Your views on Dallas Eakins so far - Part II

[Petes2424]

I was not against the hire of Eakins............but I have to agree with the majority......... the team is playing like a bunch of novices (seven year olds)......all they do is chase the puck and have no defensive position whatever!

I cannot blame the Oilers goaltending on today's game.......the Jets had point blank chances in front of the net minder. Where was the defense?

MacT big bold move will be if he has the guts to fire Eakins next year if the team does not show a big improvement!

I honestly don't know if anything is going to change as long as these athletes continue to run this team. It doesn't always work and when it does, it's usually when they've surrounded themselves with great scouts, assts, etc. this team doesn't have a lot of that. It's why I always stress they need at least two more great hockey evaluators like Waddell or Barnett.

As for Eakins, I'm guessing we'll see Mactavish on the bench pretty soon. After the break maybe??

 

[McShogun99]

If they really don't want to fire Eakins why not do one of two things; demote him to assistant coach and hire an experienced NHL coach or demote him to the Barons and bring up Nelson for the rest of the season.

Final thing would be to have Mac T coach after the TDL and demote Eakins to Joey Moss's assistant towel boy.

 

[SometimesY]

Can Eakins ask to terminate his contract? His reputation is being ruined as well. If Eakins would agree to step down, they brought back Kreuger (If he would come back, if not then MacT). Remove Bucky or Smith in favour of Eakins.

As other posters said we could do a switcheroo with Nelson as well.

There are ways we can handle this so that we are not bringing in yet another new coach, and save face somewhat. Or they can 'Quin' him. Just promote him to something that looks great on a business card.

 

[nexttothemoon]

Honestly sending some players down to OKC along with Eakins and bringing up some OKC players along with Nelson... could be labelled as an innovative and practical way to change things up and give everyone a new perspective on the prospects in the pipeline.


Would they do that... nope... but I think it would be an interesting move (no way it could hurt at this point)... and if Eakins doesn't like it... well so long.

 

[Petes2424]

Can Eakins ask to terminate his contract? His reputation is being ruined as well. If Eakins would agree to step down, they brought back Kreuger (If he would come back, if not then MacT). Remove Bucky or Smith in favour of Eakins.

As other posters said we could do a switcheroo with Nelson as well.

There are ways we can handle this so that we are not bringing in yet another new coach, and save face somewhat. Or they can 'Quin' him. Just promote him to something that looks great on a business card.

The only way to fix this is to start at the top and work your way down. You bring in an experienced NHL coach in the interim. Hire a President and GM and then let them, as Buffalo is doing, hire their guys. The only guy I would keep is Howson. He is a good development guy. Id try like hell to hire Barnett as the President. Mike knows as much about every aspect of the sport from management to development to how to deal with the egos of the sport.. He's also an Edmonton guy and he'd work tirelessly to fix this team.. I have full confidence he'd hire a guy like Waddell or another guy from that click and let him bring in a full scouting group. He's from that group of development guys and he'll bring in the right guys.

Until they make bold moves like this, we'll continue to see the stupidity of arrogance.

 

[Beerfish]

If they really don't want to fire Eakins why not do one of two things; demote him to assistant coach and hire an experienced NHL coach or demote him to the Barons and bring up Nelson for the rest of the season.

Final thing would be to have Mac T coach after the TDL and demote Eakins to Joey Moss's assistant towel boy.

There seems to be a feeling among a few people that having MacT coach would actually change a thing . Eakins is macT junior, he thinks like mact T, he coaches like mact he is mact's prodigee. There is also a hugely false feeling around there that mact was actually a good coach during his time here.

I will say one thing, he will be behind the bench sooner or later. I think about game 25 next year when the team starts out by winning 5 of their 1st 25. The moment MacT was welcomed back to the team it was a given he'd be back behind the bench sooner or later.

 

[Beerfish]

Honestly sending some players down to OKC along with Eakins and bringing up some OKC players along with Nelson... could be labelled as an innovative and practical way to change things up and give everyone a new perspective on the prospects in the pipeline.


Would they do that... nope... but I think it would be an interesting move (no way it could hurt at this point)... and if Eakins doesn't like it... well so long.

I think Nelson is WAY WAY overrated on these forums. He's nothing special at all.

 

[Bangers]

While I don't think Krueger was the right coach to take the team to the next step, Eakins has been a disaster.

I've said it all along, if they were going to replace Krueger they needed a tactically strong systems coach with enough experience to gain the respect of the room. Putting a minor league blowhard up against 3 young players earning over 6 mil a year was bound to fail.

If I were Lowe I would have kept Krueger for the start of the year, and if the team failed to improve, I would have brought Laviolette in as soon as he was sacked by the Flyers (then again, maybe he would have refused to play for the gong show management team).

 

[McClelland]

I think Nelson is WAY WAY overrated on these forums. He's nothing special at all.

The team need a Coach with some Nhl experience and not any rookie coach who thinks he gonna change the game icehockey like a arrogant wizard from ahl heaven.

To get rid of freaking Eakins i would switch the 2, cant be any worse then now.

Eakins demoted back to the Ahl would put a end to that arrogant coward in the Oilers org.!

 

[rboomercat90]

The only way to fix this is to start at the top and work your way down. You bring in an experienced NHL coach in the interim. Hire a President and GM and then let them, as Buffalo is doing, hire their guys. The only guy I would keep is Howson. He is a good development guy. Id try like hell to hire Barnett as the President. Mike knows as much about every aspect of the sport from management to development to how to deal with the egos of the sport.. He's also an Edmonton guy and he'd work tirelessly to fix this team.. I have full confidence he'd hire a guy like Waddell or another guy from that click and let him bring in a full scouting group. He's from that group of development guys and he'll bring in the right guys.

Until they make bold moves like this, we'll continue to see the stupidity of arrogance.

why would you want Waddell? His record in Atlanta was worse than Lowe's is here.

 

[tommyb]

I think Nelson is WAY WAY overrated on these forums. He's nothing special at all.

The difference between him and Eakins is that the players like him,
respect him and want to play for him. That goes a long way when asking players to 'buy into' a system.

 

[Captain Fantastic]

The difference between him and Eakins is that the players like him,
respect him and want to play for him. That goes a long way when asking players to 'buy into' a system.

Totally agree.Krueger was known to be a positive and motivational person throughout his coaching career. Coming from Krueger to Mr. EGO had got to be hard on the players.

 

[thinlizzy]

Geekins will get until about next Nov to try and change the Titanic. I think at that time Mac T will decide on whether demotion or sacking is in order. The team needs to be broken up and toss aside the characters that are not following the system preached. Good, bad doesn't matter you do as your told.

 

[Njoy Oilers]

First. I'm not an Eakins fan, but, what if he had a Real defence core to work with? Yes, that includes a defensive coach. Perhaps the focus could be on improving the fwd group's complete game. Eakins could the be graded a little more fairly.

 

[KlimasLoveChild]

The difference between him and Eakins is that the players like him,
respect him and want to play for him. That goes a long way when asking players to 'buy into' a system.

The only problem with your argument is that these players have never bought into a system. Krueger said that was a big problem last year when half the team would do their own thing when they got a little frustrated. I'm loving how people are looking back on Krueger with rose colored glasses. I'm not saying Eakins is any better but other then the special teams Krueger was a disaster too.

 

[Replacement*]

First. I'm not an Eakins fan, but, what if he had a Real defence core to work with? Yes, that includes a defensive coach. Perhaps the focus could be on improving the fwd group's complete game. Eakins could the be graded a little more fairly.

Don't completely buy this. MacT made guys like Jason Smith and Steve Staios into top pairing fill for awhile. He got the best hockey in either players career out of them. Neither were all that good before, or after they got here.

In some sense coach also makes player. Better or worse anyway. Its pretty clear what direction Eakins is resulting in. Virtually any D here is having a career worst nightmare year. This should be enough illustration to say enough.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

The only way to fix this is to start at the top and work your way down. You bring in an experienced NHL coach in the interim. Hire a President and GM and then let them, as Buffalo is doing, hire their guys. The only guy I would keep is Howson. He is a good development guy. Id try like hell to hire Barnett as the President. Mike knows as much about every aspect of the sport from management to development to how to deal with the egos of the sport.. He's also an Edmonton guy and he'd work tirelessly to fix this team.. I have full confidence he'd hire a guy like Waddell or another guy from that click and let him bring in a full scouting group. He's from that group of development guys and he'll bring in the right guys.

Until they make bold moves like this, we'll continue to see the stupidity of arrogance.

You have no clue what Waddell did in Atlanta did you?

They appeared in the playoffs ONCE. They didn't even win a game in the playoffs!

Terrible, terrible idea.

 

[Halibut]

It doesnt matter if Eakins is a horrible coach or not they're stuck with him now for at least this season and a good chunk of next. If they should have kept any coach it was probably Renney but now they've flipped coaches every year like clockwork and I think that more than anything has hurt any form of systems play from our players.

 

[Petes2424]

why would you want Waddell? His record in Atlanta was worse than Lowe's is here.

Waddel's hands were tied considerably in Atlanta. He is a great judge of talent and he comes from the development side of things with both Detroit and Pittsburgh. Two teams that scout so well, it's not even fair. Im just using him as an example of that group of guys who aren't just figureheads but actual NHL guys. Another guy I'd look at is Les Jackson. This team so needs these type if guys in management positions.

 

[Petes2424]

You have no clue what Waddell did in Atlanta did you?

They appeared in the playoffs ONCE. They didn't even win a game in the playoffs!

Terrible, terrible idea.

I'm very familiar with what he did in Atlanta.

 

[Tad Mikowsky]

I'm very familiar with what he did in Atlanta.

Then you would know you would not want that man near a GM position again.

 

[Summary]

We'll never know but Eakins might have made the perfect assistant coach to counter Krueger's personality (kinda like he was originally interviewed for)

 

[McShogun99]

We'll never know but Eakins might have made the perfect assistant coach to counter Krueger's personality (kinda like he was originally interviewed for)

If Kruger's team was playing this bad then they could have fired Kruger middle of the season and promoted Eakins if they went that route. Mac T is a very smart hockey guy, i'm sure he knows that Eakin's isn't working.

 

[Mr Positive]

There's no point in wondering about all the terrible aspects of Eakins' coaching methods.

He's going to be here for a while. I would say that they won't consider firing him until the end of next season. Every indication points to that.

As of right now, I'm not impressed with Eakins but I know that evaluating coaches is not as simple as wins and losses. There is always a huge margin for error, and so I'm willing to see if Eakins can learn from his failures this season. Combined with some major roster changes, we might start next season with all the important lessons learned and ready to take the next step (success in the standings)

In hindsight, I think that firing Krueger was the right move, but replacing him with a rookie coach was the wrong move.

 

[doggone]

Another comment on OIlers PP.

Last year Oilers were 8th in league in PP% which is about where it should be considering the skill we can put out there on PP units. If we should be good at one thing its the PP.

This year the Oil are 19th.

I'll also note last year the Oil only gave up one Shorty all year last season. This year 9.

Finally the median for shorthanded goals allowed is 3.

Now I'll add that Eakins has the benefit of David Perron, our leading PP goal scorer with 7 and yet Krueger still ran a better PP.

wow, Those are very telling stats. Hope the powers that be know this. Liked Krueger and wish they had not screwed this up so bad