3 Edmonton Oilers Who Should Be Worried Under Kris Knoblauch
Yesterday the Edmonton Oilers fired Jay Woodcroft and replaced him with Kris Knoblauch. A new coach means a new way. There is no doubt that the Edmonton Oilers have been underachieving so far this season.
When it comes to specific players none are free of a bit of blame as so far no one has played their best hockey. When it comes down to it there are a couple of players that I think need to take a bit more blame than others.
In my opinion, Woodcroft let most of these players off a bit easy. It was his lineup and he decided who to play and how much. Now that Knoblauch is running the bench there are going to be some changes made.
Woodcroft had the guys that he trusted and that he would ride a bit more often than others. Even if a player made a mistake there was little to no cut back of ice time. There was no calling out of players after the game in interviews.
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Changes Need To Be Made By The Edmonton Oilers
I think this is one of the major areas I expect to see a change in under Knoblauch. The reason for that is because I think that was Woodcroft’s undoing. This team has no accountability and when there is no accountability mistakes are going to keep happening.
If you keep making the same mistake at work is your boss going to keep talking to you about it? No, you are going to get into some sort of issue, maybe even fired. On Woodcroft’s team, it seemed like you could make the same errors over again and you would still end up with the same amount of ice time.
So with that being said, I think there are a couple of players that should be worried about a demotion in ice time under the new regime. Whether that be because of bad plays or just because Knoblauch doesn’t have the same level of trust with you.
Of the players that should be worried about their ice time I have compiled a list of the top I think that should be the most worried.
Mattias Janmark
Mattias Janmark is the first player on my list. The reason he is on here has a lot to do with the fact that he really does not do anything special. He is your typical bottom six forward, who for some weird reason was played in the top six under Woodcroft.
That last note is one of the major pieces of evidence that Janmark should be worried about not only his ice time but his spot in the NHL. There was no secret that after being called up last season Janmark worked his way into Woody’s good books.
He was in the good books for good reasons. He is a fairly constant player who doesn’t make any mistakes. Janmark being on the may not help you score any extra goals, but he also isn’t helping the opponent score any either.
If I were Knoblauch though all I see is a bottom six forward who struggles to produce anything offensively. No offense to Janmark, but a bottom six forward who doesn’t produce is very common in the NHL.
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With the cap issues the Edmonton Oilers are having they would be better off just keeping James Hamblin on the NHL team and sending down Janmark the cap saving would only be $200,000, but when you are so tight to the cap $200,000 is $200,000 and every penny counts for this team.
Not to mention during Janmark’s seven games played so far this season he has 0 goals and 0 assists and is a -2. That is pretty underwhelming, to say the least. With those types of numbers and with the potential of saving that money it would make sense to put Janmark on waivers once he is healthy.
Knoblauch is going to be auditioning all the players to find his reliable players. There is a chance that it could be Janmark, but I am just not too sure that it will be.
Ryan McLeod
Of all the players on this list I think that Ryan McLeod has the least to be worried about. That doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be worried, it just means I think two more players should be more worried.
McLeod is almost like a Swiss Army Knife for the Edmonton Oilers. He can play in every aspect of the game. He is one of the top penalty killers and he is on the second unit powerplay. When he is on the powerplay he has the role of Connor McDavid and is the go-to guy to skate the puck in.
This versatility makes him a very useful player when he is playing hard. Unfortunately, McLeod is one of the softer players on the Edmonton Oilers on a day-to-day basis. This is sad because he is one of the Oilers’ fastest skaters.
If he was able to play with a bit of an edge and finish a hit when he has the opportunity then I would think his role would be safe, but he just doesn’t seem to bring it game in and game out. It was nice in the playoffs to see him use his body.
Now that it is the regular season though, he has moved back into the role of “flyer by”. This is where I want to see some accountability brought in by Knoblauch. You can’t have players taking it easy on the other team, ever.
That is the reason why McLeod should be worried. Knoblauch could easily use him as an example for not playing hard. It is easy to cut a lower in the lineup’s ice time during a game and not have to ruffle too many feathers.
This is why McLeod is on this list. The one thing he needs to improve on is the basis of what is wrong with this team right now. He doesn’t put in a full effort. Getting your ice time cut down should make a player try a little harder to finish some checks.
Evan Bouchard
This is the one player I think every Edmonton Oilers fan wants to see his game improve. The coach making some changes should hopefully help this out.
There is no doubt that if you watched at least 60 percent of the Oilers’ games this season you say that Evan Bouchard has been one of the worst players on the team when it comes to effort and overall gameplay.
I don’t have an actual count, but I would say he has been directly connected to at least 10 goals against this season. Whether it is him making a bad pinch or a bad pass to him having poor coverage in his own end, there are lots of areas Bouchard needs to be better.
I understand that he runs the powerplay and he is supposed to be your top offensive defenceman, but that doesn’t give him the right to make poor play after poor play and continue to get ice time. This is the main player I hope gets held accountable for his mistakes under the new coaching staff.
I am not saying you have to put Bouchard in the press box. I am more so saying if he does something stupid there is some sort of consequence for it. An example would be to cut his five-on-five time, or if you want to be drastic put someone else out there on the powerplay.
I think if you took away some of Bouchard’s powerplay time he would smarten up quickly. That’s where he gets his points and more points means more money for his next contract. Sometimes you need to hit a player where it hurts. When you do something bad on the ice something bad can happen to you.
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Overall I don’t know what the new coaching staff is going to do when it comes to lines and the new schemes, but I do know that there will be changes. Knoblauch is going to want to put his stamp on this team and that will start tonight as the Oilers host the Islanders.