It’s been a little over a week since the Edmonton Oilers fired Jay Woodcroft as their head coach and replaced him with Kris Knoblauch, and so far, the results have been pedestrian. After winning their first two games under Knoblauch, the Oilers suffered back-to-back losses in the Sunshine State against the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers.
With a 5-11-1 record in their first 17 games of the season, sitting seventh in the Western Conference’s Pacific Division, Edmonton will have to start racking up wins and points if they hope to make the playoffs this spring.
The Oilers will travel to face the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night, then cap off the road trip against the Washington Capitals on Friday. Can they start to string together a couple of wins to kickstart a streak?
On Wednesday’s episode of "Daily Faceoff LIVE," Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk were joined by former NHL Luke Gazdic to discuss a number of topics, including whether the Oilers can turn it around and make a run at the postseason.
Luke Gazdic: I look at Edmonton as a team that can get back on track. I look at their offense, the amount of shots on goal and all the advanced stats that say they’re going to turn it around. I think Stuart Skinner is just having a bad stretch. Adding a goaltender would help them, but a lot of stuff I see on the ice when I watch the game is just system mistakes, things related to coaching.
Whether you think Woodcroft should have been fired or not, I think there are a lot of coaching errors that can be fixed. It’s breakdowns and teaching them constructively how to be more engaged and more aggressive in a smart way.
You can listen to the full segment here…
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