Big Read: Block by block, Jay Woodcroft built stability into the Oilers’ foundation. Now, there’s hope he may just be the one who ends their perpetual coaching carousel — and guides the Cup back to Edmonton. (SportsnetSpec)
Block by block, Jay Woodcroft built stability into the Oilers’ foundation. Now, there’s hope he may just be the one who ends their perpetual coaching carousel — and brings the Cup back to Edmonton.hen it comes to coaches, the Edmonton Oilers have been the Cleveland Browns of the National Hockey League. From an old school hard-ass like Pat Quinn, to the new-age teacher that was Ralph Krueger, the Oilers have test driven them all.
His thing? Preparedness, and attention to details. It has left the Oilers in a head space we haven’t seen this group of players occupy, well, ever. Today, Edmonton sees itself as a “sound” team. With “structure.” In a town where those two adjectives have been AWOL over the past 30 years, today we hear them all the time, from both friend and foe.
Woodcroft, a 45-year-old who made it far as the Central Hockey League as a player, has spent a lifetime in the game. Today, he is a puzzle with pieces courtesy the many who coaches who, inevitably, steered him away from an unlikely playing career to a coaching gig that suits his personality to a tee.
“It’s going to be very hard for a team to beat Edmonton in seven games, if they continue to manage and protect the puck the way they are now. They are a tough out.” Nugent-Hopkins has seen it all. From “The Swarm,” a defensive system employed by former Oilers coach Dallas Eakins that somehow never caught on around the game, to the old school Tippett, who was uber-prepared but guilty at times of not engaging the entire roster in his plan.
It’s not every day that a veteran like Pavelski rings up a reporter in another country on a Thursday afternoon at the end of a season for a chat. But that’s how much he cares for Woodcroft. If we’re telling his story, Pavelski wants a bite out of that. More and more, the refrain you hear from players at the Rogers Place podium after games is a chorus of support for Woodcroft.
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