January 5, 2023 by Ryan Lotsberg

Edmonton Oilers Assistant Coach Dave Manson was dubbed “the Defence Whisperer” for his fine work developing defencemen in Bakersfield. Caleb Jones, Ethan Bear, William Lagesson, Evan Bouchard, Philip Broberg, and Markus Niemelainen are all defencemen to come up under Manson in Bakersfield before making it to the NHL. The Oilers have other fine prospects that have benefited from Manson’s tutelage as well such as Michael Kesselring, Vincent Desharnais, and Phil Kemp.

Manson became an assistant coach with the Oilers last February when the team fired Dave Tippett and Jim Playfair, and promoted him and Jay Woodcroft. Manson is responsible for handling the Oilers defence. The improved defensive play from the end of last season and the playoffs hasn’t carried over to this season. What’s different this season than last season?

I don’t think many people expected to be bemoaning the loss of Duncan Keith this season after how much criticism he took last season. He was an adequate second pairing defender, and a lot has been made about his impact on Bouchard.

The biggest change from a coaching perspective is that Manson and Woodcroft had a full summer to evaluate the group and a full training camp to implement their systems. Defence has been the single biggest issue for the Oilers this season, so it’s fair to question Manson’s tactics.

Most of the fault has to go to the players themselves for making mental mistakes that lead to goals against. Manson was applauded for his attention to detail and communication last season.   I don’t think he’s telling Nurse to give the puck away. I don’t think he’s told Bouchard to screen his own goalie in the crease. I don’t know what he has told the players this season, but whatever it is doesn’t seem to be working. 

The Oilers play man to man defence, and they struggle with it. One trend that I’ve noticed this season is that defencemen are following their men to the point, or at least high in the defensive zone. They eventually peel back towards the goal, but it’s either too late by the time they get there or they get caught in no man’s land. 

Take Yanni Gourde’s goal against the Oilers on Tuesday for example. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Klim Kostin were the two low defenders when the goal was scored. Both Bouchard and Broberg were defending their men in the high slot, ABOVE Nugent-Hopkins and Kostin. Both defencemen appeared to be doing what they were supposed to be doing, but that left Nugent-Hopkins to defend Gourde in the low slot. Nugent-Hopkins is capable of doing a better job on Gourde, but it’s odd that there were two forwards defending below both Oilers defenders.

Look at Jared McCann’s goal from that same game. The goal was scored shortly after a defensive zone faceoff. McCann set up at the top of the faceoff circle, directly behind his centreman. Kulak went directly to McCann at the top of the circle. McCann was the winger on his side, and that was his man.

However, that left the Oilers forwards to defend down low. Derek Ryan and Ryan McLeod both watched Alexander Wennberg go to the slot and pick up the rebound on the shot from the corner. Wennberg spun around and passed it back across the grain to McCann, who was cutting to the net. McCann snuck past Kulak while he was puck watching.

Related: Call Outs, Standouts, and Shout Outs: Kraken Beat the Oilers 5-2

It’s easy for teams to break down the Oilers defence right now. All they need to do is move a defenceman up high, which is easy because the Oilers are playing man defence. If you combine that with one Oilers forward getting beat off the wall (which is also happening quite often), then you get a disaster in the Oilers zone. Having the defencemen follow their men that high in the zone puts players in situations that they aren’t used to being in and that they clearly aren’t comfortable defending.

I want to talk about the deployment of the defencemen and the dispersion of ice time among the group. Bouchard hasn’t been as good this year as he was last year. He’s been making more sloppy mistakes that lead to goals against. His even strength ice time is down by 1:08 per game this year compared to last year, which makes sense given his reduced performance. 

However, if you go to Bouchard’s Natural Stat Trick page, you can see that his xGF is basically identical to what it was last season. In fact, all of his shot share stats and scoring chance stats are pretty close to what they were last year, and they’re all above 50%. That doesn’t sound like a guy that’s playing bad hockey! The one stat that’s different is his goal share. He was 62-59 (51.24%) last season, and he’s 20-33 (37.74%) this season. 

Part of it is his mental mistakes, part of it is his PDO (.944 down from .988 last year), and part of it is confidence. Sometimes, you just have to put trust in your players. This feels like a situation where they need to keep placing trust in Bouchard rather than tearing him down by taking ice time away from him.

On that note, let’s talk about Philip Broberg. Similar to Bouchard, Broberg’s Natural Stat Trick page looks pretty good except for his goal share of 4-7 (36.36%). Broberg is only getting 11:36 per night at even strength. Maybe that’s why his underlying numbers are as good as they are, but we can’t dismiss the idea that his play hasn’t been bad.

Meanwhile, Nurse averages over 20 minutes a night at even strength and just under 24 minutes a night in all situations. Taking some ice time from Nurse would give him a bit more energy, reduce the odds of him making mental errors, and reduce the load on him over the course of the season. Broberg needs ice time to progress. Giving Broberg a little bit of Nurse’s ice time is a clear path to getting more out of both Nurse and Broberg.

Another thing that could be beneficial for both Bouchard and Broberg would be to split them up. I would put Nurse with Bouchard. The risk is them being a nightmare in their own zone; but really, how would that be different than what we’re seeing now? I would then put Ceci and Broberg together. That would free Broberg up to be more involved in the offensive zone, where his skill set can truly shine.

Glen Gulutzan is the assistant coach that’s responsible for the powerplay. I don’t know if this is true or not, but I would imagine that Manson is responsible for the penalty kill. Regardless of whether it’s Manson or Woodcroft, the penalty kill has been poor. The new wrinkle for this season is that the forwards are defending passing lanes rather than shooting lanes. The idea is to force a pass through a defender, which should result in more intercepted passes. Instead, it has resulted in more breakdowns and goals against. The Oilers PK has improved since the start of the season, but they still rank 27th in the league (72.9%). I feel that the new penalty killing system isn’t working, and that’s on the coach that implemented it.

Related: The Oilers’ New PK Strategy Isn’t Working

The reality is that this defence group is the same as the group that made it to the Western Conference Final last year except for the 39 year old defenceman they lost. Kulak hasn’t stepped up, but he hasn’t been bad either. Broberg, Niemelainen, and Ryan Murray haven’t emerged as elite players this season; but they haven’t sewered the team either. The players themselves need to be better, but it’s totally fair to question what’s happening behind the bench. This is Manson’s first NHL assistant coaching job. He did a great job in Bakersfield. He’s a far better coach and player than I ever was or could ever be. I believe that he will help turn things around, but I haven’t loved what I’ve seen out of his defence this season.