. I still put the majority of blame on the players for this lousy season. Overconfidence, poor execution, piss poor efforts and just an unwillingness to bear down and do the little things consistently enough to win games are all on the players. However, I don’t care what sport you are in if the players continually don’t show up for the coach…..it’s over. Time for a change.
Todd McLellan’s stubbornness and unwillingness to adapt are the main reasons for his downfall. There are many questions fans and media alike have for the coach as to why he didn’t do certain things sooner. Would this season have a different outcome if some of these were addressed earlier? Perhaps. David Staples from the Edmonton Journal breaks them down nicely here
Now there are many on social media who will attack GM Peter Chiarelli for hiring him or for giving him this roster to begin with. Well, many of these people have hated the GM from the beginning so it’s no surprise they are looking to take advantage of the situation by killing two birds with one stone. The reality is, this is still a very talented roster with excellent depth in the organization thanks to some great drafts (especially on D) and good College FA signings. The GM doesn’t control the PK at home (which has been historically bad), can’t make the coach switch up the same 5 guys on the PP and can’t MAKE the players give 100% effort every night. “Well he didn’t fill the holes properly it’s his fault they’re not very good!” some people say. Fair argument, however, I would counter with:
“If you bring in a different coaching staff do you think this team would have better results?”
If the answer is yes, (it should be IMO) then the decision is simple. The job of the coach is to make the MOST out of what he has and you could argue McLellan is getting the LEAST. Look at other teams around the league like Vegas & Colorado. Do they have more talent on paper than the Oilers? No chance. Even if you thought they weren’t as good as their record last year, surely you don’t think they are as bad as they are this year. They’re somewhere in between. Which means the staff is underachieving. The inability to fix the worst PK at home in the history of the league since they started tracking it (how is that even possible?) after 40 games should be reason enough to fire at least the assistants. Knowing TMac though he is in this together with his assistants who he brought with him from San Jose originally. Plus, he has taken over the units in practice in an attempt to fix it which clearly hasn’t made any significant difference so it’s all on him. He’s steering the sinking ship.
The inability to properly motivate this team to show up consistently in afternoon games is just another example in a long list of failures from this staff this year. I know traditionally this team has never been good in day games but that’s no excuse when you are supposedly playing desperation hockey. The point is, while everyone is to blame for this mess of a season you can’t fire an entire roster and you certainly shouldn’t be looking to fire a General Manager until you see how a different coach handles this talented group. If this team gave the kind of effort Vegas does every night they would be leading their division not bringing up the rear. So the coach will likely take the fall and bail out the players for the time being with the heat then being shifted to the GM who will have a critical decision on hiring the right man to “right the ship”.
GM Peter Chiarelli has turned around a franchise that was pitiful before he got there and rebuilt the depth throughout the organization in a relatively short period of time. The team has some excellent prospects on the horizon ready to make an impact the next few years thanks to three good drafts. However, he has made some controversial trades which are great if he gets the necessary results (which he did get last year) but will backfire on him if his team underachieves (this year). He has had a vision and plan all along and while it got accelerated last season I can’t imagine he envisioned there would be this kind of drop off this year. So he has no choice but to let his coach go and it is imperative he finds the right replacement to maximize the talents of it’s core players and he tailors the roster again if he has to in order to ease that transition and salvage his own job. That being said, I expect an interim coach to take over soon either internally or externally then in the offseason Mr. Chiarelli will be tasked with his biggest decision (and final chance) of finding the best coach possible. Who could that man be? While it’s likely way too early to determine candidates and we may be getting way ahead of ourselves I will throw one name out there that my buddy @jerschur first brought up:
Former Alberta Golden Bear – Kris Knoblauch
Terry Wilson / OHL Images
Kris Knoblauch was Connor McDavid’s OHL coach in Erie and is currently an assistant with the Philadelphia Flyers. He took over for Robbie Ftorek in Erie halfway thru 2012. Following that season, his record as coach in his 4 full seasons in Erie was 204-58-10 as he turned Erie into a powerhouse, making at least the 3rd round of the playoffs every year while winning the OHL Championship in 2016-17 earning a trip to the Memorial Cup. Prior to that, he coached the Kootenay Ice of the WHL to a 82-47-15 record in two seasons winning the WHL Championship in 2010-11 while also earning a bid to the Memorial Cup. ***
He is widely renowned as a highly motivating coach who loves his teams to play fast, smart hockey and gets the most out of his players. An excellent read here on Broadstreethockey.com:
Whether or not Knoblauch would even be available this summer is not entirely clear. If Philadelphia continues to struggle it is possible they may also consider a coaching change midseason and Knoblauch takes over as their head coach. However, it is also possible that if come the summer he is still an assistant he should be on a short list of potential candidates to replace the departed McLellan. He would likely be extremely interested too due to his familiarity with the area and familiarity with the Captain of the Oilers. His fast paced style would likely be a welcome addition to a team desperate to maximize it’s abilities – something KK is very adept at unlocking. The roster would surely require some tinkering if he indeed was hired (replacing UFA’s like Maroon with young faster players) but on paper it seems to be a match made in heaven. The question is……will Chiarelli think so?
To comment please do so via Twitter @TheOilKnight
***Knoblauch’s playing & coaching stats referenced can be found here: http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=28832
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