EDMONTON — They are like a pair of substitute teachers, Peter Horachek and Todd Nelson, both carrying that deadly title of “interim coach” into their meeting tonight at Rexall Place.
For the latter coach, however, a new three-year deal to become the full-time head coach of the Edmonton Oilers is still very much a possibility. Nelson’s players quite like him — more importantly, they’re playing for him — and the team has seen improvement everywhere outside the win column since Nelson took over from the fired Dallas Eakins.
That is, of course, unless a sexier candidate like Ken Hitchcock, Todd McLellan or Mike Babcock (a long shot, we know) becomes available this coming summer.
Horachek, meanwhile, cannot say he has the visible support of his players, a Leafs group whose level of quit caused Horachek to state just over a month ago that “The give-a-shit-metre has to be higher.” That metre has since been ratcheted down a few notches, as management shipped out live bodies like Cody Franson, Daniel Winnik and Mike Santorelli for mostly spare parts and draft picks.
Watching the Leafs plod through their first two losses on this Western road swing, they look very much like a group that’s simply playing out the proverbial string. That hurts, when Horachek’s reputation as an NHL head coach is being trashed in the process.
“The adversity you go through in this situation, nobody wants to go through it. That’s where leadership comes in. That’s why they have A’s and C’s on their jerseys,” said Horachek, a real good guy who has been dealt a lousy hand here.
“I’ve gone through tougher things. I’ve had cancer … and that’s a lot tougher than going through this. But if you look at yourself as a leader, as someone who could deal with adversity, then when you get to these situations … you always put the right face forward. You try to stay strong, try to do the right thing.”
Horachek’s leadership group, however, has abandoned him. First-liners like Phil Kessel (first off the practice ice on Monday after a day off Sunday), James van Riemsdyk (pointless in eight of his past nine games), Joffrey Lupul (18 games without a goal, 14 without a point), and centre Tyler Bozak (one assist in last 14 games) have gone invisible.
Nelson’s top players, meanwhile, appear to be playing for him. With Taylor Hall (knee) out of the lineup, Jordan Eberle has 11 points in his past eight games, Nail Yakupov has points in 11 of his last 15 games, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has 16 points in 15 games, and the power play just went 47 percent on a five-game road trip.
“(Nelson) understands that there are 20 individuals in here, and not all of them learn the same way. He’s very good at figuring out each individual … that’s something that has improved,” said gritty veteran Matt Hendricks, who likes the latest coach in Edmonton and is hoping he’ll be back next year.
The Oilers practices took on a plodding pace under Eakins, and as such, the team played slow in games. Players were paralyzed in thought when they should have been reacting. That’s changed, along with the fact the Oilers stick up for each other when games get physical, another trait that had gone missing.
“(Nelson) has been able to transform a few individual’s games,” Hendricks said. “We have a better grasp on the way we view our team, and the type of team we want to become. We’re not allowing any easy wins.”
Whereas the quiet whispers in Toronto are now wondering why Randy Carlyle was fired at all, those same whispers in Edmonton are wondering where the Oilers might have been had Nelson been hired prior to last season instead of Eakins. His stats-focused approach and “swarm” defensive system were both disasters here, no matter how it is being spun by Eakins’ devotees.
“I think maybe at the start of the year we were really focused on shooting the puck and Corsi numbers,” said Eberle. “When that starts creeping in your head, you’re just shooting the puck just to shoot it and you’re not trying to create the best opportunity you can.”
Over in the Leafs room, there is a sense of pity that Horachek surely does not want. But he doesn’t have the horses to succeed, and the ones he has left are barely leaving the barn on most nights.
“You feel bad for him. It’s not (the coaches’) fault. They’re preparing us well,” Lupul said. “It’s frustrating for us, and I can only imagine what it’s like for him not have to have, um, enough pieces.”
