News Article: Hitch wants to return as head coach next year.

[Lay Z Boy GM]

I wouldn’t mind Hitch still being in the organization but not as head coach. Dream scenario we get Nelson back and he has Hitch to lean on for advice I guess.

Nelson actually didn’t get screwed over so maybe he would return. We needed an experienced coach and Tmac was just a better option. Nelson is ready now and he’s just a great guy that players love. I used to watch most of his interviews with the Barons and he’s just a down to earth guy, having the team over to his house for bbqs and stuff, really good at keeping things positive and rewarding good play.

The key is cutting out the cancer in management. Once that happens I don’t mind Hitch being part of the new “brain trust”.

 

[Aerchon]

Washington, Pittsburgh and most other teams load up their 1st PP unit.

It's a personal preference of mine. I like two units that are able to score rather than one.

 

[Stoneman89]

It's a personal preference of mine. I like two units that are able to score rather than one.

If you have a killer 1st unit, you likely won't need much of a 2nd.

 

[Hynh]

It's a personal preference of mine. I like two units that are able to score rather than one.

The Oilers don't have enough skill to run two PP units.

 

[Aerchon]

The Oilers don't have enough skill to run two PP units.

Disagree.

Draisaitl McDavid Chaison
Klefbom and Puliarvi when healthy.

Lucic Nuge Gagner
Nurse and Sekera.

 

[WIOiler]

**** Hitch. If he's back, I'm not. Playing Koski in a pointless game on a back to back is just stupid. And the book has been written on Koskinen now. Everyone knows how to score on him. We are doomed next year.

 

[Jimmi McJenkins]

So Again I say no, and again I say just first Hitchcock now to make it clear he's not coming back.

 

[frag2]

**** Hitch. If he's back, I'm not. Playing Koski in a pointless game on a back to back is just stupid. And the book has been written on Koskinen now. Everyone knows how to score on him. We are doomed next year.

One of the Oilers media heads said Stolarz has a knee injury. Regardless, hitch should just play someone else still.

Then again, that would imply giving up as well lol

 

[Zerotonine]

He's supposed to run and gun? With this team?

You've seen our roster, right? 6 of our forwards don't belong in the league and only nurse and sekera can move the damn puck.

Hitchcock hasn't played run n gun hockey ever

 

[Hynh]

Disagree.

Draisaitl McDavid Chaison
Klefbom and Puliarvi when healthy.

Lucic Nuge Gagner
Nurse and Sekera.

Puljujarvi on the PP is a bad meme that needs to die. Useless f***er can't shoot, pass, protect the puck, carry the puck or battle in front of the net. Other than his height and his dopey grin he has no stand out qualities.

 

[BigFuzzyDice]

Todd Nelson is my choice too. He is a players coach and he's is from the school of Barry Trotz coaching.

dropping this guy because landing mcdavid mandated an "experienced coach" at the helm was the dumbest thing this org did. How much experience did sather have when gretz rolled into town. Zip,nada zero. I thought he was our best chance to minimize the obc influence and be the perfect coach to grow with the team .plus . Mact hated every minute of nellys time here . That was a total bonus . With that team steady improving it just highlighted macts incompetence giving eakins the job and not even giving Todd an interview. ( which he was pissed about ) He definitely went contrary to marching orders a few times during his run here and I liked that. Especially putting fail-or fall on the third line when he refused to play the right way for the good of the team. Nelly was motivated to stick it up their wazoos sideways. Hopefully that fire remains and he would relish the chance. Maybe if cats sends the whole obc to the ei office this spring it'll all come to fruition.
Barring that,
Put mact on a plane with a briefcase of Katz cash and his favorite shade of apologising lipstick let's get the right Todd back on board. He's the one coach that I think could outkick his coverage and get this bunch of misfits pulling on the same rope instead of just their own for a change.

He knew how to build a game plan around his roster in opposition to wrong Todd's bigger hammer solution to the round peg square hole dilemma. Nelly for prez, or at least bench boss in charge.

He will be a hc in this league and much like every ex oiler he will take our lunch money on the regular. I'd rather he was on our side.

You can't read his interview here and not think he's the right guy to go to war with a pair of mcdrai nukes in his arsenal

Sunday Q and A: Todd Nelson and his "jam it down their...

 

[Tyrolean]

Not gonna happen .. Unless the next GM is buddy buddy with Nelson.

 

[Soundwave]

I'd prefer a bit more of a modern/offensive oriented coach, but I don't think Hitch or McLellan or Nelson or Krueger or Renney were the problems here ever.

The only problematic coach was Eakins.

The issue is and always has been the management isn't smart to build a competent roster.

 

[BigFuzzyDice]

I'd prefer a bit more of a modern/offensive oriented coach, but I don't think Hitch or McLellan or Nelson or Krueger or Renney were the problems here ever.

The only problematic coach was Eakins.

The issue is and always has been the management isn't smart to build a competent roster.

I agree to an extent in the coaches Krueger and renny where here in the committed to a rebuild years. They got paid for us to be bad to get picks. The brain trust built tanks when mact got the gm chair his big move that was supposed to make hall and the 6 million dollar men round the corner to get competitive was the eakins disaster. That was supposed to be the obc victory lap on the rebuild. Macl ok it worked for a while. But most retread coaches have a shelf life of 3-5 years. And that should be a 3 and 2 yr contract. I have my thoughts on how wrong Todd lost the plot. The number if times the team no showed was a coaching or team building issue. It happened to often . But Now its hitch and he's fine tactics wise. Old school taskmaster with a real short shelf life today. And does he want to do it or move to something helpful but low key. So... What's next. I'd be fine with hitch another year but that prob means woody the year after. Nope
Give Todd 3 years would be my choice. Especially If its him , woody or a retread.

The biggest problem for the next guy vs mcl and hitch when he arrived is the crop dusting chia / whoever did the kosk thing gave the place with the last few moves after the d went down. Stuck with lurch plus now kosk and more cash buried in the minors.
While his summer bets didn't pay off #blametoby . The in season stuff was totally mind blowing and made a bad situation way worse.

I thought wrong Todd had run his course last season. had a new coach started the year and the roster didn't get panic moved by chia grasping this year they make the wildcard. 3 or 4 wins more early on before people got hurt and they're there. Of course toby coulda just scored 12 more goals .

Not a contender but maybe one 6 game series to tide over the hunger.

 

[Cypress]

I don't think Hitchcock's coaching style is correct anymore in today's NHL. We need to be building more of a run and gun strategy, what better player could you have for that style than McDavid? That being said we don't have a roster that can run and gun right now. I would be fine with keeping Hitchcock for now just for stability while the (hopefully) new gm gets his bearings. When the team commits to his structure and has a healthy defense they look alright. Though I do have my questions as to whether that level of play can be maintained across an entire season.

 

[Spawn]

I don't think Hitchcock's coaching style is correct anymore in today's NHL. We need to be building more of a run and gun strategy, what better player could you have for that style than McDavid? That being said we don't have a roster that can run and gun right now. I would be fine with keeping Hitchcock for now just for stability while the (hopefully) new gm gets his bearings. When the team commits to his structure and has a healthy defense they look alright. Though I do have my questions as to whether that level of play can be maintained across an entire season.

No they do not. They "looked alright" for a stretch because they had had a butter soft schedule. When they play good teams they get their shit kicked in. They've won 3 of 12 games since Sekera has been back against playoff teams. They are as horrible as ever.

Honestly they've looked like crap against a lot of the bad teams too but were getting some wins because McDavid and Drai were on a tear.

 

[Soundwave]

I agree to an extent in the coaches Krueger and renny where here in the committed to a rebuild years. They got paid for us to be bad to get picks. The brain trust built tanks when mact got the gm chair his big move that was supposed to make hall and the 6 million dollar men round the corner to get competitive was the eakins disaster. That was supposed to be the obc victory lap on the rebuild. Macl ok it worked for a while. But most retread coaches have a shelf life of 3-5 years. And that should be a 3 and 2 yr contract. I have my thoughts on how wrong Todd lost the plot. The number if times the team no showed was a coaching or team building issue. It happened to often . But Now its hitch and he's fine tactics wise. Old school taskmaster with a real short shelf life today. And does he want to do it or move to something helpful but low key. So... What's next. I'd be fine with hitch another year but that prob means woody the year after. Nope
Give Todd 3 years would be my choice. Especially If its him , woody or a retread.

The biggest problem for the next guy vs mcl and hitch when he arrived is the crop dusting chia / whoever did the kosk thing gave the place with the last few moves after the d went down. Stuck with lurch plus now kosk and more cash buried in the minors.
While his summer bets didn't pay off #blametoby . The in season stuff was totally mind blowing and made a bad situation way worse.

I thought wrong Todd had run his course last season. had a new coach started the year and the roster didn't get panic moved by chia grasping this year they make the wildcard. 3 or 4 wins more early on before people got hurt and they're there. Of course toby coulda just scored 12 more goals .

Not a contender but maybe one 6 game series to tide over the hunger.

Isn't the record with and without McLellan pretty much the same?

 

[Cypress]

No they do not. They "looked alright" for a stretch because they had had a butter soft schedule. When they play good teams they get their **** kicked in. They've won 3 of 12 games since Sekera has been back against playoff teams. They are as horrible as ever.

Honestly they've looked like crap against a lot of the bad teams too but were getting some wins because McDavid and Drai were on a tear.

Mm, that could be. We had a few (two?) good runs where our defensive play was pretty suffocating for a stretch. Wasn't really paying attention to strength of schedule during them though. Maybe that was the cause. I saw the otherwise shaky defense to be caused by injuries and fatigue due to too demanding of a playstyle / too much ice time for key players.

 

[TheSpecialist]

Not gonna happen .. Unless the next GM is buddy buddy with Nelson.

Nelson has a slim chance of returning if it was up to a POHO/GM Ken Holland with the two of their history together in the Detroit organization. However, I don't think Nelson would want to return unless MacT and maybe some others were completely out of the picture.

 

[DerpMorg]

Hitch can hit the road with the rest of the management team and coaches.

There is zero reason to keep him around.

 

[GhostfaceWu]

Please no I'm really tired of old had coaches who even when there is literally no other options because of the lack of success of the older guys is unwilling to give the players that we brought up during the year an actual shot in the top 6 just to see how much wiggle room they will have for player overhaul during the offseason. Nobody knows what Stolarz is capable and he's probably gone and guys like Currie weren't given a chance or even more perplexing Gamberdella (who was scoring and creating with RNH) who got 3 good games in and was taken off for god knows what reason by Hitch for the remainder of the year.

 

[TB12]

Who are the guys available this season and who do people want?

I never thought much of Todd Nelson because I didn’t know much about him. Then someone posted that article with his thoughts on systems and pressure and I became a fan. I still think it’s highly unlikely he’d return. MacT will still be here (ugh) and I got the impression from MacT babysitting Todd that there wasn’t a lot of love between the 2.

I’d be good with Knoblauch. There’s a risk with a young unproven coach for sure but the Connor factor with him helps.

 

[BigFuzzyDice]

Who are the guys available this season and who do people want?

I never thought much of Todd Nelson because I didn’t know much about him. Then someone posted that article with his thoughts on systems and pressure and I became a fan. I still think it’s highly unlikely he’d return. MacT will still be here (ugh) and I got the impression from MacT babysitting Todd that there wasn’t a lot of love between the 2.

I’d be good with Knoblauch. There’s a risk with a young unproven coach for sure but the Connor factor with him helps.

The lack of love from mact is why I always thought highly of nelly, he was the foil to the obc brain trust. even after the eakins incident and the subsequent tdl stripping for parts the oil endured that season he still had them playing inspired hockey. Not enough horses but we got a good battle every night.

 

[Patch101]

My gut feeling is they'll keep him around in some sorta advisory role.
Not sure if that's a good thing or not though.