There is no doubt that the Edmonton Oilers are off to an unexpectedly bad start. The issue of what is wrong appears to be the care level of the players. They are playing soft and don’t seem to be completely engaged on a game-to-game basis.
I think the players will eventually figure it out and turn this season around, but what happens if they don’t? I think the first domino to fall will be the firing of Jay Woodcroft. The question that surrounds that though is how long do they need to struggle before they make the change?
When Does The Axe Fall For The Edmonton Oilers?
At some point, the Edmonton Oilers need to turn this season around and sometimes the team just needs a shock to wake them up. Firing the coach would be a big shock to the team, but when is the right time to fire the coach?
The Edmonton Oilers play their first game of a 3 game road trip tonight as they face the Vancouver Canucks. After that, they play the struggling San Jose Sharks then the Seattle Kraken. There are two different scenarios in these 3 games where it may end in a fired Jay Woodcroft.
Scenario #1
If they lose at all to the San Jose Sharks. The Sharks are a complete tirefire this season, they lost their last 2 games by giving up 10 goals in both games. The Sharks have played 11 games this season and have only scored 12 goals.
Scoring just barely 1 goal a game makes this Sharks game a must-win. If the Oilers come out of San Jose with anything less than 2 points, Jay Woodcroft needs to go.
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Scenario #2
The only points they get are from the Sharks game. The Oilers need to start getting points in the standings. They set themselves so far behind due to their bad start now they just need to get points.
If they only end up with 2 points over the next 3 games it would be proof that still are not playing as well as they should be. They should not only get 2 points against the Sharks but the Kraken also are not a good team, so 1 point against them shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.
The short story is the main thing moving forward for the Edmonton Oilers is that they need to start playing better. How that happens, doesn’t matter they just need to start winning games and gathering points to help them recover in the standings.