Dallas Eakins..what went wrong?

[oobga]

He was maybe the worst coach in NHL history. Certainly the worst coach in Oilers history. Nothing really complicated about it.

He was the kind of coach where everyone could see he was in over his head less than a month on the job. Guys like that pop up now and then, but they usually get canned very quickly. Oilers had special circumstances though where MacT put his reputation on the line backstabbing Krueger to hire Eakins to a 4 year contract. MacT gets a pretty much infinitely long leash from Kevin Lowe and Katz, so MacT was able to just wait and wait and wait for Eakins to figure things out and make moves to try to work around his terrible coaching until he had no choice but to fire him.

Because of that special circumstance that let him keep his job so long, I think it allowed Eakins to coach long enough to be in the discussion as one of the worst coaches of all time, When normally he would have only been a tiny forgettable blip (fired after 1-2 months) on the NHL coaching radar.

 

[Chairman Maouth]

He knew how to talk, but didn't know how to turn that talk as a coach. From his horrible swarm system, to a one man accountability on Yakupov, to the most of the team regressing under him, moral victories, corsi lover, fitness guru, taking donuts away from media questions, destroyed the special teams that were strong under the previous coach Krueger, and finally removing the ping pong table from the oilers room for reasons I don't even know of. It didn't surprise me to see how miserable players looked under him. Now that Nelson's here, the "give a damn" meter is higher, and players look rejuvenated under Nelson ; especially Eberle and Yakupov. Practices have been more high tempo and higher paced, according to the players. If there was a thing I could never stand about Eakins, it was him just standing there all confused, when the other team scores. The only times I've seen him every show any sign of emotions was the water bottle incident. Worst coach I've ever seen AINEC.

Belov didn't want to resign here, because of Eakins. And from what Aceoffire mentioned about Petry, I heard that same comment from the oilers radio guy Stauffer.

I remember watching the Oilers swarm defense against the Canucks, and the Oilers getting burned often.

The most telling thing for me though, and it has nothing to do with coaching systems or anything like that was the water bottle incident. What kind of coach gets pissed that he got a little water on him? Didn't Hall show some emotion there by chucking the bottle? Very bad move on Eakins part and shows he does not know how to handle players. The smart thing would have been to make a joke to Hall and make him laugh. Then he's got the player on his side. Instead, he berated him and put a wedge between them.

 

[McAsuno]

I remember watching the Oilers swarm defense against the Canucks, and the Oilers getting burned often.

The most telling thing for me though, and it has nothing to do with coaching systems or anything like that was the water bottle incident. What kind of coach gets pissed that he got a little water on him? Didn't Hall show some emotion there by chucking the bottle? Very bad move on Eakins part and shows he does not know how to handle players. The smart thing would have been to make a joke to Hall and make him laugh. Then he's got the player on his side. Instead, he berated him and put a wedge between them.

I believe it was a blowout victory for the flames. Hall was one of the few oilers last season that actually played like he gave a damn, and he's a pretty emotional player. The ironic thing is, Hall was the only oiler to speak to MacT about not firing Eakins as well. I don't know anything that happens in the room, but the oilers squad definitely looks far better under Nelson, than it has for Eakins. How Krueger lead a worse roster into a better part of the standings is beyond me. Eakins had two significant better rosters and did nothing. Waste of a 1/2 years with him as a coach.

 

[missinthejets]

I believe it was a blowout victory for the flames. Hall was one of the few oilers last season that actually played like he gave a damn, and he's a pretty emotional player. The ironic thing is, Hall was the only oiler to speak to MacT about not firing Eakins as well. I don't know anything that happens in the room, but the oilers squad definitely looks far better under Nelson, than it has for Eakins. How Krueger lead a worse roster into a better part of the standings is beyond me. Eakins had two significant better rosters and did nothing. Waste of a 1/2 years with him as a coach.

I think Hall is just one of those guys who knows and understands that coaches get fired because teams don't win enough games and as a guy who has been around for 4 different coaches now I think he understood how bad it reflects on the players if another coach is fired.

Eakins was trash though and Halls defence of him was misguided.

 

[McAsuno]

I think Hall is just one of those guys who knows and understands that coaches get fired because teams don't win enough games and as a guy who has been around for 4 different coaches now I think he understood how bad it reflects on the players if another coach is fired.

Eakins was trash though and Halls defence of him was misguided.

That's agreeable. Hall or RNH are the future C's in my opinion. Good riddance to Eakins.

 

[WarriorofTime]

Quick what are the names of the coaches of the top 5 AHL teams? Don't know? Exactly. Doing well in the AHL means nothing. Of course it's Toronto and their NHL team is terrible so taking their AHL team to the finals made him a "rising star".

 

[Eichel 9]

Quick what are the names of the coaches of the top 5 AHL teams? Don't know? Exactly. Doing well in the AHL means nothing. Of course it's Toronto and their NHL team is terrible so taking their AHL team to the finals made him a "rising star".

IIRC he also got a lot of credited for Kadri doing so well in the NHL a couple seasons ago. He was known (at least around Toronto) as a very good coach for young players.

 

[McPuritania]

It was anything but that.

She had an extraordinary amount of information in her post - some of which I had not heard before. Was it all true? I have no idea. She does sound credible though and explains herself well. But again, was it all true?

I made sure to go through this thread and look for people quoting her to see if any Oilers fans disagreed with her. I used you as fact checkers because I knew you guys would know better than anyone. I saw no complaints from Oilers fans so I assume everything she wrote is true.

My post where I quoted her was 100 benign.

Ah I see. Sorry for the confusion. Been having to do a lot of defending against insults lately, guess I'm still on high alert.

 

[Chairman Maouth]

Ah I see. Sorry for the confusion. Been having to do a lot of defending against insults lately, guess I'm still on high alert.

No problem at all.

 

[Up the Irons]

what went wrong with Dallas Eakins? Easy, he wasn't an NHL calibre coach in any way, shape or form. The list of wrong decisions and misguided directions is too long, but I'll leave you with this one simple item:

Eakins couldn't even run a decent NHL practice!!!!

 

[Roof Daddy]

IIRC he also got a lot of credited for Kadri doing so well in the NHL a couple seasons ago. He was known (at least around Toronto) as a very good coach for young players.

While he was credited with Kadri taking a step forward, wasn't Kadri's biggest issue conditioning? If there is one area he probably deserves credit, it's forcing the fitness/strength/conditioning more than an average coach would. He did play a part in getting Nuge on the right program for last off-season (where he gained 10lbs of muscle). Of course that's not exactly what you want the premiere quality in your head coach to be - fitness authority. That's what trainers are for.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

Is there a TL;DR for your TL;DR?

Hehe jk. It was a good read.

It would be too generous for me to have a TL;DR for my TL;DR.

I'm glad you enjoyed the post despite the length, though

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

If more people posted more constructive and well thought-of comments instead of lame jokes and snarky comments, I'd enjoy this place a lot more than I do.

Well done. Refreshing, to say the least. Let me know if you ever get a blog. I'd read for sure.

Thank you for the compliments I'd probably be a terrible blogger, though, since I would probably forget to update...

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

That was awesome. I learned a lot there - which is remarkable in that I'm a fan of a team in the same division as Edmonton and didn't know half the stuff that someone from Jersey does. And I made sure to read quotes of that in case you were called out on your facts by Oilers fans, but you weren't. Good job.

Thank you for the compliment, and I'm impressed by your fact-checking with the Oiler fans

 

[smackdaddy]

W36-l76

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

I think it’s pretty clear by now that Eakins was a monumental failure as an NHL head coach, so, in situations like that, I believe it is a combination of factors that caused him to fall flat on his face so spectacularly. Removing the factors (like a flawed roster) that Eakins couldn’t control, I’ll just discuss some I feel that he could.

His first error was probably in how he chose to make his initial communication to his players. It’s been reported that during the summer prior to his rookie NHL coaching campaign, he sent letters out to the Oiler athletes describing how he wanted them to all be in shape for training camp. That’s going to leave a negative, demanding, and potentially hostile impression with the members of the team, because his introduction to them was all about his expectations of them and nothing about what they needed from him. To those who already come to camp in prime condition, it will be condescending—like explaining to a member of the police force the importance of not committing burglary. To those who aren’t disposed to show up fit, it’s probably not going to change their training regime and is just going to incline them to internally revolt against whatever demands he places on them, planting the seeds of discontent against the coach before they’ve even met him. Basically, Eakins created a chance of conflict with players before he met them because he chose a combative manner of introduction, and he gave some players who he might not have needed to offend (since they would have shown up to camp fit) a reason to be miffed with him. Not the best first move, in a nutshell.

Building off the theme of Eakins’ bad first impression (which is really hard to get back), Eakins also [snip]

I'm sorry, but this is silly. Coaches, both for professional teams and "amateur" teams (quotation marks b/c I'm referring to NCAA teams here), send letters to their players during the summer all the time. Pat Riley (famous NBA coach who won with the Lakers and the Heat) was famous for doing this every year, and for saying he expected his players to be in the best physical condition of their lives, every year, as an example.

If your players get upset because they are told to come to training camp in-shape, I would question the mental fortitude of the players rather than the coach. If the players on the Oilers crumple because their emotions can't handle the insurmountable challenge of their new coach questioning their work ethic, it is no surprise that they have been the crudbucket team of the NHL for the past half-decade.

As for first impressions, I don't think it's as hard to get back as you imply.

As for the rest, I appreciate you using specific examples as to why Eakins and his coaching career failed with a bang. Generally people want to change the coach because of the implicit assumption that their "good" team is being held back by a piss-poor coach, and so will wish to fire the coach for no specific reasons, or reasons that seem absolutely silly/things that every coach does (see: Bruce Boudreau, Capitals, or Dan Bylsma, Penguins). While I get that impression from some Oilers fans, from your post I clearly see that is not the case.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

This is a really excellent post. However, my question is, given all these negatives, how was he fairly successful at lower levels? Does it have to do with fear working at lower levels like you mentioned?

Good question. I think the idea that coaching through fear is more effective at lower levels since players know they have to do whatever coach says if they don't want to be lost in hockey wasteland forever is part of Eakins being more successful at lower levels but being a flame-out at the NHL level.

I also believe that emphasizing physical fitness might reap greater rewards at the AHL level than at the NHL level, since the average NHL player probably knows more about conditioning than the average AHL player. Eakins at the AHL level seemed good at getting everyone on his team to be fit, so that probably gave them an advantage over some AHL teams where not everybody had figured out how to condition themselves as a pro yet, but at the NHL level, Eakins' Oilers would be competing against NHLers who would all know how to be conditioned as pros. That's just my speculation, though.

 

[Chairman Maouth]

Thank you for the compliment, and I'm impressed by your fact-checking with the Oiler fans

Yeah why do something myself when I can have Oilers fans do it for me.

 

[Joey Moss]

Just another example of Toronto media overhyping a guy in their organization. Amazing he got 3-4 interviews..

From day one he got to Edmonton he was doing dumb things to make an impression and acting like he was smarter than everyone else.. Making the media eat fruit and vegetables, taking down pictures in the locker room, taking away the ping pong table, putting slogans in the locker room.. Then you look at the things involving the team.. making a guy they had just signed captain, the swarm defense system, the 6:30 AM practice or whatever it was, scratching Yakupov. (he claimed Yak would come back better from it and it made things so much worse)

Nelson has made Eakins look like the coach he really is. Every single player on the Oilers has been better under Nelson. Yakupov, Schultz, Petry, Eberle the most.

 

[tempest2i]

He needs a great team that is already great and will continue to be great with or without coaches to really shine.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

I'm sorry, but this is silly. Coaches, both for professional teams and "amateur" teams (quotation marks b/c I'm referring to NCAA teams here), send letters to their players during the summer all the time. Pat Riley (famous NBA coach who won with the Lakers and the Heat) was famous for doing this every year, and for saying he expected his players to be in the best physical condition of their lives, every year, as an example.

If your players get upset because they are told to come to training camp in-shape, I would question the mental fortitude of the players rather than the coach. If the players on the Oilers crumple because their emotions can't handle the insurmountable challenge of their new coach questioning their work ethic, it is no surprise that they have been the crudbucket team of the NHL for the past half-decade.

As for first impressions, I don't think it's as hard to get back as you imply.

As for the rest, I appreciate you using specific examples as to why Eakins and his coaching career failed with a bang. Generally people want to change the coach because of the implicit assumption that their "good" team is being held back by a piss-poor coach, and so will wish to fire the coach for no specific reasons, or reasons that seem absolutely silly/things that every coach does (see: Bruce Boudreau, Capitals, or Dan Bylsma, Penguins). While I get that impression from some Oilers fans, from your post I clearly see that is not the case.

No need to apologize. You are definitely entitled your own opinion about things, so I'm not going to be upset about that

With Eakins letter, the reporting out of Edmonton following Eakins' firing was just that the players on the Oilers were offended by a letter Eakins sent to them prior to his rookie NHL coaching year. Why exactly they were offended wasn't released, so it could be more of a tone issue than a content issue (basically, the Oilers could have been more miffed by how Eakins asked them to show up to camp fit than just the fact that he asked them to show up fit). Whether the problem was more with the coach for causing offense or the players for taking offense, the fact seems to be that players were offended by that letter. To really know which side was in the right, we'd probably have to see the contents of that letter, but just because everything else Eakins says or does reeks of arrogance, I'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to the players that the letter came across as very condescending.

I tend to think of first impressions as setting the lens through which a relationship will be filtered through and sometimes determining if there will even be a further relationship at all, but I think Eakins probably got into trouble since almost everything he did re-affirmed the initial impression of him as a very arrogant person. If he came across as arrogant at first but then acted consistently in a way that was humble, the first impression thing most likely wouldn't be as bad. However, since his first impression seems to be pretty reminiscent of who he is, it's more problematic than if it were totally different than who he is.

Glad you appreciated the examples, and thank you for bringing up some good points for discussion.

 

[ForeverJerseyGirl]

Yeah why do something myself when I can have Oilers fans do it for me.

No need to complicate things. Sometimes the simple way is the best.

 

[KaylaJ]

While he was credited with Kadri taking a step forward, wasn't Kadri's biggest issue conditioning? If there is one area he probably deserves credit, it's forcing the fitness/strength/conditioning more than an average coach would. He did play a part in getting Nuge on the right program for last off-season (where he gained 10lbs of muscle). Of course that's not exactly what you want the premiere quality in your head coach to be - fitness authority. That's what trainers are for.

I remember one summer (pre lockout?) how Kadri had started training with Gary Roberts. He was all excited about how much he had worked and then after the Marlies fitness tests, Eakins called him out for his body fat. I think eventually Kadri said he and Eakins spoke about that behind closed doors, but it had been an interesting thing to watch considering how the media took it.


Also, re: fitness letters I think Riley is what Eakins would like to be but just doesn't have that swagger. I've joked about Riley's circle of trust in the NBA forum before comparing it to a cult, but it does seem to work. Even though Lebron is no longer in Miami, he's even doing the whole "trust" thing now with his new teammates, esp Love. Eakins on the other hand always talks about how he wants to instill confidence, competition, and accountability, but you just never felt like you believed it.


Also, taking about the donuts from the team is one thing, but he sure didn't make any media friends taking away their sweets.

 

[yukoner88]

W36-l76

Nov & Dec is the worst stretch of hockey I;ve seen a hockey team put in over a 2 month period. Every game it would take until th team was down 3-0 until they started skating. No emotion, no oomph to there game. It was pathetic.

 

[Crow]

This is a very excellent and insightful thread. Thank you to all involved especially FJG.