Oilers Fire Dallas Eakins

[Atomic]

theScore ‏@theScore  6m6 minutes ago

Edmonton Oilers have reportedly fired head coach Dallas Eakins. http://thesco.re/136HATu 

[Atomic]

Poor guy never had a chance.

[Mike]

Chance or no chance, it was obvious right from the get go that he was not the right coach for that team.

[Atomic]

I was never a fan of his, but he was set up to fail.  Now they get MacTavish back behind the bench.

 

 

Darren Dreger ‏@DarrenDreger  4m4 minutes ago

Confirming MacTavish returns to bench on interim basis. Replacing Eakins who was fired this morning.

[mbrg]

Did they also announce Kevin Lowe promoting himself to emperor?

[Rich]

Oilers Head Coaches since '08 2008-09: MacTavish 2009-10: Quinn 2010-12: Renney 2012-13 - Krueger 2013-14: Eakins 2014-: MacTavish

— M Remis (@mremis)

December 15, 2014

[Mike]

I was never a fan of his, but he was set up to fail.  Now they get MacTavish back behind the bench.

 

 

Darren Dreger ‏@DarrenDreger  4m4 minutes ago

Confirming MacTavish returns to bench on interim basis. Replacing Eakins who was fired this morning.

 

OiLOLers

[sweep the leg]

That organization is an embarassment. Their owner is a fan of the team hiring all of his childhood heroes to run it. It's insane that Lowe still has a job. They need to expand their hiring criteria from just being a former Oiler.

 

Firing Ralph Kruger was a giant mistake.

[Jpan85]

[The Unknown Poster]

Im surprised.  Mostly because the general consensus out there seemed to be that management was, at this point, content to tank.

 

I read an article that showed how they were purposely tanking, incing a bunch of AHL'ers and keeping better options on the farm etc.  I mean really, all they can do at this point is work their way out of first over-all.  Might as well force the season to be a goner for connor.

[Mr. Perfect]

Feel bad for Eakins. You have a rookie head coach with that young of a line-up, what do you expect? The team's farm system is a joke, and their drafts have been even worse. On top of that, the person now on the bench (albeit an interim basis) was once the coach, fired, re-hired in a role that would be a promotion over the head coach (meanwhile the previous GM who ran the team into the ground gets a promotion), and appoints himself to get back behind the bench.

 

Exactly what issue was solved today? One could easily argue the Oilers added to their problems today instead of solving them. I'm not an Oilers fan at all, but even to me this logic of moves infuriates me. I can only imagine how their fans feel. In the words of Lindy Ruff: "That's a joke. That's an absolute joke is what that is. That's the definition of a joke right there."

[FrostyWinnipeg]

Feel bad for Eakins. You have a rookie head coach with that young of a line-up, what do you expect? The team's farm system is a joke, and their drafts have been even worse. On top of that, the person now on the bench (albeit an interim basis) was once the coach, fired, re-hired in a role that would be a promotion over the head coach (meanwhile the previous GM who ran the team into the ground gets a promotion), and appoints himself to get back behind the bench.

 

Exactly what issue was solved today? One could easily argue the Oilers added to their problems today instead of solving them. I'm not an Oilers fan at all, but even to me this logic of moves infuriates me. I can only imagine how their fans feel. In the words of Lindy Ruff: "That's a joke. That's an absolute joke is what that is. That's the definition of a joke right there."

I always find it strange to hear that the Jets have a younger lineup then EDM. Wonder if one of the big 3 is up next. Eberle is mentioned the most.

[The Unknown Poster]

Saw someone suggest Eberle for Kane straight up.

[Mr Dee]

Finally…a firing!

[HardCoreBlue]

 

Feel bad for Eakins. You have a rookie head coach with that young of a line-up, what do you expect? The team's farm system is a joke, and their drafts have been even worse. On top of that, the person now on the bench (albeit an interim basis) was once the coach, fired, re-hired in a role that would be a promotion over the head coach (meanwhile the previous GM who ran the team into the ground gets a promotion), and appoints himself to get back behind the bench.

 

Exactly what issue was solved today? One could easily argue the Oilers added to their problems today instead of solving them. I'm not an Oilers fan at all, but even to me this logic of moves infuriates me. I can only imagine how their fans feel. In the words of Lindy Ruff: "That's a joke. That's an absolute joke is what that is. That's the definition of a joke right there."

I always find it strange to hear that the Jets have a younger lineup then EDM. Wonder if one of the big 3 is up next. Eberle is mentioned the most.

 

Being surrounded by Oiler fans for years now, I'm not sensing many loyal Oiler fans feel bad for Dallas Eakins. 

The never ending talk about the Oilers woes over the last 8 years revolve around whose to blame, coaching?, management?, owner?, current players?, scouting?, fans?, media?, cheerleaders?

 

Obviously all have to take some blame for this teams's lack of success but the debate continues on which area is in the most immediate dire straits to start to turn this team around. As a non-Oiler fan, I say focus on the cheerleaders.    

[The Unknown Poster]

Todd Nelson to be named head coach.

[HardCoreBlue]

Todd Nelson to be named head coach.

I read Todd Nelson being named interim head coach with Mac T coaching next few games for the transition period.

[The Unknown Poster]

Well in Edmonton isn't everyone there just an interim head coach?

[17to85]

Feel bad for Eakins. You have a rookie head coach with that young of a line-up, what do you expect? 

How about the coach to continue the progress that had been made before he was hired? Instead he turned Yakupov from a goal scorer into a bust, he turned Justin Schultz from an offensive defenseman into a bust. He made everyone on that team worse. Guy was a product of the Toronto hype machine nothing more. He fooled the Oilers and they gave him a chance and he proved to be the worst head coach I have ever seen. He was the Tim Burke of the NHL he was that bad. 

[Rich]

I hear Tortorella is looking for work.  He'd find right in with Edmonton   

[17to85]

This is actually really big news for the Oilers. 

 

I don't know if Nelson is going to be a good NHL coach or not but he got a lot of production out of the young players on the Oilers during the lock out year and he has got a lot out of their farm team despite not being given a lot of talent (first overall picks don't spend time on the farm, they go to the NHL directly) He had players like Arcobello at 2ppg for a while in the AHL, he's got Lander producing very well in the AHL. That's the #1 problem Eakins had with the Oilers, he couldn't get production out of anyone other than Taylor Hall and even that's failing this year. Nelson has shown he can get production from guys with the Oil Barons, if he can get production from them in the NHL as well then suddenly all the talk of Eakins being set up to fail is exposed for the lies that they are. Both Renney and Kreuger got players to produce, it was just Eakins that failed. He was pure and absolute **** as a coach and should have been fired at this point last year because it was obvious then that he was trash. 

[Atomic]

 

Feel bad for Eakins. You have a rookie head coach with that young of a line-up, what do you expect? 

How about the coach to continue the progress that had been made before he was hired? Instead he turned Yakupov from a goal scorer into a bust, he turned Justin Schultz from an offensive defenseman into a bust. He made everyone on that team worse. Guy was a product of the Toronto hype machine nothing more. He fooled the Oilers and they gave him a chance and he proved to be the worst head coach I have ever seen. He was the Tim Burke of the NHL he was that bad. 

 

 

You nailed it with the "Toronto hype machine" comment.  He was crowned the "next big thing" in coaching by the Toronto media and I never really understood why.

[The Unknown Poster]

If Im the Oilers I'd hire an experienced coach not an AHL'er.  Im not a fan of Torts but these guys might need that attitude to get their heads out of their asses.  But ultimately, you look at the talent and yes they have talent but their drafting after the first round was atrocious.  They didnt fill their holes.  This is more on the GM and Lowe than the coach.

[17to85]

Was the drafting bad or could the coach simply not get anything out of the players taken after the first rounds? Anton Lander was a 2nd round pick who is producing very well in the AHL but can't in the NHL.. now given how much the rest of the team struggled to score under Eakins where does the blame lie? Arcobello was an AHL superstar for point production nothing in the NHL under Eakins, again where's the problem? Marincin came up last year as a 2nd round pick and looked good but Eakins kept sitting him. Tyler Pitlick 2nd round pick has looked solid in the AHL but less useful in the NHL though his biggest problem has been injuries. I think it is a mistake to say that the drafting has been poor outside the first round as a blanket statement. I think the biggest problem is that Eakins was so bad he didn't know how to get the best out of anyone. If Nelson can get anything out of Lander for points at the NHL level that would be huge for the Oilers because he is one of those solid all around centres whose best asset going all the way back to the day he was drafted was leadership and attitude. He can play solidly in the NHL, just an offensive black hole, but that's a common problem even among proven NHL point getters with Eakins as coach. 

 

As bad as Jets fans thought Noel was as a coach, Eakins is much much much worse. Getting a real coach in there for that team is going to be all kinds of good. I mean a team with Taylor Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jordan Eberle, Nail Yakupov and David Perron struggles to score goals, how do you explain that?

[Mr. Perfect]

 

Feel bad for Eakins. You have a rookie head coach with that young of a line-up, what do you expect? 

How about the coach to continue the progress that had been made before he was hired? Instead he turned Yakupov from a goal scorer into a bust, he turned Justin Schultz from an offensive defenseman into a bust. He made everyone on that team worse. Guy was a product of the Toronto hype machine nothing more. He fooled the Oilers and they gave him a chance and he proved to be the worst head coach I have ever seen. He was the Tim Burke of the NHL he was that bad. 

 

Regarding Yakupov, how is that Eakins fault? Nail never adjusted to the NHL. Some players don't transition well to the NHL. He certainly wouldn't be the first. He won't be the last. The track record of coaching failures before him (which includes Pat Quinn - I'm pretty sure he knew how to coach a hockey team as his track record shows) shows overwhelmingly that the issues on the ice go well beyond Eakins. Does he have some fault in the state of the team? Of course he does. Is he primarily at fault? Not even close. To suggest otherwise is foolish. The day Edmonton gets rid of the "Good ol Boys" (When did they last do anything that resulted in a positive on the ice?) the better off they'll be.

 

The team has neglected the blue line and the crease for years. They have no size at forward. They're going to get dominated, especially in the western conference. That falls squarely on the player personnel staff. Tell me a team that's drafted as poorly as they have the past five seasons - I'll save you the bother - There isn't one. That's not on coaching. You can't make chicken salad out of chicken ****.

 

Further evidence of player personnel being the issue - Edmonton has had only two players drafted outside the first round SINCE 2007 play in more than 60 games in the NHL. Anton Lander and Linus Omark - And it was apparent quick that outside of his skills on the shootout, Omark had no business playing in the NHL.