With the Edmonton Oilers starting their summer several weeks before they wanted to, there are going to be plenty of plotlines about who is to blame for the Round 1 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. The roster, especially the goaltending, will be heavily scrutinized, as will the moves made by the general manager responsible for its assembly. But a lot of the blame is likely to land on Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch, and it may be that he won't return as a result.
Outcoached
The Oilers lost two Stanley Cup Finals in a row to the veteran coached Florida Panthers, and were just beaten by a young Ducks team with future Hall of Fame coach Joel Quenneville calling the plays. Knoblauch's teams consistently lost leads, fell behind in individual games and each of the three series, and only rarely did it ever seem that the Oilers seem had the upper hand.
With due respect to Aleksander Barkov, the Oilers had the best players in each series. When an opponent is forced to focus on your superstar, that's supposed to create open ice and opportunities for the rest of the team, and between periods and games, your coach's job is to utilize those opportunities while also game-planning to neutralize the tough checking on the star. Connor McDavid is capable of a lot on his own, but how often has it felt like the team could win without that help?
New coach, new players
McDavid actually scored a point in every Oilers win in the 2025/26 regular season. It's an impressive feat for the individual player, but it means that on every occasion where McDavid didn't contribute, the Oilers lost. Again, some blame goes to his teammates, and GM Stan Bowman, but on a season long timeline, it shows the strategy was flawed or inflexible. Knoblauch couldn't get a great Oilers team to four wins in the Finals, and he couldn't get an average team out of the first round.
The Oilers are automatically going to have a strong powerplay. They are going to be top 10 in scoring over the course of next season once again. In truth, most nights, the coaching strategy can simply be "Don't lose the game when the bottom six is on the ice" but Oiler fans have seen the playoff hockey problems that Knoblauch has been unable to solve. Fewer penalties and tighter checking are predictable factors in the postseason, and a coach capable of winning a Stanley Cup will have a plan to deal with each. Knoblauch may have had a plan, but it simply hasn't worked.
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