Fire Head Coach Jay Woodcroft
I also think the Edmonton Oilers are at least 5 games away from this being an option, but the way this season has started it needs to start to be on people’s minds. Just like in the trade option I already mentioned this move is more about waking up than players than anything else.
Since the Edmonton Oilers moved Woodcroft to the head coaching role he has had an excellent record. I don’t think firing the coach is the best move, but when it comes to trying to wake up your roster it is one of the best things you could do.
| Regular Season | Playoffs | ||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Age | Tm | Lg | GP | W | L | T | OL | PTS | PTS% | Finish | G | W | L | T | W-L% | Notes |
| 2021-22 | 45 | EDM | NHL | 38 | 26 | 9 | 3 | 55 | .724 | 2nd | 16 | 8 | 8 | .500 | |||
| 2022-23 | 46 | EDM | NHL | 82 | 50 | 23 | 9 | 109 | .665 | 2nd | 12 | 6 | 6 | .500 | |||
| 2023-24 | 47 | EDM | NHL | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | .300 | 5th | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| Career | NHL | 125 | 77 | 35 | 13 | 167 | .668 | 28 | 14 | 14 | .500 |
Provided by Hockey-Reference.com
Generated 10/22/2023.
I think the main issue with this team right now is their competitive level. You could blame some of this on the coach as it is technically his job to get his team playing the way they should be. My main problem with the competitive level is it eventually comes down to the player.
It isn’t like Woodcroft is walking into the Edmonton Oilers dressing room saying things like “Okay guys, we only need to try 75% today this team is pretty weak.” He is going into that room telling them to play hard.
This is why I think this is more of an individual player problem than it is a coaching or roster issue. This is why the two drastic moves I noted the main point of them is to wake up the players, not to actually improve or change anything on paper.
This team has the skill to win a game against any team in the NHL, they just are currently lacking the try level required to win the games. I thought they would play a better game against the higher-ranked Winnipeg Jets, but I was wrong.
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Something needs to be done sooner rather than later if this team continues to lose games. It is a long season, but they are almost a 10th done the season already and they only have 1 win to show for their 5 games played.