February 20, 2022 by Josh Boulton

The Edmonton Oilers are ready to make some noise.

The difference between this statement made by me right now and everyone else also saying it right now is that I said it in November.

I stuck with it in December. And again in January. When all the big time media were saying the Oilers defence isn’t tough enough. Their goaltending isn’t good enough.

Edmonton’s bottom nine weren’t good enough. They just aren’t there. Connor McDavid should ask for a trade. What a waste. What a shame. More importantly, they said Dave Tippett is a good, proven coach. The roster just isn’t there. They couldn’t have been more wrong.

The roster was always there, hiding in plain site. Begging for someone to notice them. To give them a chance. Enter new Head Coach Jay Woodcroft. It’s not that I think Tippett is a bad coach. He just wasn’t the right coach for this group at this particular point in their progress. I always make it clear, I’m not in or around the room and I can’t speak for those players, but I’m on multiple records as saying there was no way under Tippett’s guidance any players beyond McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nurse could possibly have felt like they were contributing members.

There’s no way they could possibly have felt valued. Running three players for 40 minutes a game isn’t going to win you ONE 7 game series, let alone two or three. To know that and see your coach still use that strategy anyway must have been demoralizing. Still, coming into a new year there were a few roster changes. Possibly a new attitude. A new hope things would be different.

Your team even won a few games. But it didn’t take long for players to realize how little a role they’d played in that streak. How nothing was different at all no matter who was in the bottom six. And it obviously didn’t take long for the luck to run out and for the same holes to show up again. Not roster holes. Not five holes. Holes in the self-worth of all those players desperate to make an impact.

You could argue they had at least some moments of opportunity along the way and didn’t exactly seize them, but it’s no wonder. Being randomly put on the spot with the pressure of knowing it’s your only chance, coupled with the knowledge the result probably isn’t going to matter anyway isn’t exactly a high level of motivation. This is what I’ve long suspected, and it unfortunately wasn’t any amount of surprise to hear Derek Ryan talk so candidly about all of this, about how much different it is now that he’s playing under Woodcroft.

Whether I’m truly right or wrong about bench management being the most important fix for a team at a melting point will become clear as time goes on, but it’s rewarding to know this new coaching staff has at least identified it as one of the major solutions to try and it’s why I said this coaching change will be different than other times. Yes the Oilers had a winning streak earlier this year under Tippett but this is different.

Tippett’s Oilers won off two fresh superstars playing as well as they ever have and a lethal power-play operating at like 40 percent. Neither of those were sustainable, and neither of those made any other players feel like they were part of something. Woodcroft’s Oilers are winning with balanced scoring from depth we were told they didn’t have. By rolling four lines that supposedly didn’t exist.

And without a potent power-play at the moment. Woodcroft’s Oilers are winning by averaging 1.50 goals against per game, never giving up more than three and including a one goal game and a shutout, their first of the season. All with goaltending and defence we were told GM Ken Holland should have been fired over for not improving them. Now you might want to point out 1.50 team goals against on average isn’t exactly sustainable either for example and that’s fair. But the results are being achieved using methods that are.

With everyone expected to contribute. Scoring the first goal or not scoring the first goal. 3 goals for or seven goals for. High octane skating or defensive lockdown. They’re never out of a game any more. They’ve got swagger. They’re building an identity. A culture. And that’s the biggest unknown element to this group. Who ARE the 2021-22 Edmonton Oilers? I believe they are ready to make some serious noise. Others don’t.

Whatever the truth is, thanks to a new coaching staff with an open mind and a team based attitude, at the very least we’re finally going to be able to get at honest answer.