We’ve got a pretty good idea what the Edmonton Oilers coaching change has done for the team now. There’s interesting but subtle differences in the way that Woodcroft coaches that’s different from how Dave Tippett did it.
First of all, props to Ken Holland for giving Woodcroft a promotion. Woodcroft was a rising star in the coaching ranks, so if the Edmonton Oilers hadn’t promoted him there’s a good chance another team would’ve poached him from us after the season was done. Holland followed his instincts and was proven right, good on him.
Woodcroft has covered the bet and then some. He’s compiled a 13-5-2 record as head coach, which is fantastic (this was written prior to tonight’s game against San Jose). He’s taken the Edmonton Oilers from the brink of being a non-playoff team to one that hasn’t clinched a spot yet but is at least in the top three in the division, and is looking like they’re going to either stay there or move up at least one spot.
Unless the team implodes at some point the rest of the way, I’d say at this point Woodcroft will be the permanent head coach of the Oilers in short order.
How has Woodcroft been different from Dave Tippett? Well, for one thing he’s more detail oriented. Due to the scheduling nightmare that resulted from the team having to take two breaks in the season for covid layoffs, the schedule has been remade to be jam packed the rest of the way. This means a limited amount of practice time, which will result in two big changes to normal coaching – 1) utilizing the practice time he does have to the best of his ability with the limited amount of time he does have and 2) relying on video meetings with the players to have them work on some details.
Woodcroft is one of the “new school” coaches, so to speak, so he’s not going to be a Mike Keenan or John Tortorella who coaches by intimidation. Those coaches simply don’t exist anymore – no bag skates for the players, for example.
Woodcroft is more of an inspire and teach kind of coach. We never heard of any intimidation coming from Dave Tippett in his time here – and there may have been, we don’t really know what went on behind closed doors – but the players didn’t seem to quit on him so we can be certain that Tippett wasn’t much of an intimidator either.
Woodcroft also has two other key elements to his coaching that’s different from Tippett – 1) He isn’t as afraid to play the younger players, as opposed to Tippett who favoured playing veterans first, with mixed results and 2) Woodcroft has taken ice time away from Connor Mcdavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Darnell Nurse, and distributed the minutes out a little more amongst the rest of the team.
Not to say that those three core players don’t still play a lot – the opposition is still being fed a steady diet of them, as well they should be, but you can see a difference.
For example, look at Connor Mcdavid’s ice time – prior to the coaching change on Feb. 10, Mcdavid regularly played over 25 minutes a game, sometimes pushing 30 minutes, literally half the game. Since the coaching change Mcdavid will still usually play 20 minutes a game, but it will usually be 20-25 minutes instead of over the 25 minute mark. Sometimes he doesn’t even hit the 20 minute mark, as was the case against Buffalo on March 17 when Mcdavid only played 16:12.
You see a similar pattern with Leon Draisaitl.
You think Derek Ryan would’ve had a hat trick under Dave Tippett? No way, he wasn’t playing enough for that.
There is a certain amount of wisdom in playing veterans over younger players, but there is also the energy factor to consider as well. As long as the younger players are polished enough that they’re not making huge mistakes game after game so much it costs the team wins, they stack up just as well to the veteran players. As the NHL has evolved – especially in the salary cap era – younger players have taken a bigger profile on every team. Look at how much Evan Bouchard is playing vs. Tyson Barrie now? Tippett tended to rotate the two players more up and down the lineup because of his favouring of veteran players, but Woodcroft has turned those D corps into a 100% meritocracy – if Bouchard is playing better, as is the case as of late, then he plays in the top four while Barrie plays in the bottom pairing, no questions asked. If and when Barrie starts playing better and giving the team the better chance to win for Woodcroft, I would bet Woodcroft will play Barrie back in the top four in the lineup without hesitation.
But right now on the season Bouchard is beating Barrie by four goals and three points, as well as being better defensively. There’s no question who should be playing right now.
You know that the McDrai duo, Nurse, and the rest of the leadership team are on board with this because they’re team players and they’d rather the team win than have individual success. They know that if they have individual success but they’re not getting support from the rest of the team how that script goes. They’ve been there as players and we’ve been there as fans. But if the rest of the team is helping them out with the task of team defence and scoring, the Edmonton Oilers instantly become a better, more lethal team. After all, the NHL is not the NBA, one superstar player will make some difference in your team’s fortunes but without the requisite depth, the team will still see limited success. Connor Mcdavid and Leon Draisaitl have both won the NHL’s hardware multiple times over, and while that’s all well and good they’d both rather have the Stanley Cup. So would Darnell Nurse, and Mike Smith, and everyone else on the team.
Not to mention by working your two best players like rented mules, you’re risking a higher chance of fatigue and injury by the time the end of the season rolls around. That’s counterproductive to the Oilers season.
All of which begs the question – Are the Edmonton Oilers better since Woodcroft took over?
For my money, that’s a resounding yes. If Woodcroft becomes the permanent head coach with a normal schedule next season, I’m willing to bet he will make bigger, more ambitious tweaks to practice because he’ll have more time to implement changes.
Until then, what he’s doing is working so he can utilize the practice time to the best of his ability and working more with players individually.
After all, the Edmonton Oilers still very much in control their own destiny at this point. They have games in hand on everyone in the division except for the two bottom feeders in San Jose and Seattle, and the division leading Calgary Flames (patooey). That leaves four other teams in the division that they’re going to best, if they play their cards right. They’re nine points behind Calgary with 18 games left to go, so while it’s not mathematically impossible to pass Calgary it’s not realistic. But, they are only three points behind LA for second place, so they could very well pass LA for second spot on the list. Again, if they play their cards right.
At this point it appears we have the right man for the job behind the bench.