Player Discussion Jay Woodcroft

[MessierII]

The Oilers are top 5, top 10, or just outside the top 10 in a bunch of 5-on-5 stats under Woodcroft.

The PP is 20th (17.8%), and the PK is 26th (72.9%), though. Special teams cost them on Saturday (oustide of Smith's performance). They probably get at least a point tonight if the power play scored a goal.

Lucky the power play didn’t give them another 2-3 goals

 

[Drivesaitl]

7 wins 6 losses now. We got a coaching bump and nothing else. nada.

 

[Soundwave]

7 wins 6 losses now. We got a coaching bump and nothing else. nada.

Who knew a rookie coach would be in way over their head with a difficult to coach group and piss poor goaltending?

Now I guess we wait and see if this spirals down the toilet with Jay becoming disoriented like Eakins and Krueger did.

Lets see if he has any ability to get this team to refocus when they are down on themselves.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Who knew a rookie coach would be in way over their head with a difficult to coach group and piss poor goaltending?

Now I guess we wait and see if this spirals down the toilet with Jay becoming disoriented like Eakins and Krueger did.

Lets see if he has any ability to get this team to refocus when they are down on themselves.

me me me hands shoot up like Arnold Horshack on Welcome Back Kotter..

The Oilers are a hard to coach team that defer on direction regularly. This is a known. Two vet coaches here had already called it out, had already stated it. I guess nobody believed them.

The only question was how long would they even pretend to be listening to Woodcroft.

heres a funny thing today. Woody spent a lot of time today talking to media. Sutter, a vet, sees it as the complete waste of time that it is and dishes on media availability immediately, as soon as he can. His longest answer today was 11secs. Woodsy was going on and on as if its important. Sutters goal in a presser is to get up and end it as soon as possible so that he can actually attend to more important matters. He's always been this way. Woody has 20 minute press marathons on record. Why?

 

[GOilers88]

me me me hands shoot up like Arnold Horshack on Welcome Back Kotter..

The Oilers are a hard to coach team that defer on direction regularly. This is a known. Two vet coaches here had already called it out, had already stated it. I guess nobody believed them.

Even McLellan is having success in LA this season.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Even McLellan is having success in LA this season.

People discount how hard it was to even get this paper thin lineup into the playoffs the last couple seasons. Any of those years we had 8 players starting games that shouldn't even be in the NHL. somhow they made it. We have a better team this season, somewhat, and we're struggling. McDrai give a shit meter gave out after carrying this club for nothing for several seasons.

They even had their GM say last season "now is not the time to go full in"

Well, now there won't be a time, period...

 

[Soundwave]

Jay shouldn't have taken the job without an assurance that Holland would get a goalie immediately.

Because really now he could be set up as the fall guy or likely if there's a new GM, the new GM will want their own guy in, and Woodcroft is going to get himself Todd Nelson-ed.

 

[Oilhawks]

Jay shouldn't have taken the job without an assurance that Holland would get a goalie immediately.

Because really now he could be set up as the fall guy or likely if there's a new GM, the new GM will want their own guy in, and Woodcroft is going to get himself Todd Nelson-ed.

Except that Jay Woodcroft will get an NHL job elsewhere and will have success

 

[Soundwave]

Except that Jay Woodcroft will get an NHL job elsewhere and will have success

Did Todd Nelson? Dallas Eakins did but Dallas Eakins has really deep contacts league wide because of his time in the Toronto org. A lot of AHL coaches don't get a second chance in this league.

 

[Oilhawks]

Did Todd Nelson? Dallas Eakins did but Dallas Eakins has really deep contacts league wide because of his time in the Toronto org. A lot of AHL coaches don't get a second chance in this league.

Todd Nelson was hyped by Oilers fans, but I don't recall much discussion of him elsewhere. Media have noted that it's likely Woodcroft will get hired elsewhere if the Oilers don't re-hire him

 

[Soundwave]

Todd Nelson was hyped by Oilers fans, but I don't recall much discussion of him elsewhere. Media have noted that it's likely Woodcroft will get hired elsewhere if the Oilers don't re-hire him

Maybe, at this point Woodcroft is probably at the mercy of whoever is the next GM. New GMs tend to want to hire someone from their own circle or someone they like.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

His special teams are about as good as I remember.

 

[MettleMcOiler]

No problem with Woodcroft, has handled the situation admirably given the heavy pressure circumstances, needs a full training camp and a healthy squad. PP will need be revamped.
Definitely will need a full season from him to see what he is capable of

 

[GOilers88]

Come down from last night a bit.

I think Woodcroft should be given a chance next year cause I think he's definitely helped change the team at evens. Maybe theyre just excuses but given the grueling schedule for the back half this season and the lack of practice time, I think a full off season and training camp to get his house in order is reasonable.

Look at Calgary from last year to this year.

 

[elmeroil]

Can't wait for the Fire Woodcroft threads as it's "always the coach"

 

[MettleMcOiler]

me me me hands shoot up like Arnold Horshack on Welcome Back Kotter..

The Oilers are a hard to coach team that defer on direction regularly. This is a known. Two vet coaches here had already called it out, had already stated it. I guess nobody believed them.

The only question was how long would they even pretend to be listening to Woodcroft.

heres a funny thing today. Woody spent a lot of time today talking to media. Sutter, a vet, sees it as the complete waste of time that it is and dishes on media availability immediately, as soon as he can. His longest answer today was 11secs. Woodsy was going on and on as if its important. Sutters goal in a presser is to get up and end it as soon as possible so that he can actually attend to more important matters. He's always been this way. Woody has 20 minute press marathons on record. Why?

Just chiming in, I think Woodcroft is well aware the position he's in and believe honestly that's just who he is. I don't think there's anything wrong with that and he's actually standing there to appease the ravenous fan base with anwsers.
Does it equate to wins and losses?...this might be stretching it a bit. You'll have to scrutinize every coaches post game interview from now on.
Plus, this guy has only Been running the bench for 2 weeks +
Overtime he'll get into the rhythm in what he needs to say without all the fluff.
Sutter literally has no ****s to give at his age and experience.
Small sample but I think Woodcroft cares alot for this team and for the fans as well. So kudos to him in taking the responsibilities to communicate the best he can to the media.

 

[YakDavid]

Come down from last night a bit.

I think Woodcroft should be given a chance next year cause I think he's definitely helped change the team at evens. Maybe theyre just excuses but given the grueling schedule for the back half this season and the lack of practice time, I think a full off season and training camp to get his house in order is reasonable.

Look at Calgary from last year to this year.

The frustrating part is their was a time earlier this year when we could have brought him in and would have had time to work with the team but management waited much to late.

 

[Little Fury]

Come down from last night a bit.

I think Woodcroft should be given a chance next year cause I think he's definitely helped change the team at evens. Maybe theyre just excuses but given the grueling schedule for the back half this season and the lack of practice time, I think a full off season and training camp to get his house in order is reasonable.

Look at Calgary from last year to this year.

If they let Woodcroft walk after this season because he couldn't get a banged up team into the playoffs after they hung onto Tippett when he went something like 6-13-3 I might just call it quits on this team until the entire management team goes and/or Katz sells.

 

[5 Mins 4 Ftg]

Can't wait for the Fire Woodcroft threads as it's "always the coach"

Coach can only coach what he has on the bench. Holland is the real culprit here.

 

[bone]

Where I'm still cutting him some slack is that he's been here for exactly 13 games and has yet to have the benefit of having back to back games in the same building. He's essentially joined the team for a 13 game road trip. So he's had about 13 travel days in 26 calendar days and probably only a couple proper practices.

The team is literally on its last legs as a result and have come out of this tough stretch adding up to 7 players missing last night where 5 of them would have been dressed 100% if healthy. That's a quarter of the lineup.

I think it's an absolute mockery that the league somehow with two teams that are physically 300 km apart from each other have had opposite schedules over these 26 days. Tomorrow night will mark the 14th consecutive game for the Oilers without back to back in the same building. Over that same stretch, Calgary has had 10 home games out of 13 with all 3 trips being short one nighters in Vancouver, Minnesota and Colorado.

We now have a more forgiving stretch coming up to let players sleep in their own beds more than a single night at a time where we only cross the border once in close to four weeks, but what astonishes me is that Calgary gets it as well.

Calgary will have a stretch of 21 of 26 games at home. 2 of their road games are day trips to Vancouver. A full two month stretch where they likely are spending only 4 nights in a hotel room. How they hell does that happen.

 

[TB12]

Can't wait for the Fire Woodcroft threads as it's "always the coach"

And it’ll be the usual resident “coaching expert” starting the thread.

 

[Oilhawks]

If they let Woodcroft walk after this season because he couldn't get a banged up team into the playoffs after they hung onto Tippett when he went something like 6-13-3 I might just call it quits on this team until the entire management team goes and/or Katz sells.

The Oilers have a “$1B valuation” due to the team-owned arena and McDavid in spite of decreasing gate revenue and increasingly apathetic fans. With that in mind, the Max Bialystok of owners might decide to “sell high” before the golden goose gets out of the pen.

It might actually be the best thing for the fanbase, provided the new owner isn’t also a narcissistic assclown

 

[Stoneman89]

Except that Jay Woodcroft will get an NHL job elsewhere and will have success

Very likely will. Just like a few of the others who left. Because he will have competent GM and scouting staff to help him out.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

My hot take is Woodcroft gets extended whether or not this team makes the playoffs. Barring a total collapse of course I think Woodcroft will earn it.

He's jumped into a white hot situation within a systemic loser environment for over a decade with urgency from ownership to the farthest reaches of 2nd tier fandom and has not flinched through the toilet seat up and down of Oiler 'hockey.' Through this Woodcroft is demonstrating a positive, constructive demeanour, solid decision making and flexible thinking in deploying this team's personnel, detail focus and data driven mindset. Lot of strong attributes we see in new era coaches with a lengthy body of elite level experience that belays his age. Woodcroft's not a miracle worker (no coach is) - this season has been negatively effected throughout by substantive injuries which migrated from under Tippett, #1B goalie and d-corp to now cratering the top 6 forward group and by extension PP and PK.

The Oiler coaching job has been a turnstile for all forms of coaching. It's been a graveyard for deeply experienced coaches and an overhyped, ill-prepared Centre of the Universe guy. The constant has been poor personnel and/or shallow quality depth despite being well over a decade in rebuild(s). Won't be a miracle worker that turns this team around. Woodcroft I think is showing enough as a well experienced veteran young coach to get the chance to lurch this team forward.

 

[Trafalgar Sadge Law]

The Oilers have been 2nd in the entire NHL in HDCF% at 58.13% and 6th in the league in XGF% at 54.78% since Woody has taken over, and this has included some of our toughest stretch of games against some of the best of the best like Florida, Carolina, Tampa etc. Obviously the special teams could use some work but Woodcroft has us playing some damn good hockey 5v5 both eye test wise and analytically.