Oilers play under Kris Knoblauch

[WetcoastOrca]

Bringing in Paul coffee has also helped.

Mmmmm. Coffee.
Is there anything that coffee can’t fix?

 

[oXo Cube]

The Oilers were delivering elite possession metrics under Woodcroft too. Now don't get me wrong the new coaching staff has been doing some things I like(thank god we aren't regularly dressing 7 defensemen anymore) but the biggest contributor to the turnaround by far is some good old PDO regression to the mean.

The skaters were always good. Skinner stopped sucking and pucks started going in.

 

[Canovin]

Knoblauch, a healthy McDavid and Ekholm and Skinner giving Oilers better goaltending has turned around the Oilers while the roster has hardly changed. Gagner and Erne were really the only guys we added.

On the hand, the Nucks and Jets made bigger roster changes. So you could say it was the players they added helped more than the coaches did.

If anything Knoblauch has a slight edge on Bowness and Tocchet if we factor that in

 

[GreeningOil]

You don’t see one third of the season so far as a significant difference?
Of course it’s significant.

Are you suggesting the amount of turnaround would not help his case though? If the Oilers maintain this level of play, they will be very close to, if not the points leader in the NHL.

The Oilers were delivering elite possession metrics under Woodcroft too. Now don't get me wrong the new coaching staff has been doing some things I like(thank god we aren't regularly dressing 7 defensemen anymore) but the biggest contributor to the turnaround by far is some good old PDO regression to the mean.

The skaters were always good. Skinner stopped sucking and pucks started going in.

I was at a few of those first few home games. The Oilers straight up sucked. No juice, bad coverage and rookie mistakes.

I do agree that those areas have improved, but stats don’t always give a full picture. Think of it sort of as the lines the artist paints inside of.

 

[klefbombs shoulder]

You don’t see one third of the season so far as a significant difference?
Of course it’s significant.

I see it as a 10-12 game difference. Come the end of the year when certain coaches have 82 games vs 70, no its not significant.

 

[KrisLetAngry]

I don't have him as a Jack Adam's candidate so far.

Those early games had a lot of problems some out of the coaches control.

Oilers by many are considered one of the top contenders in the West / league.

 

[klefbombs shoulder]

You could just as easily have this chart say injured McDavid & Ekholm vs healthy McDavid & Ekholm and the results would be the same.

Maybe you missed this part in the first post:

Now obviously its not all to do with the coaching change. McDavid, Ekholm, and McLeod were all injured at the start of the year and this hurt the Oilers in a big way. They are started to get fully healthy shortly after the new coach was brought in.

 

[GhostfaceWu]

Not likely a Jack Adams contender imo.
The Oilers were picked to be a top contender before the season. As well the sample size is simply not big enough at this point. I mean we’re not even at the half way point and he took over part way through the season.

He took over at game 13 lol he's gonna coach them for 70 games this season that's plenty sample size.

 

[snag]

Bringing in Paul coffee has also helped.

 

[Frank Drebin]

Never seen oilers win games like this before.

They've gone on heaters quite a few times during the mcdrai era but the games were always very "exciting".

They've managed to make skinner look like an nhl goalie which is a huge accomplishment.

 

[Coffey]

Bringing in Paul coffee has also helped.

IT'S COFFEY

 

[BWJM]

I think they made the right choice simply for the fact they no longer have a creepy looking dude behind the bench.

 

[Frank Drebin]

IT'S COFFEY

How does it feel, to misspell your own username?

 

[Coffey]

How does it feel, to misspell your own username?

 

[WetcoastOrca]

He took over at game 13 lol he's gonna coach them for 70 games this season that's plenty sample size.

He’s coached about 24 games. Cool your jets there.
More importantly, I don’t see it as likely that he wins even if the team continues to play extremely well for a more meaningful sample size as they were pre season favourites already. And there are more deserving candidates as I previously mentioned.

 

[PositiveCashFlow]

We originally wanted Dave Hakstol but Seattle said 'no' to letting us poach him midseason. So, we settled for his doppelganger

 

[KCC]

IT'S COFFEY

Ya wasnt paying attention. autocorrect screwed me. Lol

 

[snag]

Ya wasnt paying attention. autocorrect screwed me. Lol

 

[McXLNC97]

Feels like there’s a thread like this everytime they hire a new coach.

Here’s a thread saying how awesome Woodcroft is until he’s not

Woodcraft for Jack Adams?

Saw some crazy stat that for over 100 games he has #2 win percentage of all time. When he arrived last year Oilers were out of playoff spot, took them to Western Finals and again this year posting a great record. Should he be a nominee at all? Hard to vote against Montgomery but imo Woodcraft...

forums.hfboards.com

Woodcroft looked bad because McDavid was injured and playing like crap. Now that he’s on fire again the new coach comes in and looks like s genius.

Woodcroft looked bad because he got lazy and forgot how to coach. Guy panicked and went to McDrai in the 2nd period of the first game of the season and then tried to milk that until his demise.

 

[HockeyWooot]

He's the new Woodcroft lol. Can we compare the stats of their red hot coaching starts?

If McDavid wasn't playing the first part through injury they would've had a better record and Woodcroft would still be their coach.

A bit alarming how terrible their team looked for that stretch. Good teams can withstand injuries to their top player for short to medium term.

 

[TheNumber4]

Seen every version of this team in the McDavid era. This is the best version of the team it’s ever been. The Knob/Coffey effect is real, it’s not a coaching bump. Non-Oilers fans will find out soon.

 

[Rubi]

I think I've seen this movie plot before. Starts out a love story and finishes as a tragedy where the audience leaves disappointed. Maybe this time it will be different and there will be a happy ending.

 

[Dust]

They just look like the Oilers that finished the season last year. Playing at the level they should be playing at. I don't think coaching has had much effect on it.

 

[majormajor]

They look like the normal Oilers under Knob. Under Woodcroft it's hard to judge because McDavid and Ekholm were not themselves, and they were going through the growth pains with a new defensive system. It looks like they've settled into it, I'm not aware of any big changes by Knoblauch.

 

[DearDiary]

List 10 points of things Knoblauch changed, because I see very little difference.

It's the goaltending and players getting healthy that's been the difference.