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Jay Woodcroft

Jumptheshark said:
I think he becomes an assistant first. He had two guys who are considered generational talents, who can win gams on their own and the team struggled. Not sure if the team tuned him out or what
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They struggled for all of 15 games, during which McDavid was injured.

In Woodcroft's first season and a half with the Oilers, the club went 76 - 32 - 12, which was the 2nd best record in the NHL over that time. They also had playoff success, winning three series under him.

I am very surprised he hasn't landed another NHL job yet, but I think he will.
 
As somebody who watched the Condors - he deserves another NHL gig. The Condors have been crap since he left. He loves the 11-7 lineup a bit too much and yes his adjustments seem slow or non existent. I think he would be a good coach for a young upcoming team.
 
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I believe he was still collecting a cheque from the Oilers until the end of this season so that might partly be why he hasn’t yet.
 
He couldn’t get results with a generational talent and another very good talent. That’s a huge red flag
 
North said:
I call that the Ralph Krueger. Talks a good game but can’t coach for shit.
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Krueger won five straight championships as a coach in Austria, plus two international club competitions in Europe (against competition from Russia, Sweden, etc.), before turning Switzerland from cellar-dweller that moved between the A- and B-championships into the best nation behind the top-teams, completely outmatching the competition for that spot in terms of play. This included beating Canada in the best-on-best 2006 Olympics (with a shutout to boot) and only losing to Canada in a shootout in the 2010 Olympics.

He may not have worked out as a coach in the NHL during the short time he was there, but claiming that he "can't coach for shit" is completely asinine. He was the epitome of a coach who could turn a team into a close-knit unit that played far above what seemed possible for 95% of his career.


As for Woodcroft:
I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about what didn't work out last time around. Coaches don't always stay the same. Sullivan looked like a complete tire-fire in Boston, to the point that everyone thought you would never see him in the NHL again. Then he spend some time in the AHL, returned to the NHL, and won two straight Cups. Coaches can change. Paul Maurice didn't really look like a future Stanley Cup winner for most of his career either. Doesn't mean that Woodcroft will change for the better, he could also carry the same flaws wherever he goes, but I wouldn't assume that it has to be the case just because he had those flaws the one time he coached in the NHL.
 
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The Panther said:
They struggled for all of 15 games, during which McDavid was injured.

In Woodcroft's first season and a half with the Oilers, the club went 76 - 32 - 12, which was the 2nd best record in the NHL over that time. They also had playoff success, winning three series under him.

I am very surprised he hasn't landed another NHL job yet, but I think he will.
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It is about winning the Stanley cup and nothing else when it comes to the oilers
 
Attack Vector said:
More teams are starting to shift towards player coaches that have had a long playing career rather than hiring career coaches.
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The final 3 coaches remaining in the Stanley Cup Playoffs have never once played an NHL game.

Teams are absolute f***ing morons if that's legitimately a criteria. Would they honestly turn down Jon Cooper or Scotty Bowman because they never played an NHL game?

Jared Bednar recently won a cup.
Bruce Cassidy won a cup recently and only played 36 games.


If teams want to hamstring themselves by putting in a very stupid rule, they deserve to lose..
 
Jumptheshark said:
It is about winning the Stanley cup and nothing else when it comes to the oilers
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Entering the 2022 playoffs, the Oilers had won 1 series in sixteen years.

Under Woodcroft, they won 3 series in two years. (i.e., more than the Leafs have won in 21 years... albeit that's setting the bar pretty low). 2023, yes, they disappointed a bit.
Bounces R Way said:
Have you ever listened to him interview? Complete jackass that thinks he's some kind of hockey genius.
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I have no idea what you mean. By the way, here's one of Woodcroft's (actual) quotes from when he was coaching Edmonton:
"What we're focused on is the all-consuming pursuit of the next solution."

So, yeah, he's a bit of a pretentious windbag, but there's some fire under the smoke.
 
Woodcroft has an ego for sure, but considering the kind of names that get hired, I don't think he's anywhere near the worst in the league. His Oilers were good even if they didn't win. He did a lot for his material.
 
I don't mean this as an insult to Jay, but I honestly think the fact he looks like the kid that got beat up on the playground in elementary school hurts him. I think he was unfairly judged for the slow start the Oilers had a couple seasons ago, especially considering they had a similarly slow start this season. He made it to the 2nd and 3rd rounds in his two full seasons with the Oilers. Not exactly awful.
 
Sanderson said:
Krueger won five straight championships as a coach in Austria, plus two international club competitions in Europe (against competition from Russia, Sweden, etc.), before turning Switzerland from cellar-dweller that moved between the A- and B-championships into the best nation behind the top-teams, completely outmatching the competition for that spot in terms of play. This included beating Canada in the best-on-best 2006 Olympics (with a shutout to boot) and only losing to Canada in a shootout in the 2010 Olympics.

He may not have worked out as a coach in the NHL during the short time he was there, but claiming that he "can't coach for shit" is completely asinine. He was the epitome of a coach who could turn a team into a close-knit unit that played far above what seemed possible for 95% of his career.


As for Woodcroft:
I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about what didn't work out last time around. Coaches don't always stay the same. Sullivan looked like a complete tire-fire in Boston, to the point that everyone thought you would never see him in the NHL again. Then he spend some time in the AHL, returned to the NHL, and won two straight Cups. Coaches can change. Paul Maurice didn't really look like a future Stanley Cup winner for most of his career either. Doesn't mean that Woodcroft will change for the better, he could also carry the same flaws wherever he goes, but I wouldn't assume that it has to be the case just because he had those flaws the one time he coached in the NHL.
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Doesn’t change the fact that while coaching in the NHL Krueger talked a lot but did very little in the way of actually coaching.

His international success has no bearing on the discussion of his time as an NHL coach.

I’d say it’s asinine to not understand that.
 
Oiler fans are funny.
Was he a great coach? Probably not.
Was he a good coach? For sure he paid his dues & knew what he was doing systems wise.
Was any coach in history going to win with the goaltending the Oilers got for the first month of the 2023-24 season? Absolutely not. Scotty Bowman wasn't winning with that abomination of Campbell/Skinner & it had absolutely nothing to do with defending as some would have you believe.
 
I think it's looked as he got off to a bad start with the Oilers last year and Knoblauch came in and look at all the success.

Ultimately, that's the impression that's going to be left around the league when something like that happens.

Personally, I don't think that's fair. If you look at the underlying numbers (I know, boogah boogah), the 2023-24 Oilers were already cooking under Woodcroft. Cartoonishly, unsustainably bad goaltending is what got Woodcroft fired, and it normalized under Knoblauch because of course it did.
 
HockeyGuy1964 said:
Oiler fans are funny.
Was he a great coach? Probably not.
Was he a good coach? For sure he paid his dues & knew what he was doing systems wise.
Was any coach in history going to win with the goaltending the Oilers got for the first month of the 2023-24 season? Absolutely not. Scotty Bowman wasn't winning with that abomination of Campbell/Skinner & it had absolutely nothing to do with defending as some would have you believe.
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It’s not as simple as that though.

Woodcroft studied at the feet of Todd McLellan and it showed.

He started being incredibly stubborn with how he was deploying the skaters and wouldn’t adjust no matter how bad things were.
 
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HockeyGuy1964 said:
Oiler fans are funny.
Was he a great coach? Probably not.
Was he a good coach? For sure he paid his dues & knew what he was doing systems wise.
Was any coach in history going to win with the goaltending the Oilers got for the first month of the 2023-24 season? Absolutely not. Scotty Bowman wasn't winning with that abomination of Campbell/Skinner & it had absolutely nothing to do with defending as some would have you believe.
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This guy is still saying that it was all just bad goaltending at the start of 23-24
 
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