Speculation: The all-encompassing coaching thread

[Jumptheshark]

- he was just fired by the Jets
- runs the 3-on-3 summer camp
- prior history coaching Eakins
- Alberta native

what are his strengths/weaknesses?
could the Oilers use him?

needs to go back to NAIT

 

[redgrant]

Cross Maurice off your list. The list of available jack adams winners is down to crawford aside from the geezers.

Sigh.....i think eakins in his defense won something in the FOUR years he was a minor league coach.

Bloody joke

 

[McOilbleeder]

48 Shades of Coaching: The Eakins-Krueger comparison thread

So I thought we could have a thread comparing 48 games of coaching under Dallas Eakins(E) and Ralph Krueger(K).

GP - 48

GF:

E:
124 (13th in the NHL)
2.58 GF/G
5v5: 77(20th in the NHL)
5v4: 24(14th in the NHL)


K:
123 (18th in the NHL)
2.56 GF/G
5v5: 82(21st in the NHL)
5v4: 29(6th in the NHL)

GA:

E:
167 (30th in the NHL)
3.48 GA/G
5v5: 109 (30thin the NHL)
4v5: 26 (16th in the NHL)

K:
131 (19th in the NHL)
2.73 GA/G
5v5: 91 (19th in the NHL)
4v5: 27 (16th in the NHL)

PP:

E:
Ranked 16th with 18.1%
PPG: 30

K:
Ranked 8th with 20.1%
PPG: 34

PK:

E:
Ranked 21st with 80.1%
PPGA: 33

K:
Ranked 9th with 83.4%
PPGA: 29

Shots:

E:
SF/G: 27.2
SA/G: 31.7

K:
SF/G: 26.8
SA/G: 32.8

Team standings and points:
E:
15-28-5 for 35 points

K:
19-22-7 for 45 points

From the other thread:

2012-13 (48 games vs West): 19-22-7
2013-14 (26 games vs West): 6-17-3 which is a pace for 11-31-6 record in 48 games

A very quick and dirty summary to compare our two coaches after 48 games a piece. If there is anything else you'd like to see added, let me know and I can add it to the first post.

 

[KeithIsActuallyBad]

They both suck.

 

[OilerTyler]

Maybe we should've stuck with Renney

 

[ZJuice]

Maybe we should've stuck with Renney

This. Was very upset when we didn't give him at least 30 more games..

 

[StoveTopStauffer]

What is Eakins record versus only west teams in this time frame? In comparison to Krueger who had only west teams, which would be his record atm.

I heard Krueger's games hard poor corsi but not sure how that is presentable.

 

[Starbuds]

To hell with Rooney. Quinn was our guy.

 

[oobga]

Krueger (48 games vs West): 19-22-7

Eakins (26 games vs West): 6-17-3 (11-31-6 pace for a 48 game season vs only Western teams)


Agree with others that Renney should have got a longer shot. But, in this Oilers culture Lowe created of sacrificing people below you, he had to go for Tambo to survive a while longer.

 

[McOilbleeder]

Ideally when I have more time, I'd like to compare the records of opposing teams they've faced. It'd be interesting to see how a purely west record that Krueger had to face stacks up against a record that includes a lot of Eastern teams that Eakins has.

 

[McShogun99]

Shouldn't have fired Mac T....

 

[StoveTopStauffer]

I'd actually like to know what our average corsi is against only west teams for both coaches. As I don't think it is fair to include Eakins east teams. That may be a project though.

 

[oobga]

I'd actually like to know what our average corsi is against only west teams for both coaches. As I don't think it is fair to include Eakins east teams. That may be a project though.

Someone did that in a past thread before we racked up a bunch of ~40% or worse games against more western teams and it was already on par with Krueger's stats then. Might be worse than Krueger now.

I think that's extra bad because Arco ended up being one of our top corsi guys and Eakins only played him in a prominent spot because he had to choice, and demoted him the first chance he got. Perron also helped Eakins out by playing like he was still playing for Hitch. Looks like Perron's motivation is starting to wane a bit now unfortunately. Hemsky without a broken foot has been very useful too. Lots of players have regressed for us this season, but MacT wrote it off in his interview with Staples as not a real thing.

 

[Pablo Aimar]

Its hard to make Krueger look like a good coach but Eakins has certainly managed that. Its truly amazing that this farce has lasted this long and given Mac T's ego and general lack of competence I expect to see Eakins on the bench next year.

 

[McDeathbyCheerios*]

Big difference is we were doing okay against the west only which we are doing awful at this year.
Krueger was aiming at a more defensive solid system with worse dmen and doing even better in that department.

Our penalty kill rocked and our pp was in a better place.

I'm not saying Krueger is great but with a worse less experienced team last year he was doing better then Eakins has. The team looks even more lost now then ever.

 

[Sloth Slothersons*]

Really wish Lowe woulda stayed coach

 

[Lewy]

Its hard to make Krueger look like a good coach but Eakins has certainly managed that. Its truly amazing that this farce has lasted this long and given Mac T's ego and general lack of competence I expect to see Eakins on the bench next year.

He signed him to a 4 year contract dawg. Eakins is going nowhere.

 

[plikestechno]

The numbers show that goaltending is killing us this year which is the real truth.

I hate Eakins as well though. He has absolutely no idea what hes doing. All balls and very little brains or a plan which is probably why lowe and mact like him so much as theyre blowhards just like him. We should have kept Krueger but what else can you do with that completely awful collapse after the trade deadline last year.

Stats from last year arent really comparable. Everyone was playing under a different mindset with a shortened season after a long layoff. Our record at the trade deadline may have just been the result of catching some veteran teams off guard earlier in the season. In an 82 game who knows if we would have finished just as bad as this year or worse.

I still think its goaltending thats been the biggest problem since roloson left. Other teams give up lots of shots and chances too. Were never going to win anything letting in 4 or 5 goals per game and at the end of the day thats the goaltenders and goaltending coaches fault.

 

[plikestechno]

He signed him to a 4 year contract dawg. Eakins is going nowhere.

Which is too bad as hes probably the worst of the 3 coaches weve had recently.

He gets all of next year for sure but i dont think he gets a third year unless theres marked improvement.

 

[Joey Moss]

As bad as the Oilers have been this season I really don't believe Eakins is worse than Krueger. Krueger coached the exact opposite he should have considering the way our team is built. You can't expect a team with weak goaltending, bad defense and limited defensive forwards to sit on a lead in the 3rd period of games. And worse, he didn't change that style after the 3rd or 4th time the Oilers completely blew leads. It happened at least 10 times that season. The man actually believed playing tight defensively when you're down by 1 was a better idea than pushing for the tying goal. Not to mention the amount of ice time Ryan Smyth had under him was completely ridiculous.

Goaltending deflated the team and it got to a point where the season was over after 15 games. Hard to get a team with such low confidence already given what's gone on the past 3 years back on track. I feel Eakins is a much better coach for the team and I also believe Eakins didn't have much of a chance the way Dubnyk and Labarbera started the year. I'm not going to pin goaltending as the main reason for the lack of success this year. I think Eakins needs to learn from this season because there have been times where his coaching has been very questionable but like I said, MacTavish has a lot of work ahead of him as well. I would actually replace everyone other than Eakins and get some more experience behind the bench. Smith and Buchberger have never coached before they were hired here. They don't know ****.. Acton has been an absolute disaster with the PP. I think Eakins has potential and he needs people behind him that he can learn from just like our youngsters need veterans to support them.

 

[Mcnofool6110]

Why couldn't Low stay long term??

 

[StoveTopStauffer]

As bad as the Oilers have been this season I really don't believe Eakins is worse than Krueger. Krueger coached the exact opposite he should have considering the way our team is built. You can't expect a team with weak goaltending, bad defense and limited defensive forwards to sit on a lead in the 3rd period of games. And worse, he didn't change that style after the 3rd or 4th time the Oilers completely blew leads. It happened at least 10 times that season. The man actually believed playing tight defensively when you're down by 1 was a better idea than pushing for the tying goal. Not to mention the amount of ice time Ryan Smyth had under him was completely ridiculous.

Goaltending deflated the team and it got to a point where the season was over after 15 games. Hard to get a team with such low confidence already given what's gone on the past 3 years back on track. I feel Eakins is a much better coach for the team and I also believe Eakins didn't have much of a chance the way Dubnyk and Labarbera started the year. I'm not going to pin goaltending as the main reason for the lack of success this year. I think Eakins needs to learn from this season because there have been times where his coaching has been very questionable but like I said, MacTavish has a lot of work ahead of him as well. I would actually replace everyone other than Eakins and get some more experience behind the bench. Smith and Buchberger have never coached before they were hired here. They don't know ****.. Acton has been an absolute disaster with the PP. I think Eakins has potential and he needs people behind him that he can learn from just like our youngsters need veterans to support them.

I disagree on some points. Last year I could count about 5 or 6 games lost due to Ryan Whitney alone being horrendous. Krueger had his issues and playing not to lose was one; however, a lot of issues he had could stem from not having training camp and little practice time to figure and feel things out. He had a MUCH more difficult situation placed on him. I hated how he played the 3rd and 4th line so much. He had warts but imo just judging from personality Krueger strikes me as more cerebral and capable of problem solving. He would of been better long term imo.

 

[oobga]

I disagree on some points. Last year I could count about 5 or 6 games lost due to Ryan Whitney alone being horrendous. Krueger had his issues and playing not to lose was one; however, a lot of issues he had could stem from not having training camp and little practice time to figure and feel things out. He had a MUCH more difficult situation placed on him. I hated how he played the 3rd and 4th line so much. He had warts but imo just judging from personality Krueger strikes me as more cerebral and capable of problem solving. He would of been better long term imo.

We had a bad run of centers being out with injury last season too which really threw things off. Plus Nuge couldn't aim a shot worth a damn with his messed up shoulder and was lost for the end of the season. Only bad injury to a center we had this year ended up with Arco filling the gap and actually playing better than Gags would have (and then Arco gets demoted right away so Gags can play a prominent role collecting minuses for his stats). As far as personnel went, Krueger had a much much harder situation to deal with than what Eakins has had this season.

We can also blame goaltending all we want this year, but the stupid swarm really put us into a hole at the start of the year. Playing that stupid system played a big part of players confidence being drained, and it didn't help either when genius Eakins proclaimed that the only reason the swarm doesn't work is because our players never learned basic defense (yet he keeps Steve Smith on the staff who oversaw the players learning nothing the last few years).

Again, I'm not a huge fan of Krueger. I want to see the Oilers finally get a coach with experience and successful history in the NHL to lead this team of newbs. But sick of hearing how Eakins is better than Krueger. Neither were great and Eakins is starting to look worse.

 

[McIce Whole]

Maybe see if we can bring in Andy Murray? Not the best option but he's coached over 700 games, has experience, has a winning record and more importantly, is an upgrade over our assistants.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Please come back, Krueger.
MacT, get on Skype and start begging.