I’ll have more thoughts on this as the stretch run continues, but at this rate I think Knob is gone in the summer. Not only his lineup decisions, but almost like he completely forgot how to coach. We’ve been a consistent 55% xgf team over the last 3-4 seasons, good for consistent top 3 in the league.
We’re currently in a stretch of 20 games, so a third of the season games right now where we’re around 50%, barely treading water, around the same as teams like Vancouver and Pittsburgh. This is with Mcdavid, Draisaitl, Ekholm and Bouchard on the team- 2 mvps and 2 legit top pair dmen. Woodcroft never had a stretch close to this bad, where we were consistently outplayed by bad teams or struggled to beat them in regulation. We lost talent this summer but we’re not Pittsburgh bad. All of Mcdavid, Hyman, RNH, Bouchard and Ekholm are having their worst season under this version of Knoblauch. I also want to emphasize that the things they’re doing tactically , ie the point shot strategy, are a big part of why they are having worse results offensively and controlling play.
Also, as every season has gone on the last few years the Oilers have gotten better, gelled more, their xgf% skyrocketed, and came down the stretch as one of the most dangerous teams in the league. We’re going the complete opposite direction this year, not just in results but in process as well. It almost feels like he’s coaching to get fired.