Proposal: Ralph Krueger as an Associate Coach

[oobga]

Agree with others, there's no way he would come back here. We treated him like crap.

 

[jukon]

I would be okay with it assuming he would take the job. He is arguably the only one behind the bench in the last few years who has shown any success. He clearly knew how to run our special teams well. If they don't want to fire Eakins and Acton because they are so new fire the others. Smith and Buchberger have not proven themselves capable. If they are such good guys you want to keep them on the payroll, make them scouts.

 

[Stoneman89]

I would be okay with it assuming he would take the job. He is arguably the only one behind the bench in the last few years who has shown any success. He clearly knew how to run our special teams well. If they don't want to fire Eakins and Acton because they are so new fire the others. Smith and Buchberger have not proven themselves capable. If they are such good guys you want to keep them on the payroll, make them scouts.

The fact that Bucky (nine lives) Buchberger and Steve (5 lives) Smith are still assistants through a mutitude of head coaching changes gives me a thought that managment is constantly sticking their own fingers into who the head coach picks. Never seen anything like it.

 

[guymez]

The fact that Bucky (nine lives) Buchberger and Steve (5 lives) Smith are still assistants through a mutitude of head coaching changes gives me a thought that managment is constantly sticking their own fingers into who the head coach picks. Never seen anything like it.

Brownlee has talked about Bucky being a close friend of Katz. Of course the same goes with Lowe.

I am sure Eakins was shocked to find out how things really work in the organization.

The worst thing to happen to this team is Daryl Katz.
Katz is one of the main reasons why this team is failing. If he treated this like a business instead of his play toy Management might actually be accountable for its lack of success.

 

[BoldNewLettuce]

If you're going to make a coaching change you might as well fire Lowe and MacT too. All the staff....right down to the Octane girls.

#dat-scorched-earth

 

[Master Lok]

Not a chance do I want Krueger back.

- PK and PP was certainly working well, but most of the penalty killing forwards are no longer in the lineup. So there was going to be a change in the PK regardless.

- Even strength man on man defense was laughable as no other team used it
- Has Krueger ever heard of the term "line matching"? No - he just rolled over his lines and his bottom six got killed for it.

- The Oilers were close to the playoffs, and I've seen some idiot posters suggest that the Oilers "lost heart" down the stretch. They didn't lose heart - they were exposed. When other teams became more focused and serious about the playoff run, the Oilers got exposed for being the bottom feeder team that they actually were. A streaking PP only hid that for the start of the season.
- Do you recall the game last year when playoff contending teams manhandling the Oilers last year - in particular LA Kings? It wasn't close.
- small sample size. Realize that last year's standings was as a result of a shorter season.

- When the Oilers hired Krueger, I believe they were trying to reinvent the wheel. That the Oilers using a European experienced coach could find some new way of winning games. The Oilers don't need a "new way" of coaching, they need a "winning way" of coaching. I would have preferred a more experienced coach than Eakins - but at least Eakins is experienced in North American hockey with NHL sized rinks and tactics.

 

[Skm]

I'm sure MacT still has him on his Skype contact list...

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Brownlee has talked about Bucky being a close friend of Katz. Of course the same goes with Lowe.

I am sure Eakins was shocked to find out how things really work in the organization.

The worst thing to happen to this team is Daryl Katz.
Katz is one of the main reasons why this team is failing. If he treated this like a business instead of his play toy Management might actually be accountable for its lack of success.

I've said this for years...Katz would rather lose (and keep selling overpriced tickets for a garbage product) than fire his friends

Zero accountability in this organization and that why it's rotten to the core

that said, no to Krueger...good special team sure...but zero system in place AT ALL

 

[TheBusDriver]

How about fire all the Buchy and Smith and let Eakins pick his coaches

 

[Jamin]

Anyone else want Ralph Krueger back as an associate coach focusing on special teams? The guy at least knows how a power play and a penalty kill work unlike Keith Acton, who puts players in positions where even I know they don't belong, see: Yakupov, Nail. Not to mention jettisoning Keith means Will goes with him.

He works for team canada scouting for the olympics and lives in Europe. On top of that he has said he has not watched a single oilers game since getting canned because its still a fresh wound...likely not gonna come back for a lesser position than he used to have imo

 

[BleedingOil]

I've said this for years...Katz would rather lose (and keep selling overpriced tickets for a garbage product) than fire his friends

Zero accountability in this organization and that why it's rotten to the core

that said, no to Krueger...good special team sure...but zero system in place AT ALL

Zero system? Really? lol

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

Zero system? Really? lol

what was his system?

 

[T-Funk]

what was his system?

Chicken with head cut off.

 

[Playa Hejda]

Chicken with head cut off.

Now imagine 5 chickens with 5 heads cut off in matching Oilers jerseys. Swarm defence.

 

[backhandsauce]

Bring him back. I know it would look bad and he would probably feel embarrassed, but money talks.

Get the special teams back on track. The players also seemed to love him.

Keep Eakins Hire Krueger as associate, and let Acton go.

It's also a conflict of interest to have A Father/Son on a team.

 

[Playa Hejda]

Bring him back. I know it would look bad and he would probably feel embarrassed, but money talks.

Get the special teams back on track. The players also seemed to love him.

Keep Eakins Hire Krueger as associate, and let Acton go.

It's also a conflict of interest to have A Father/Son on a team.

How many years was the Krueger contract? My memory says 2, but I wouldn't testify to that. If he's getting paid not to coach, I would say the money is definitely talking.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Better results than Eakins at this stage but neither should be here. Should have been an experienced guy like Ruff/Laviolette/Tortorella etc.

Bringing him back would be pretty awkward for everyone involved... why would he come back anyway? He still gets paid without the pressure of having to coach, meet with reporters, stress of constant losing and constant fear of being fired... much better just to stay home and collect a paycheck.

 

[thadd]

I can't see him coming back to Edmonton, but I think he'd be a great assistant coach in the NHL. Great for special teams and the players seemed to like him a lot.

 

[Cloned]

If you're going to make a coaching change you might as well fire Lowe and MacT too. All the staff....right down to the Octane girls.

#dat-scorched-earth

No.

 

[nullterm]

Better results than Eakins at this stage but neither should be here. Should have been an experienced guy like Ruff/Laviolette/Tortorella etc.

I think the players would be glad to have Krueger back and performance would improve on that alone.

Laviolette would be the other option, for a young team having someone of his stature walk in the room with his cred would get their attention.

I think Eakins is a bit like the substitute teacher. He's got the lesson plan all fine, but the kids probably aren't giving him their full respect because he's an NHL HC newb. Eakins walked in like he's the cat's meow, but I doubt the players bought in to his hype. Starting off not even on the ice with the players for practices and other stories like that probably didn't help his case either.

 

[Tarus]

what was his system?

Defensively?

Man to man, same thing Colorado switched to with Roy, and the same thing Babcock uses in Detroit.

But as Krueger stated in virtually every post game he did last year, the players abandon the system at the slightest sign of adversity, and only really responded to coaching after a streak of losses.

Comparatively, Eakin's system was a disaster from the get-go during a time where the coach usually has the strongest audience among the players(training camp/first month)

It's too bad the Oilers woke up the realities that the team needed coaching continuity after firing and hiring one coach too many, now we're stuck with the worst of the lot.

 

[M Ace]

I think coaches is like psychitric doctors. Even if another doctor gives a patient a medicin that seams to work properly, the new doctor has to change that medicine just because they wanna find one that is even better. Just so that doctor can brag about how good he is in front of other doctors.

Would not be suprised if our coaching staff is like that. After all Krueger is a half-European and us European knows nothing about hockey, right?

 

[Playa Hejda]

I think coaches is like psychitric doctors. Even if another doctor gives a patient a medicin that seams to work properly, the new doctor has to change that medicine just because they wanna find one that is even better. Just so that doctor can brag about how good he is in front of other doctors.

Would not be suprised if our coaching staff is like that. After all Krueger is a half-European and us European knows nothing about hockey, right?

And soft. All Europeans are soft. Soft, lazy, and enigmatic. Although Krueger coached the Swiss, so I don't have strong feeling on him either way.

 

[vickpeterson]

watch from 30:20 on. That was our biggest period of the season and turned into our "playoff push" last year. All because of Krueger's speech. I think his motivational speaking was vastly underappreciated

 

[Hockey Buddha]

If you're going to make a coaching change you might as well fire Lowe and MacT too. All the staff....right down to the Octane girls.

#dat-scorched-earth

No.

How can you defend their performance, Cloned?

Keep them the hell out of the bathrooms at Rexall! I just want to wash my hands damn it!