Oilers play under Kris Knoblauch

[sepHF]

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.

the McDavid factor is definitely the biggest reason. Also Eklhom getting healthy

the entire team had zero confidence at the start of the year, they were playing way under their capabilities. Wasn't Woodcrofts fault

Knoblauch has been pretty solid, but I think the bigger impact was swapping out Mason for Coffey. And I was NOT happy Coffey got hired to start because it looked like another nepotism hire by Edmonton, and he has no experience.... but the defense has been playing drastically better under him. The breakouts are so much cleaner

 

[S E P H]

The Oilers turn around under new coach Kris Knoblauch has been nothing short of astounding. He replaced Jay Woodcroft on November 12, 2023 and since then the team has rebounded in a significant way:

Category	Woodcroft	Knoblauch
Record	3-9-1	18-6-0
Points	7 (31st)	36 (4th)
Points %	0.269 (31st)	0.750 (2nd)
Goals for	35 (28th)	96 (4th)
Goals for per game	2.69 (26th)	4.00 (1st)
Goals against	51 (T-25th)	63 (5th)
Goals against per game	3.92 (30th)	2.63 (6th)
PP%	23.9 (9th)	27.0 (5th)
PK%	70.0 (30th)	87.5 (4th)
Shots for per game	34.2 (2nd)	33.7 (5th)
Shots against per game	28.8 (7th)	28.4 (5th)

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. The Oilers were also riding a big stretch of low PDO (bad luck) as indicated by the teams excellent out shooting during Woodcroft's time as coach. As Jack Michaels says the worm was bound to turn eventually.

Nonetheless Knoblauch, and Coffey have improved virtually every aspect of the Oilers play. Could Knoblauch be a Jack Adams candidate by the end of the year?

This thread can easily be described as "Oilers under super ridiculously easy schedule" instead of this Knob coach.

 

[Lacaar]

The Oilers start was a combination of injuries, bad goaltending and bad luck.

Most of which were always going to correct itself. Woody took the brunt of all this but really wasn’t his fault

I disagree to an extent. Even fully healthy I'm of the belief this team would have had a poor start regardless. It's just who they are. The Oilers can't bring their best game until a measure of guilt and urgency is introduced. It's the psych of the team.

They start seasons poorly. They even start playoff series poorly. They haven't won a series opener since 2017. And most times they lose them in HORRIBLE fashion in complete ass whooping's.

They talk about defense but the real issue with the Edmonton Oilers is team maturity and accountability. Too many nights they have too many passengers that make immature plays.

When they're feeling guilty and urgent they find the details of the game. Then watch out. They can dance with anyone and can even dominate any team. But it's their downfall as eventually they run into a team that can give them a run when they play their urgent game. Like Vegas did last year. Edmonton gifted them the first game, then when they got urgent, they were for the most part the better team. But not good enough to overcome the freebie.

To beat Edmonton in the playoffs you only have to win 3 games in a series because when it comes to the Oilers. The first one is free.

 

[tfwnogf]

Knob seems like a great fit, as well as Paul Coffey showing the D how to play with some confidence. Woodcroft may have been too sexy for his own good, distracting players from focusing on the game.

 

[Stealth1616]

I disagree to an extent. Even fully healthy I'm of the belief this team would have had a poor start regardless. It's just who they are. The Oilers can't bring their best game until a measure of guilt and urgency is introduced. It's the psych of the team.

They start seasons poorly. They even start playoff series poorly. They haven't won a series opener since 2017. And most times they lose them in HORRIBLE fashion in complete ass whooping's.

They talk about defense but the real issue with the Edmonton Oilers is team maturity and accountability. Too many nights they have too many passengers that make immature plays.

When they're feeling guilty and urgent they find the details of the game. Then watch out. They can dance with anyone and can even dominate any team. But it's their downfall as eventually they run into a team that can give them a run when they play their urgent game. Like Vegas did last year. Edmonton gifted them the first game, then when they got urgent, they were for the most part the better team. But not good enough to overcome the freebie.

To beat Edmonton in the playoffs you only have to win 3 games in a series because when it comes to the Oilers. The first one is free.

I definitely agree, but it ended up being like 20 games. I think the sustained dip most mostly due what I mentioned above.

Of course the one game they showed up to was the outdoor game against Calgary (high event atmosphere).

 

[klefbombs shoulder]

This thread can easily be described as "Oilers under super ridiculously easy schedule" instead of this Knob coach.

Do you have any evidence that the Oilers have had a super ridiculously easy schedule? The Oilers have played 15 teams in playoff positions currently compared to 9 not in a playoff spot with Knoblauch as coach. Upcoming January is a very easy schedule, but November + December was a tough schedule for the Oilers.

 

[SK13]

This thread can easily be described as "Oilers under super ridiculously easy schedule" instead of this Knob coach.

It's pretty funny that the Oilers have the 6th easiest schedule remaining but somehow have had a cake run so far, eh? It's almost as though that math doesn't work. Let's take Anaheim, Chicago and San Jose out of the picture entirely. The Ottawa game, too. Why not? The Oilers were 6-0 in those games.

They're still 12-6 against the rest of them. 0.66 points percentage against teams with an average of 0.59 points percentage. A team with a 0.59 points percentage would be 10th overall in the NHL. They have effectively taken 2 out of 3 games against high-level playoff teams even if you disregard the free wins in-between.

 

[McOvechking]

Shots for per game	34.2 (2nd)	33.7 (5th)
Shots against per game	28.8 (7th)	28.4 (5th)

So they started getting good goaltending when the new coach came in and nothing else really changed except they started getting slightly fewer shots per game

 

[SK13]

Shots for per game	34.2 (2nd)	33.7 (5th)
Shots against per game	28.8 (7th)	28.4 (5th)

So they started getting good goaltending when the new coach came in and nothing else really changed except they started getting slightly fewer shots per game

That's a score effects thing. When you win 16 of 19 games and sometimes by big ratios, you start dumping pucks in and playing your top lines less.

 

[Kerberos]

Do you have any evidence that the Oilers have had a super ridiculously easy schedule? The Oilers have played 15 teams in playoff positions currently compared to 9 not in a playoff spot with Knoblauch as coach. Upcoming January is a very easy schedule, but November + December was a tough schedule for the Oilers.

The Oilers strength of schedule so far is ranked 22nd. The Canucks, for example, have had the 9th easiest schedule.

It's a bad faith argument designed to detract from their play.

 

[Voight]

He'll get the boot in a year, year and a half max.

 

[Soundwave]

He'll get the boot in a year, year and a half max.

If the result is a .650-.750 win percentage boost every time, sure keep doing it. Is there a salary cap for coaches? No? Then who cares.

Woodcroft was a good offensive coach but mediocre at defensive strategy, he was cocky and thought he could waltz into this season and change the defensive system while maintaining his strategy of lax practices, lax training camps, and lax overall preparation and he paid the price for that lack of vision with his job.

It's not that shocking that a different set of eyes might be able to do better defensively than what Woodcroft was doing. Defensive play is 100% the thing a coach can influence the most. Offense is basically whether or not you have talent or not and down to the innate talent but defense is not.

Paul Coffey may deserve some credit here too ... his first day on the job he basically told the D if they're not going to make plays to put up their hand and they'll find someone else who can. That has to be a giant kick in the ass for a d-corps. Stop just blindly ringing the puck around the boards which was Woody's strategy. Start making plays.

 

[Mav3rick07]

This thread can easily be described as "Oilers under super ridiculously easy schedule" instead of this Knob coach.

Since Knoblauch was hired, the Oilers have played:

Florida x2
Tampa Bay x2
Carolina
Washington x2
Vegas
Winnipeg
Rangers
Devils x2
Kings

 

[ManofSteel55]

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

Caffeine allergies?

 

[ManofSteel55]

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.

Ten things is an awful lot of things to ask for. It's been more than health and goaltending (although the goaltending was sewering the team for sure).

1) Defensive structure - the Oilers aren't giving up nearly as many high opportunity chances as they were. They especially don't seem to give away scoring chances, and they were doing that all the time at the start of the year.
2) Puck moving from the back end - the Oilers have a few defensemen who aren't the best puck movers - Desharnais especially fits that bill. However, Paul Coffey has these guys all improving their puck work and positioning, to the point where even Desharnais isn't treating the puck like a live grenade anymore. The blueline is being productive and helping, instead of focusing only on what they can do to fail at keeping the puck out of their zone.
3) PK - the penalty kill has looked way better under Knobby
4) Powerplay - The legendary Oilers PP was average at best at the start of the year. It's looking good again now. I don't think that's only on injuries.

 

[DearDiary]

Ten things is an awful lot of things to ask for. It's been more than health and goaltending (although the goaltending was sewering the team for sure).

1) Defensive structure - the Oilers aren't giving up nearly as many high opportunity chances as they were. They especially don't seem to give away scoring chances, and they were doing that all the time at the start of the year.
2) Puck moving from the back end - the Oilers have a few defensemen who aren't the best puck movers - Desharnais especially fits that bill. However, Paul Coffey has these guys all improving their puck work and positioning, to the point where even Desharnais isn't treating the puck like a live grenade anymore. The blueline is being productive and helping, instead of focusing only on what they can do to fail at keeping the puck out of their zone.
3) PK - the penalty kill has looked way better under Knobby
4) Powerplay - The legendary Oilers PP was average at best at the start of the year. It's looking good again now. I don't think that's only on injuries.

I should have been more clear, has Knoblauch implemented a new system? Is he running a 1-3-1 trap? Or is this another Therrian/Bylsma situation where the coach just makes adjustments to the old coaches system?

 

[OG Eberle]

12
12/37 = 32.5%
Lol. Indeed!

Your mental gymnastics defending a **** argument is both commendable, while also being the equivalent of watching a 40yo women cuss out a 19yo "manager" of a McDonalds cause her fries were cold and "the customer is always right".

 

[ozzie]

Still all smoke and mirrors, I'd credit the offense more than anything. Either it was McDavid injured or something else. But the goal tending and defense is still poor and suspect, it will be their downfall. Oilers will live and die by offsense and keeping the puck on their sticks and killing everyone on the power play.

 

[GOilers88]

Still all smoke and mirrors, I'd credit the offense more than anything. Either it was McDavid injured or something else. But the goal tending and defense is still poor and suspect, it will be their downfall. Oilers will live and die by offsense and keeping the puck on their sticks and killing everyone on the power play.

The goaltending and defense is the exact opposite of what it was when the change was made.

 

[ozzie]

The goaltending and defense is the exact opposite of what it was when the change was made.

But will it hold and stick when it matters most, or is it just the effect of a new voice like most coaching changes. Short term success, I still don't believe they have inherently changed or fixed the goalie skill level or defense. They are on a roll right now, see what happens in 40 games.

 

[Kerberos]

Still all smoke and mirrors, I'd credit the offense more than anything. Either it was McDavid injured or something else. But the goal tending and defense is still poor and suspect, it will be their downfall. Oilers will live and die by offsense and keeping the puck on their sticks and killing everyone on the power play.

You clearly haven't watched the Oilers play under Knoblauch.

Been one of the best teams defensively in the league under his leadership. But yes, "smoke and mirrors" something something.

 

[Sniper99]

Still all smoke and mirrors, I'd credit the offense more than anything. Either it was McDavid injured or something else. But the goal tending and defense is still poor and suspect, it will be their downfall. Oilers will live and die by offsense and keeping the puck on their sticks and killing everyone on the power play.

What have you been watching? they havent given up more than 2 goals in a game since just before Christmas? but yeah uhhh "smoke and mirrors" or whatever bullshit.

 

[Mr Positive]

New coaches get results like these sometimes. It's great, don't get me wrong. He deserves credit for doing a good job. But it means less until time shows tat it's more than a flash in the pan.

So you're saying he's the perfect candidate for the Jack Adams

 

[Soundwave]

I should have been more clear, has Knoblauch implemented a new system? Is he running a 1-3-1 trap? Or is this another Therrian/Bylsma situation where the coach just makes adjustments to the old coaches system?

I believe their defense off the rush has gone from dead last in the league to one of the best in the league. PK has improved dramatically too.

Woodcroft's D structure was getting eaten alive off the rush.

If it isn't coaching, then I guess there's some magic change in the Gatorade bottles.

 

[onetweasy]

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.

Do good teams need a historic PDO run to go from an 83 point non-playoff team to a league leading team?