One day into his tenure as head coach of the Edmonton Oilers, Jay Woodcroft is already making changes.
Taking the reins of the club Friday after Thursday’s dismissal of Dave Tippett — who manned Edmonton’s bench for the past two and half seasons — Woodcroft kicked his tenure off by rearranging his forwards during the team’s morning skate, separating Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins onto three separate lines.
Though the three pivots overlapped on top-six lines plenty under Tippett, Woodcroft said he feels they’re best used to provide the club greater depth.
“I think it’s going to give our team the best chance to win tonight,” Woodcroft said during a press conference Friday. “That’s where my mind was, attacking things on a today-matters-most basis. And that means that we felt, with the assets that we have at our disposal, that putting three quality centremen down the middle forms a spine in our group. It’ll help our young D-core that we’re going to dress tonight. I think it represents a match-up issue for other teams. And I sat down with all three of those players and clearly mapped out what we expect of them tonight.”
Woodcroft joins the Oilers after three and a half seasons as head coach of the club’s AHL affiliate in Bakersfield. He spent three seasons as an assistant coach with the Oilers before that, after starting his career with stints in Detroit and San Jose.
His return to the NHL level comes amid a tumultuous campaign in Edmonton, one that saw the team start the year by winning 16 of 21 games, only to fall into a stretch of 13 losses in 15 games. They’ve had an up-and-down slate recently, winning five of their past eight.
In search of some consistency and a more stable ascent, Woodcroft said success will begin with buy-in from those in the Oilers’ room.
“One thing we want to do is build trust with our players,” he said Friday. “I think trust leads to commitment, and committed players are far more productive than uncommitted players. I believe that happens in how you conduct yourself on a daily basis as a coach, how you give your players tools that they need to be successful — sometimes that’s in the video room, sometimes it’s on the ice in practice.”
As for 2021-22’s tumult thus far, the Oilers are looking forward, their new coach said.
“I think I am concerned with what is and what will happen, rather than what has happened here over the last little while.”
Speaking just prior to their coach after Friday’s morning skate, Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid spoke of the need to turn the page and begin stringing together some wins again.
“Anytime there’s a coaching change, players realize we all could be better, for sure — no denying that,” McDavid said. “As a group, we can be better. … We’re all in this together to do the same thing, and that’s win. Sometimes people forget we’re here to win.”
“We gotta turn this around,” added Draisaitl. “Woody brings a lot of enthusiasm and positive energy — not saying the other guys didn’t, but for Woody it’s a very exciting time. We’re very excited to have him. We need to change something and I’m sure Woody will come in with new ideas. … We’re all in for that.”
The new voices — which also includes new assistant coach Dave Manson — won’t have much help from the schedule when it comes to implementing the more detailed changes they want to see, with little time for practice in the Oilers’ near future. The goal will be to find the balance between putting in place what they can, and not overloading players with too much new information, said Woodcroft.
“There’s small things that I think you can implement on the fly. But [we’re] very cognizant of the fact that there isn’t much practice time over the next little while, cognizant of the fact that it is a game-day here today. And we don’t want our players overthinking, we want them playing,” he said.
“We don’t want to see any hesitation in their game. So for me, there are details in the game that we are going to put an emphasis on, that we’re going to put import on, but most importantly we want our players to play free of hesitation tonight.”
He’ll get his first chance to guide the Oilers back to the win column Friday night as his club hosts the New York Islanders at 7 p.m. MT / 9 p.m. ET.
Regardless of how that first spin goes, Woodcroft made clear he believes success will soon come Edmonton’s way.
“I’m bullish on our team,” he said Friday. “I believe in this team.”
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