Proposal: Immature losses under Woodcroft mounting.

[The Panther]

Since Woodcroft took over, the Oilers are:

-- The 4th-best team in the NHL (ahead of Tampa)
-- The #1 team in the Western Conference (ahead of Colorado)
-- #2 in the NHL in regulation wins (behind only Boston)
-- #1 in the NHL in offense
-- #1 in the NHL in Power-play and net Power-play
-- the fourth-last team standing in the 2022 playoffs, their best showing in sixteen years
(-- 6th worst in overtime losses. The Oilers suck at earning loser points, something the Flames specialize in.)

Collective opinion of fans on here:

FIRE THE COACH!!!

 

[Oilslick941611]

Since Woodcroft took over, the Oilers are:

-- The 4th-best team in the NHL (ahead of Tampa)
-- The #1 team in the Western Conference (ahead of Colorado)
-- #2 in the NHL in regulation wins (behind only Boston)
-- #1 in the NHL in offense
-- #1 in the NHL in Power-play and net Power-play
-- the fourth-last team standing in the 2022 playoffs, their best showing in sixteen years
(-- 6th worst in overtime losses. The Oilers suck at earning loser points, something the Flames specialize in.)

Collective opinion of fans on here:

FIRE THE COACH!!!

its idiotic right?

unless the team is winning the way certain posters want, its open season and everyone sucks.

aka how dare the team not dominate every second of every game, make zero mistakes and allow shots on net.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Since Woodcroft took over, the Oilers are:

-- The 4th-best team in the NHL (ahead of Tampa)
-- The #1 team in the Western Conference (ahead of Colorado)
-- #2 in the NHL in regulation wins (behind only Boston)
-- #1 in the NHL in offense
-- #1 in the NHL in Power-play and net Power-play
-- the fourth-last team standing in the 2022 playoffs, their best showing in sixteen years
(-- 6th worst in overtime losses. The Oilers suck at earning loser points, something the Flames specialize in.)

Collective opinion of fans on here:

FIRE THE COACH!!!

Did you notice when the thread was made and how the team was playing at the time using the ineffective systems - since changed?

Credit where it’s due, since Christmas he’s changed things up, made personnel and deployment changes and goaltending has solidified.

Hopefully he doesn’t revert back to the long chip, a weak forecheck, negative deployments and the effective pk.

 

[SK13]

Did you notice when the thread was made and how the team was playing at the time using the ineffective systems - since changed?

Credit where it’s due, since Christmas he’s changed things up, made personnel and deployment changes and goaltending has solidified.

Hopefully he doesn’t revert back to the long chip, a weak forecheck, negative deployments and the effective pk.

The problem with criticizing coaching as a fan is you don't know very much about what's being done, what's being said, and why. We simply do not have a better look-in at what's happening than Jay Woodcroft, Tippett, or McLellan. It's a results-based business for sure, but the middle bits are unknowable, so it pays to have some patience before you start a thread like this.

The problem here is we have a similar pattern with three different coaches in the McDrai cluster. A solid October, an iffy November/December with at least a major wall in the winter months, and then sprint to the finish. And parts of that pattern overlap with your criticism.

For starters, the PK. The weirdest element of the Oilers in the last 6 or 7 years by far. Often incredible on the road, usually bad at home. 19-20, it was 88% on the road. Almost 3.5% better than the next-best team. Well below average at home that same year. Last year it was #6 on the road and #20 at home. A few years ago it was on pace to be the worst home PK ever, but they sprinted to a respectable finish. I suspect we'll fall middle of the pack on PK this year because we're seeing the SAME thing happen now.

Maybe it's not coaching. Maybe it's something to do with the cluster. Maybe the weak forecheck isn't something they're coaching players to do, but something the players weren't doing because they weren't in game shape, or were low energy, or were afraid of making mistakes because they were in a spiral w/ mediocre goaltending, bad PK and high GA? I don't know why it happens, but it seems to not matter who the coach is, so it must be the players.

The Oilers are not the only teams to have these ebbs and flows. The Sabres burn down every village in October and then die. The Leafs have one brutal stretch every October. Tampa is a slow starter the last few years. It goes on.

 

[LTIR]

Since Woodcroft took over, the Oilers are:

-- The 4th-best team in the NHL (ahead of Tampa)
-- The #1 team in the Western Conference (ahead of Colorado)
-- #2 in the NHL in regulation wins (behind only Boston)
-- #1 in the NHL in offense
-- #1 in the NHL in Power-play and net Power-play
-- the fourth-last team standing in the 2022 playoffs, their best showing in sixteen years
(-- 6th worst in overtime losses. The Oilers suck at earning loser points, something the Flames specialize in.)

Collective opinion of fans on here:

FIRE THE COACH!!!

He was clearly a wrong hire and it is now up to us to fix it

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

The problem with criticizing coaching as a fan is you don't know very much about what's being done, what's being said, and why. We simply do not have a better look-in at what's happening than Jay Woodcroft, Tippett, or McLellan. It's a results-based business for sure, but the middle bits are unknowable, so it pays to have some patience before you start a thread like this.

The problem here is we have a similar pattern with three different coaches in the McDrai cluster. A solid October, an iffy November/December with at least a major wall in the winter months, and then sprint to the finish. And parts of that pattern overlap with your criticism.

For starters, the PK. The weirdest element of the Oilers in the last 6 or 7 years by far. Often incredible on the road, usually bad at home. 19-20, it was 88% on the road. Almost 3.5% better than the next-best team. Well below average at home that same year. Last year it was #6 on the road and #20 at home. A few years ago it was on pace to be the worst home PK ever, but they sprinted to a respectable finish. I suspect we'll fall middle of the pack on PK this year because we're seeing the SAME thing happen now.

Maybe it's not coaching. Maybe it's something to do with the cluster. Maybe the weak forecheck isn't something they're coaching players to do, but something the players weren't doing because they weren't in game shape, or were low energy, or were afraid of making mistakes because they were in a spiral w/ mediocre goaltending, bad PK and high GA? I don't know why it happens, but it seems to not matter who the coach is, so it must be the players.

The Oilers are not the only teams to have these ebbs and flows. The Sabres burn down every village in October and then die. The Leafs have one brutal stretch every October. Tampa is a slow starter the last few years. It goes on.

Ebbs and flows and poor execution is not the same as systems, defensive alignments, deployments and special teams setups. There were clear changes in Woodcrofts coaching from last year to the first 35-40 games this year.

He was clearly a wrong hire and it is now up to us to fix it

Just like everything else on the planet - HFOil is to the rescue.

 

[brentashton]

The problem with criticizing coaching as a fan is you don't know very much about what's being done, what's being said, and why.

I couldn’t get past the exhaust fumes of your post but you can swap “coaching” to ANY topic on an NHL game on this site unless you just f***ing played in it and decided to trash post while sitting in your stall. Sorry, but the whole point of being on a site like this is to question what is going on from an observer pov.

 

[LTIR]

Did you notice when the thread was made and how the team was playing at the time using the ineffective systems - since changed?

Credit where it’s due, since Christmas he’s changed things up, made personnel and deployment changes and goaltending has solidified.

Hopefully he doesn’t revert back to the long chip, a weak forecheck, negative deployments and the effective pk.

Nice try... Thread may have been made yrs ago but just go back 2 pages and we can see the "woody is failing hard" posts and long justifications from you.

This thread has nothing to do with you now... It's where we post to vent after every loss and sometimes after wins..

Tis the safe space

 

[Drivesaitl]

its idiotic right?

unless the team is winning the way certain posters want, its open season and everyone sucks.

aka how dare the team not dominate every second of every game, make zero mistakes and allow shots on net.

Its arguably idiotic to equate people having critique of the coach to inferring they are presently stating to fire the coach.

But this is the number one strawman fascination of social media that also infects here. Allege that other people are saying something and then denounce it.

This was a bumped thread. Do people even check threadstart dates or when stuff was posted?

 

[Drivesaitl]

Nice try... Thread may have been made yrs ago but just go back 2 pages and we can see the "woody is failing hard" posts and long justifications from you.

This thread has nothing to do with you now... It's where we post to vent after every loss and sometimes after wins..

Tis the safe space

The #1 Drai shitposter on the board is taking people to task on omniscient objectivity and tacitly going at other peoples criticisms.

We all got our glass houses here. Post long enough and we all got em and its recognized. Just saying.

Short form. We all got assholes and take dumps. Mammalian condition.

Maybe we could have a toilet thread where the vast majority of dumps go.

 

[LTIR]

The #1 Drai shitposter on the board is taking people to task on omniscient objectivity and tacitly going at other peoples criticisms.

We all got our glass houses here. Post long enough and we all got em and its recognized. Just saying.

Short form. We all got assholes and take dumps. Mammalian condition.

Maybe we could have a toilet thread where the vast majority of dumps go.

Aww wonder where all the Nuge bashing by the wise drivesaitl is these days... Atleast I am consistent... Draisaitl is frustrating to watch for me but appreciate his production..

If I made a ' trade Draisaitl now' thread I would be fair game for chirps after his every hatty.. until then you will have to take shots at me in random threads like this one.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Nice try... Thread may have been made yrs ago but just go back 2 pages and we can see the "woody is failing hard" posts and long justifications from you.

This thread has nothing to do with you now... It's where we post to vent after every loss and sometimes after wins..

Tis the safe space

2 pages…..and 4 weeks ago…..when he changed pretty much everything back to what he did a year ago except going into a 1-1-3.

Was reacting to a post made as if I started the thread yesterday so pardon me kind sir.

 

[HockeyGuy1964]

2 pages…..and 4 weeks ago…..when he changed pretty much everything back to what he did a year ago except going into a 1-1-3.

Was reacting to a post made as if I started the thread yesterday so pardon me kind sir.

He didn't change all that much, if anything.

The players are playing better with a few key additions & Jack Campbell's allergy to rubber has suddenly cleared.

In your world Woodcroft & Tippet before him was telling them to play shitty defense leaving the opposition wide open in the defensive zone, not to bother with back-pressure on rushes, & play on the wrong side of the puck &/or blow the zone early to try & create offense.

It's kinda funny how it's never the players.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

He didn't change all that much, if anything.

The players are playing better with a few key additions & Jack Campbell's allergy to rubber has suddenly cleared.

In your world Woodcroft & Tippet before him was telling them to play shitty defense leaving the opposition wide open in the defensive zone, not to bother with back-pressure on rushes, & play on the wrong side of the puck &/or blow the zone early to try & create offense.

It's kinda funny how it's never the players.

Certainly some players are playing better. Some of that has to do with where the coach wants them in certain situations. He literally changed the breakout from the long chip (flying the zone) and forechecking systems back to the Tippett days. That created poor back pressure as players were being caught. He went from a 1-1-3 to the 1-2-2 N zone setup. (Still does). He changed personnel on the Pk and his deployments.

I said all this about game 20. Rob Brown, Jason Strudwick and many other analysts also said what I’ve posted and couldn’t understand why.

Woodys changes didn’t suit the strengths of the team. He’s reverted back to what worked!

 

[North Cole]

I couldn’t get past the exhaust fumes of your post but you can swap “coaching” to ANY topic on an NHL game on this site unless you just f***ing played in it and decided to trash post while sitting in your stall. Sorry, but the whole point of being on a site like this is to question what is going on from an observer pov.

This is true for anything in the world and while I understand the sentiment to a degree because criticizing based on observations is fine, but there's a big difference between making critical observations and taking said observations to draw some kind of conclusion when you know you don't have all the facts. Namely the conclusion that someone should lose their job.

It's even more jarring when you take in account that we just extended someone multiple years and there's very few real world scenarios where a small sample size of poor showings would result in us paying someone multiple millions to sit on their couch.

That's where threads like this go really sideways for me. I don't agree with the poster saying - you can't criticize unless you have all the info, but I also don't agree with people saying this thread is fine because we sucked at the time and it's just "observations" while ignoring that we were also making some pretty big conclusions at the end of our observations. Neither party was ever really in the right here IMO.

In their most extreme scenarios, zero criticism without all the facts is how we get censorship and governments doing shady shit, while on the other hand people drawing conclusions from 50% of the available data is how we end up with trucker rallies and insane conspiracy junk in society.

 

[GrumpyKoala]

For what its worth, I still believe woody is a meh coach, with puzzling decisions but I can accept to shut up about it when the team winning

But Ill keep my pitchfork close because at somepoint, when out of idea, he'll get back to the 30 minutes of mcdrai throwing 3 zones hail mary pass and spend a 20 minutes presser to explain why it could have been worst

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

Things aren't flawless, but they're really good

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Things aren't flawless, but they're really good

They could have been worse and hired Babcock!

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

They could have been worse and hired Babcock!

Or stuck with Tippett.

Nuge was probably the only deserving shooter last night. Man that shot made me tingly.

 

[McBooya42]

Things aren't flawless, but they're really good

Better than they were, that's for sure.

Seriously though...this should be a /thread kind of thing.

 

[VainGretzky]

Double the wins than losses as an NHL coach, conference finals 1st ever playoff coaching season .654 winning %

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Well, we're now back to taking every second game off after the desperate push of a few weeks ago. 3 losses in short order against league doormat Columbus, Philly, and Montreal, with awful effort level as the driving factor in all three. Woody making a late push to get himself replaced by Trotz? One can dream.

 

[Oilhawks]

Well, we're now back to taking every second game off after the desperate push of a few weeks ago. 3 losses in short order against league doormat Columbus, Philly, and Montreal, with awful effort level as the driving factor in all three. Woody making a late push to get himself replaced by Trotz? One can dream.

McDrai wearing -3 today and aside from McDavid’s excellent game yesterday both have been underwhelming the latter half of this point streak.

Maybe it’s not the coach?

The lazy habits and entitled play transcend coaching with this core

 

[BlackDogg]

McDrai wearing -3 today and aside from McDavid’s excellent game yesterday both have been underwhelming the latter half of this point streak.

Maybe it’s not the coach?

The lazy habits and entitled play transcend coaching with this core

I know it's not popular but I would at least entertain the value that could be drawn from trading Drai. Two good players could be better than this

 

[Oilhawks]

I know it's not popular but I would at least entertain the value that could be drawn from trading Drai. Two good players could be better than this

Draisaitl is one of my favourite players ever but his awful defensive play this season makes me wonder. He’s never been a stalwart but at least he was putting up more than he gave up. Nowadays he’s an absolute liability, and it feels like McDavid plays a more lazy and entitled game when they’re together too