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This just in, news from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet that the Edmonton Oilers have fired Jay Woodcroft: “Edmonton is making a coaching change. Jay Woodcroft being relieved of his duties. Thought last nights win would buy some time, but that’s not the case.”

And the Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported: “Hearing Kris Knoblauch is incoming as next Oilers coach… Senior advisor Paul Coffey is also stepping behind the bench as assistant coach, according to the Oilers. Dave Manson was fired along with Jay Woodcroft… Lots of people will say Kris Knoblauch lands in Edmonton because of Connor McDavid. But what is clear is Oilers CEO Jeff Jackson has a big belief in Knoblauch. As agent, many of Jackson’s clients played for Knoblauch: McDavid, Connor Brown, Alex DeBrincat, Taylor and Darren Raddysh, Travis Dermott and Ben Harpur.”

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Of course, social media reacted, swiftly and none-too-happily:

Kurt Leavins of the Cult of Hockey
Elliotte is a most thrust worthy source. My initial reaction is that this is a mistake. Perhaps I will be proven wrong. I feel for Jay Woodcroft. Mistakes have been made by him, yes. But this whole mess has hardly been on only him.

NHL network analyst Mike Rupp
*McLellan
*Hitch
*Tippett
*Woodcroft
*soon to be (new one)
5 coaches in 97’s 8+ seasons
I think it’s time to start putting the focus higher up the food chain…

Oilers fan Lynn Mercereau
Truthfully, what concerns me more than letting Woodcroft go is who that next name is. Their decision making process is questionable at best.

Toronto hockey writer Travis Yost
Bit stunning to see Woodcroft go.
Hard to say he did a great job considering, but always found him reasonable, and relatively much more impressive than the front office

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Oilers fan Bret Litke
Woodcroft shouldn’t have been fired, imo! Holland didn’t deserve a third coach. He should be the one on the chopping block… Old boys club strikes again. Actually makes me sick. Check out Coffey’s post playing career resume on Wikipedia. What about that screams NHL assistant coach?

Oilers Daily
FYI, the Oilers had the sixth best record in the NHL since hiring Woodcroft.
Firing him is a terrible mistake and I hope it comes back to haunt them.

Oilers fan Dennis King
How did that out-of-date dullard Ken Holland survive this?? And does McDavid own the team now? That’s how it looks

Jonathan Willis of The Athletic
Kris Knoblauch is an extremely accomplished junior coach and has history with a lot of key people in the Oilers organizations.
As an AHL head coach, his teams have gone 119-122, missed the playoffs twice in three tries and won only a single playoff round.

Oilers fan Trent Wilhauk
What the F are the Edmonton Oilers doing firing Jay Woodcroft!! What a garbage move!!!! The players are the problem…. Not the coach… The Edmonton Oilers are a Joke! Yep I said it…. A joke!!!

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Oilers fan Reagan Podelec
Some of you Oiler fans may not like that Woodcroft was fired. Calling out McDavid for calling the shots on the next coach? Tread lightly. Turning on our number 1 player though? It’s a business, and winning is important. No different than Sather running the show in the 80’s and insulating hand-picked people around Gretzky.

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Winnipeg hockey writer Murat Ates
It’s easy for me on the outside to think the Oilers’ goaltending and uncharacteristically bad finishing got Woodcroft fired. At the same time, the McDavid/Draisaitl clock is ticking and EDM must feel incredible heat. Team is capped out. .269 PTS%.
What’s EDM meant to do: Wait?
I landed on that Q as if waiting would have been a horrendous idea. The truth is I don’t know.
Let’s say you replace the GM, though.
Draisaitl UFA eligible in 2025, McDavid in 2026.
Who in the name of Sam Pollock can find a goalie for zero dollars in time to save the season?

OHL hockey scout Sean Patrick Ryan
McDavid’s OHL coach is now his NHL coach. Gotta feel for Woodcroft & his staff. Took team to Conference finals last year, out after 13 games this year. Yesterday he knew he was already gone so there was a obvious sense of relief & playfulness in his interview with the media.

Buffalo hockey writer Joe Yerdon
Big fan of Kris Knoblauch and hope for the best for him with the Oilers.
Amazing that Holland has gotten to pick his third coach since taking over. GMs don’t usually get that kind of runway

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Vancouver Sun/Province hockey writer Ben Kuzma
Connect the dots. Knoblauch guided McDavid for three OHL seasons in Erie. Happy captain, happy trails.

Oilers fan Mike Dirsa
Today is reminiscent of when I was 12 years old coming inside from playing in the yard to watch the Gretzky sale.

Oilers fan Paul Almeida
I feel bad for Jay. He had a great record until the start of this season. I wish him well… Kris Knoblauch coached McDavid in Erie and is a rookie NHL coach. Paul Coffey’s influence in the organization has been growing. Jackson was McDavid’s agent and hires his former coach. Optically not good. I hope it works out.

Sports commentator Dustin Nielson
So McDavid’s agent and Junior Coach now running the Oilers. What a time to be alive… Knoblauch won a title in WHL & OHL and has spent the last five years in the AHL with Hartford, made it to the second round once.
I don’t think he would have been on the shortlist for a lot of NHL head coaching jobs, so he seems handpicked for 97 and this group.

Calgary hockey writer Darren Haynes
Notable career NHL coaching records (sorted by PT%):
– Jay Woodcroft, 79-41-13, .643
– Jon Cooper, 486-255-71, .642
– Toe Blake, 500-255-159, .634
– Bruce Boudreau, 617-342-128, .626
– Joel Quenneville, 969-572-227, .612
– Glen Sather, 497-307-128, .602

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Oilers fan Denny Sawchuk
Woodcroft will catch on somewhere else and have tremendous success, this is such a mistake, how are these guys such coach killers?

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Oilers fan Darcy “Woodguy” McLeod
(Goalie expert) Kevin Woodley said last June “all the Oilers had to was look at Campbell’s adjust save percentage in Toronto and they wouldn’t have offered him that contract”
Today Woodcroft loses his job because The NHL Guide and Record Book doesn’t have adjusted save percentage.

James Mirtle, Senior Managing Editor of The Athletic
Knoblauch is a good hire IMO. Tough situation, but he’s been an up-and-comer for a long time.

New York hockey writer Arthur Staple of The Athletic
League source says #NYR very supportive of Knoblauch getting this opportunity. Steve Smith interim HFD coach, search for new head coach begins immediately

My take

1. Todd McLellan, Ken Hitchcock, Dave Tippett and now Jay Woocroft. They all tried to get these Edmonton Oilers to play consistent, solid fundamental defence. They all failed. They all got fired. But maybe it’s not just the fault of the coaches.

This latest version of the Oilers finally played a solid defensive game last night against Seattle, the style of play they need to consistently play if they’re going to make the playoffs, let alone win the Stanley Cup.

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The team focused on defence, with few bad pinches, few lost attackers in the slot, few weak backchecks. All those things have been plaguing the Oilers this year, just as they have been plaguing the Oilers for years. This is a team of scorers and attackers, but also a team of puck-watchers on defence, players far more focused on scoring than defending.

This works when the team’s power play is ramped up high and if it gets solid enough goaltending. It doesn’t work at other times, and it will NEVER work to win the Stanley Cup.

Unless each player on this team commits to defending with the same focus, smarts and determination they showed against Seattle, when they limited the Kraken to just four Grade A shots, Edmonton will be a good team, but never a great team.

2. It’s on the coach to get his team to perform well defensively. Woodcroft was committed to that proposition. Edmonton made a big move by adopting the Vegas/Boston zone system of defence this year, a system that works well with smart, committed and hard-working defenders. It didn’t work so well in Edmonton, as many of the players have bad habits on defence that are difficult to change. I should add that Connor McDavid is not one of those players who struggle on defence, not for the last few seasons. McDavid has learned. Others have not.

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3. Who else generally gets the job done on defence for the Oilers? A lot of the role players: Brett Kulak, Cody Ceci, Mattias Janmark and Derek Ryan. Other than that there’s room for improvement, in some cases a world of room for improvement.

4. A lot of fans and commentators will now say that the Oilers had “good analytics” this year, meaning Edmonton outshot opposing teams. And it’s true, the Oilers did. But when it came to the most dangerous of all shots, those that go in 33 per cent of the time, the opposition had more of those shots than the Oilers did, 87 to 84. Edmonton overall had a bit of an edge in play, but not so much as some will suggest.

5. Edmonton’s goaltending has indeed been a shambles this year. There have only been one or two games when their goalie was the best goalie on the ice, including the Seattle games, when Stuart Skinner came up with some stupendous saves. But unless Skinner can regularly crank out such strong games — and there’s a chance he can — Edmonton is in trouble in the nets. Jack Campbell has not been close to good enough. He’s got a chance to recover his game in Bakersfield, which would be huge for the organization, but the most that can reasonably be expected is he’ll provide decent back-up play at the NHL level.

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6. Many fans are calling for Oilers GM Ken Holland to be fired, but he was essentially replaced by Jeff Jackson last summer. Jackson is making the big calls now, which has never been more evident with the hiring of Knoblauch.

7. As for Woodcroft, he did a fantastic job until he didn’t. He got out-coached in the Vegas series. He tried to adjust this summer, but his best plans didn’t work out. It’s no easy job to get players with weak defensive habits to change those habits, and, in the end, he was unable to do so. At the same time, based on Edmonton’s shut-down defensive performance against Seattle, we know the Oilers can play solid defence if they are committed and desperate enough. That Cup-winning defensive intensity is inside of them. Woodcroft could not bring it out enough for the team to beat Vegas or for the players to adapt to a superior defensive system this year. We’ll see how another coach does, but it’s really up to the players. As the Seattle game demonstrates, they know what to do. They simply have to do it.

8. Right now, as it stands, the Oilers are a firewagon hockey team in a park-the-bus league. They love to attack and pressure, they live for it, but they often over-commit to both attacking and pressuring and allow odd-man rushes and wide-open slot shots. Other teams know this so they pack the defensive slot, wait for the Oilers to bash up against them, then kill them on the counterattack. Edmonton has scored just eight goals on the rush this year, with 23 for the opposition.

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Again, we’ll see if the Oilers can adapt to the Vegas tactics used by most other teams against them, and if they can play solid defence in their own zone on a consistent basis. I’m starting to have major doubts. But I haven’t lost hope.

Ever hear of the 500 rule? Some people only have to be told once that they made a mistake, and they correct it. Other people need to hear it 500 times. Perhaps some of Edmonton’s weaker defenders are getting close to that 500 mark.

9.  I will not grieve for Jay Woodcroft. Why would anyone? I’m suspect he’s not in the depth of despair. He got to coach in the NHL. He signed a multi-million contract and he is still getting paid. He got to coach Connor McDavid. He had two shots leading this team into the playoffs. He’s also evidently got a strong character and a sunny disposition. He’ll get another NHL coaching job. He’ll be fine.

At the Cult

LEAVINS: 9 Things — why not give Woodcroft more of a chance?

STAPLES: Oilers lose their most prominent fan

McCURDY: Keep Woodcroft for now

Staples: Out of touch Oilers may cost Woodcroft his job

LEAVINS: Game grades vs Sharks

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