TSN: Ralph Krueger Open to NHL Return

Niten Ichi Ryu

Registered User
Jul 1, 2018
1,699
2,059
He was a good coach when he was here, but that was his only year as an NHL head coach. And that was 6 years ago. The game has changed, and this team needs a young, hungry, fresh coach with a record of success and creativity.
Maybe at most, he could be slotted in as an assistant coach, for motivation and player relationship purposes. Would be a cool story if both him and Nelson return, and turn this team into what it's supposed to be.
 

Mr Positive

Cap Crunch Incoming
Nov 20, 2013
35,799
16,187
Don't want him back, in any role.
got to say this as well.

Sure he looked better when we had Eakins to compare to, but c'mon. We are allowed to have standards.

His coaching style had huge faults to it.

The guy I'd want back is Nelson
 

Spawn

Something in the water
Feb 20, 2006
43,589
14,951
Edmonton
wut?

He almost made the playoffs with our garbage roster the 1 year he was here.

He didn't almost make the playoffs. In a 48 point season the Oilers missed the playoffs by 10 points and were the 7th worst team in the league. They were closer to last then they were to a playoff spot.

The Oilers were in 8th for like one day before collapsing in the final 1/4 of the shortened season.
 
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Satire

Registered User
Nov 20, 2016
2,892
3,640
We need to bring in Kevin Lowe as GM and MacTavish as Coach. In 2006 we made the finals with them, so obviously that's the only recipe for success.

Also we should work on getting that something out of the water.

#OilersOldBoysClubThinking
 
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T-Funk

Registered User
Oct 15, 2006
14,577
5,084
Katz should lend Krueger 600 million dollars and then sell the team to him.
 

Stoneman89

Registered User
Feb 8, 2008
27,205
21,405
He was our head coach in the shortened season. I wouldn't put too much emphasis on the results we had that year. We had a good stretch of games to close out the season as well, IIRC.

He is a player's coach to the Nth degree. It could be argued that his coaching tactics that season threw a wrench into the development of our young talent at the time. He wasn't a guy who was teaching them the importance of the 200ft game, which is something that was sorely needed at the time, considering the roster we were icing.
He never had the luxury of a training camp to fully implement and integrate a system. His team played every one of their games against the toughest conference by far. They were a collection of some talented but green kids and washed up vets. Tough to expect 200 ft games from them literally overnight. Not sure where you get that he was such a terrible coach based on that short time span. He had a completely dysfunctional and poorly constructed roster and at the very least, got them a taste of being in a race and building some confidence.
 
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MessierII

Registered User
Aug 10, 2011
27,646
16,191
He didn't almost make the playoffs. In a 48 point season the Oilers missed the playoffs by 10 points and were the 7th worst team in the league. They were closer to last then they were to a playoff spot.

The Oilers were in 8th for like one day before collapsing in the final 1/4 of the shortened season.
He only faced the west which was the vastly superior conference at the time. That was the most wins we had vs the west in that rebuild. Like Dallas Eakins in his entire tenure of almost 1.5 seasons never won as many games vs the west as Krueger in that season despite having a way better roster. We had elite special teams and all of our young players were thriving under him. He’s a good coach. If he ever truly decides to walk away from football someone will 100% pick him up at some point.
 
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belair

Jay Woodcroft Unemployment Stance
Apr 9, 2010
38,541
21,721
Canada
He never had the luxury of a training camp to fully implement and integrate a system. His team played every one of their games against the toughest conference by far. They were a collection of some talented but green kids and washed up vets. Tough to expect 200 ft games from them literally overnight. Not sure where you get that he was such a terrible coach based on that short time span. He had a completely dysfunctional and poorly constructed roster and at the very least, got them a taste of being in a race and building some confidence.
Neither did every other head coach in the NHL that season. He was a guy who got outcoached game in, game out head to head. His deployments often lacked logic and his ability to matchup against opposition was nonexistent.

I agree he wasn't given a fair shake, so the criticisms I have of him are based on a limited sample. But his resumé doesn't exactly promote those abilities. He is a player's coach. His job title was literally a motivational speaker. I don't think it would be fair to him to expect that he be prevalent in the X's and O's of professional hockey. Nevertheless, I would consider that a weakness.
 

Spawn

Something in the water
Feb 20, 2006
43,589
14,951
Edmonton
He only faced the west which was the vastly superior conference at the time. That was the most wins we had vs the west in that rebuild. Like Dallas Eakins in his entire tenure of almost 1.5 seasons never won as many games vs the west as Krueger in that season despite having a way better roster. We had elite special teams and all of our young players were thriving under him. He’s a good coach. If he ever truly decides to walk away from football someone will 100% pick him up at some point.

None of what you just said changes the fact that it was a garbage team that finished bottom 10 in the league and was nowhere close to making the playoffs. Give Krueger a full 82 game season and the Oilers would have finished even lower.
 

Tobias Kahun

Registered User
Oct 3, 2017
41,662
50,517
Yea don't bother, I tried do get some follow up, but it's just an opinion, by no means a fact. Every time I asked where he heard this he dodged it so I just dropped it.
Still upset I see, glad to see you only had an issue with what I said when countless other things have been posted here without requiring proof.
 

oobga

Tier 2 Fan
Aug 1, 2003
22,936
17,813
He should be VP of motivation.

VP of exposing unmotivated buttheads that are just going through the motions and/or failing miserably at their jobs in this org would be my ideal position for him. Probably would make a solid list of 25+ people within a month in the org.
 

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