Oilers Fire Dallas Eakins

[Mr Dee]

Cole's note version:

 

K. Lowe very good player - not a very good Boss in charge.

 

MacTavish - for a guy who's been with the org. as long as he has, you would think he'd have a good handle on what's wrong with this team. - He doesn't.

 

Dallas Eakins - Whatever you attribute his system to be…it is definitely not a fit for this club. He took a team one should be able to mold around the young stars and

turned it into a team where the young stars were molded into the average of the rest of the team.

 

Whenever I watched the Oilers pre Eakins, they were a team who could beat you with their offence alone. They weren't good defensively, but that could have been fixed. Instead they were neutered and played like it.

Eakins had to go.

[sweep the leg]

Awful story from twitter (Down goes Brown): Lowe was offered Corey Perry & a 1st rounder in 2003 for Mike Comrie. He turned it down and traded Comrie the following week for Jeff Woywitka, a 1st, & a 3rd rounder.

 

Just another reminder of how awful Lowe has been at his job.

[17to85]

Awful story from twitter (Down goes Brown): Lowe was offered Corey Perry & a 1st rounder in 2003 for Mike Comrie. He turned it down and traded Comrie the following week for Jeff Woywitka, a 1st, & a 3rd rounder.

 

Just another reminder of how awful Lowe has been at his job.

That's an old story, the trade was pretty much done but last minute Lowe got angry about something and demanded Comrie repay a signing bonus, that's what nixed that trade. Things got really personal between Lowe and Comrie back then. 

[17to85]

Oh i watch the oilers, they were my fav team prior to the Jets coming back, I watch them and follow them quite often, when i can. They aren't good and there problems are far more deep than just who the  coach is. Believe what you like, but it's pretty obvious it's the players on the ice. They can't score? guess that's the coaches fault. 

 

 

Well when players could score with the previous coaches but couldn't score with Eakins then yes I do blame the coach. You have to put players in a position to succeed. No true #1 defencemen on the roster and no real proven centres and a couple goaltenders who haven't been starters before but had shown decently as backups are reasons a team might not be expected to go deep into the playoffs but they're not reasons that a team should be struggling as much as Edmonton is. When the coaching is as bad as it was it makes everything look much worse. The team with Kreuger had bigger holes on the roster and much worse veterans yet Kreuger got more out of them. Yeah they still weren't a great team but they didn't go on streaks where they won 3 games out of 22 tries. They had a lethal PP and a good PK... now the PP is a liability that they'd be better off declining and the PK is average at best. I said it a lot when Tim Burke was here, good coaches make players look better. Case in point: Calgary Flames. That's a pretty gross roster but the coach has them playing well and look at the results. Confidence and putting player in a position to do well is very important in sports. Setting players up to fail is what Eakins did. 

[sweep the leg]

 

Awful story from twitter (Down goes Brown): Lowe was offered Corey Perry & a 1st rounder in 2003 for Mike Comrie. He turned it down and traded Comrie the following week for Jeff Woywitka, a 1st, & a 3rd rounder.

 

Just another reminder of how awful Lowe has been at his job.

That's an old story, the trade was pretty much done but last minute Lowe got angry about something and demanded Comrie repay a signing bonus, that's what nixed that trade. Things got really personal between Lowe and Comrie back then. 

 

I remember the relationship with Comrie being bad, but I don't recall ever hearing about that potential trade. That would have been up there as one of the best/worst trades in NHL history.

[New_Earth_Mud]

 

As bad as Jets fans thought Noel was as a coach,

 

Most Jets fans liked Noel.

 

His biggest mistake was that he decided to treat the professional players like professionals.  And after 2 years of expecting the players to demand excellence of themselves, he realized this group did not have a strong enough internal leadership.  But you can't sell whip-cracking after 2 years of not being a hardass.  The players don't believe it.  Maurice comes in and plays hardass from day 1.

 

There were a few other nuts and bolts problems, and Perry Pearn didn't do jack squat to help this team, but the players' lack of buy-in was the biggest issue Noel faced.

 

Nail Yakupov came in as a rookie and led the Oilers in goal scoring, led all rookies in goal scoring and was tied for the rookie lead in points.

 

Nail Yakupov has played 13 months of NHL hockey.  He scored 11 goals in the month of April 2013.  He has scored 21 goals in the other 12 months of his NHL career.  An average of less than 2 per month.  If you plot them out on a chart, picking out which month is the outlier would be pretty easy to do.

 

Is John Druce the greatest playoff performer in NHL history?  You have to be careful about forming opinions on small sample sizes when there a larger sample sizes that suggest otherwise.

 

I'm guessing if I was a teenager playing hockey in Russia it would be a pretty difficult transition.  Yakupov may have better days in front of him, but his progress so far makes it seem like his ceiling as a player might be where we thought his floor was.  And Eakins absolutely did not help his progress along.

 

I'll say it again, the team was making progress every year until Eakins was hired. He is the #1 problem with that team. 

 

Your definition of progress is looser than ours.  If they are landing the number 1 overall pick year after year after year, well it doesn't scream progress.

 

Eakins hadn't done anything to deserve to keep that job.  Number 1 problem?  Well he had nothing to do with the near decade-long shitshow that preceded his hiring.  Why was he hired in the first place?  The players reportedly loved Krueger and the team showed progress under him.  But McTavish decided Eakins was the greatest thing since sliced bread.  A stupid failure from upper management.  Eakins was nothing more than the latest example of what a colossal failure Oilers' management is.  Pretending he is the number 1 problem is the mentality that allows for Lowe and crew to get another 5 years to continue to mismanage the franchise.

 

And I have no problems with that.  Screw the Oilers.

 

 

I liked Noel.... But his biggest problem was hes more of a teaching coach. More of an X an O type coach and that never was going to really work with this team or many NHL teams. It usually never does.

 

There is a fine line between teaching at the NHL level and also letting players use their skills and in stink. Noel was to much a teacher and less of a guy letting players play.

 

It may have looked like our guys tried harder for Maurice but IMO it was because he let them play. Take care of the puck on D and then let their skill take over and let them go. Players wont buy into a D type system if they arnt allowed to use their own skills on O and have to play a position type game. Just look at ED... They keep hiring teachers for the young guys and not allowing them to just break out and go. ( they have way more problems but IMO the players are frustrated because of this... much like ours were.) 

[17to85]

 

 

Awful story from twitter (Down goes Brown): Lowe was offered Corey Perry & a 1st rounder in 2003 for Mike Comrie. He turned it down and traded Comrie the following week for Jeff Woywitka, a 1st, & a 3rd rounder.

 

Just another reminder of how awful Lowe has been at his job.

That's an old story, the trade was pretty much done but last minute Lowe got angry about something and demanded Comrie repay a signing bonus, that's what nixed that trade. Things got really personal between Lowe and Comrie back then. 

 

I remember the relationship with Comrie being bad, but I don't recall ever hearing about that potential trade. That would have been up there as one of the best/worst trades in NHL history.

 

Well at the time Perry was still a prospect don't forget. There were some question marks about his attitude and skating. Corey Perry at the time wasn't the super star we know he turned into. He was still just a prospect. Woywitka was a pretty well thought of prospect as well, he just didn't work out like Perry did. (though he was part of the package that got Pronger so not all bad)

[AtlanticRiderFan]

Hall is a flat out super star, if you want him start with something you absolutely don't want to give up then add to it. This is why he won't be traded. GMs on the hot seat don't get to trade super star players because it's bad asset management. The Oilers will let Todd Nelson run the team for the year and evaluate since they're already out of the playoff race. Expect to see a lot of players value increase and suddenly the goal tending issues aren't so critical because Dallas Eakins the destroyer of goaltenders is gone. Seriously spending time with Eakins "system" has seen every single goaltender the Oilers have brought in come out looking worse. 

 

Hall is exactly the player we need to build around. He's a goal scorer, a physical player, and soon, a leader. He has a lot of qualities this team lacks.

 

I would trade anyone before Hall.

[Jpan85]

Hall is a flat out super star, if you want him start with something you absolutely don't want to give up then add to it. This is why he won't be traded. GMs on the hot seat don't get to trade super star players because it's bad asset management. The Oilers will let Todd Nelson run the team for the year and evaluate since they're already out of the playoff race. Expect to see a lot of players value increase and suddenly the goal tending issues aren't so critical because Dallas Eakins the destroyer of goaltenders is gone. Seriously spending time with Eakins "system" has seen every single goaltender the Oilers have brought in come out looking worse.

 

Hall is exactly the player we need to build around. He's a goal scorer, a physical player, and soon, a leader. He has a lot of qualities this team lacks.

 

I would trade anyone before Hall.

RNH is the untradable one. If you can get a top centre or d man and some prospects for hall you do it.

[iso_55]

 

As bad as Jets fans thought Noel was as a coach,

 

Most Jets fans liked Noel.

 

His biggest mistake was that he decided to treat the professional players like professionals.  And after 2 years of expecting the players to demand excellence of themselves, he realized this group did not have a strong enough internal leadership.  But you can't sell whip-cracking after 2 years of not being a hardass.  The players don't believe it.  Maurice comes in and plays hardass from day 1.

 

There were a few other nuts and bolts problems, and Perry Pearn didn't do jack squat to help this team, but the players' lack of buy-in was the biggest issue Noel faced.

 

Nail Yakupov came in as a rookie and led the Oilers in goal scoring, led all rookies in goal scoring and was tied for the rookie lead in points.

 

Nail Yakupov has played 13 months of NHL hockey.  He scored 11 goals in the month of April 2013.  He has scored 21 goals in the other 12 months of his NHL career.  An average of less than 2 per month.  If you plot them out on a chart, picking out which month is the outlier would be pretty easy to do.

 

Is John Druce the greatest playoff performer in NHL history?  You have to be careful about forming opinions on small sample sizes when there a larger sample sizes that suggest otherwise.

 

I'm guessing if I was a teenager playing hockey in Russia it would be a pretty difficult transition.  Yakupov may have better days in front of him, but his progress so far makes it seem like his ceiling as a player might be where we thought his floor was.  And Eakins absolutely did not help his progress along.

 

I'll say it again, the team was making progress every year until Eakins was hired. He is the #1 problem with that team. 

 

Your definition of progress is looser than ours.  If they are landing the number 1 overall pick year after year after year, well it doesn't scream progress.

 

Eakins hadn't done anything to deserve to keep that job.  Number 1 problem?  Well he had nothing to do with the near decade-long shitshow that preceded his hiring.  Why was he hired in the first place?  The players reportedly loved Krueger and the team showed progress under him.  But McTavish decided Eakins was the greatest thing since sliced bread.  A stupid failure from upper management.  Eakins was nothing more than the latest example of what a colossal failure Oilers' management is.  Pretending he is the number 1 problem is the mentality that allows for Lowe and crew to get another 5 years to continue to mismanage the franchise.

 

And I have no problems with that.  Screw the Oilers.

 

Eakins wasn't the problem despite what 17 says. It starts at the top with a stupid owner who worships at the shrine of the 80's Oilers & who keeps hiring retreads & failures to run his team. McT failed as a coach before. Hey, no problem.... just bring him back to manage the team. Just because Darryl Katz is a fan. That's where the problem is. letting incompetents run the Oilers. Naturally, they hire a guy with no prior NHL coaching success & experience. Eakins was doomed to failure right from the start.

[SPuDS]

Hall is a flat out super star, if you want him start with something you absolutely don't want to give up then add to it. This is why he won't be traded. GMs on the hot seat don't get to trade super star players because it's bad asset management. The Oilers will let Todd Nelson run the team for the year and evaluate since they're already out of the playoff race. Expect to see a lot of players value increase and suddenly the goal tending issues aren't so critical because Dallas Eakins the destroyer of goaltenders is gone. Seriously spending time with Eakins "system" has seen every single goaltender the Oilers have brought in come out looking worse.

 

Or is it because the Oilers are trying to win with back-up goalies?

Both goalies have shown better in the past. Dubnyk, Bryzgalov, Fasth, Scrivens they all saw their numbers drop under Eakins. Bryzgalov Fasth and Scrivens all came in last year and looked real good, but time spent with Eakins killed them. It's quite apparent that a lot of people don't really follow the Oilers to see just how bad Eakins ****** that team up.

I'm still laughing at the fact you said the oilers were making progress before Eakins.. What kinda progress? Most coaching failures? Most worst place finishes in their division? Lol.

How about the fact they had increased their wins and point totals every year? Their goals against had gone down every year... you know that kind of progress, the kind you expect to see from a rebuilding team. Your comment here only proves my point that people don't actually look at what was going on there and only see "LOL 3 first overall picks"

No... What I have seen is still no solution in goal, no defenseman worth mentioning and no real upward trend despite your attempt to sugarcoat.. Rebuilding? Sure.. To what? That best worst team in the conference? I get Edmonton is your team and all but there is something deeply rotten in that team..

[mbrg]

 

I liked Noel.... But his biggest problem was hes more of a teaching coach. More of an X an O type coach and that never was going to really work with this team or many NHL teams. It usually never does.

 

There is a fine line between teaching at the NHL level and also letting players use their skills and in stink. Noel was to much a teacher and less of a guy letting players play.

 

It may have looked like our guys tried harder for Maurice but IMO it was because he let them play. Take care of the puck on D and then let their skill take over and let them go. Players wont buy into a D type system if they arnt allowed to use their own skills on O and have to play a position type game. Just look at ED... They keep hiring teachers for the young guys and not allowing them to just break out and go. ( they have way more problems but IMO the players are frustrated because of this... much like ours were.) 

 

It's definitely very locker room dependent.  At face value hiring (keeping) a teaching coach for a very young team makes sense.  It did not work out.  I suspect some of that might have been residual Thrasher mentality.

 

Eakins wasn't the problem despite what 17 says. It starts at the top with a stupid owner who worships at the shrine of the 80's Oilers & who keeps hiring retreads & failures to run his team. McT failed as a coach before. Hey, no problem.... just bring him back to manage the team. Just because Darryl Katz is a fan. That's where the problem is. letting incompetents run the Oilers. Naturally, they hire a guy with no prior NHL coaching success & experience. Eakins was doomed to failure right from the start.

 

To me Eakins is just another example of the real problem.  They brought him in for an assistant coach interview and liked him so much they fired the head coach, whom they weren't looking to replace.

 

So much of this, it's just schizophrenic.  It reminds me of some of the fantasy hockey managers I pool with.  No concept of the big picture, or at least not enough self-discipline to stay with it.  Henrik Sedin was put on waivers in my 12 team league.  Stupid low waiver priority.

 

Even if they loved Eakins, there was no reason at all to fire Krueger at that point in time.  They still could have hired Eakins as an assistant and had him in place for that eventuality.  It's just trickle-down stupid.

[17to85]

 

 

 

 

 

Hall is a flat out super star, if you want him start with something you absolutely don't want to give up then add to it. This is why he won't be traded. GMs on the hot seat don't get to trade super star players because it's bad asset management. The Oilers will let Todd Nelson run the team for the year and evaluate since they're already out of the playoff race. Expect to see a lot of players value increase and suddenly the goal tending issues aren't so critical because Dallas Eakins the destroyer of goaltenders is gone. Seriously spending time with Eakins "system" has seen every single goaltender the Oilers have brought in come out looking worse.

 

Or is it because the Oilers are trying to win with back-up goalies?

Both goalies have shown better in the past. Dubnyk, Bryzgalov, Fasth, Scrivens they all saw their numbers drop under Eakins. Bryzgalov Fasth and Scrivens all came in last year and looked real good, but time spent with Eakins killed them. It's quite apparent that a lot of people don't really follow the Oilers to see just how bad Eakins ****** that team up.

I'm still laughing at the fact you said the oilers were making progress before Eakins.. What kinda progress? Most coaching failures? Most worst place finishes in their division? Lol.

How about the fact they had increased their wins and point totals every year? Their goals against had gone down every year... you know that kind of progress, the kind you expect to see from a rebuilding team. Your comment here only proves my point that people don't actually look at what was going on there and only see "LOL 3 first overall picks"

No... What I have seen is still no solution in goal, no defenseman worth mentioning and no real upward trend despite your attempt to sugarcoat.. Rebuilding? Sure.. To what? That best worst team in the conference? I get Edmonton is your team and all but there is something deeply rotten in that team..

 

improving every year is still improving even if you can't see past the 3 first overall picks. They went from 30th by a mile to 30th by a couple points to 29th to 24th before they hired Eakins. All this with Steve Tambellini as a GM and his big veteran additions were Fistric and Belanger. There was no veteran support at all and his asset management was real bad. Seen how Tobias Reider is doing in Phoenix? Kid was a 4th round oiler pick that Tambellini traded for a questional prospect with size. There is a reason they fired the GM a couple years ago as well. McTavish has actually done a better job adding veteran players to the team. Fayne was a real good pick up and he has been solid. He's not the big sexy name on D but he's a good player. Boyd Gordon and Matt Hendricks were good additions as veteran bottom 6 players... the problem was he fell in love with Dallas Eakins and refused to admit he made that mistake. 

 

Let's look at the game last night, was an odd game because it's too early for a lot of changes but I saw a PP that looked night and day. They changed the set up and were able to gain the zone and get shots on net. Didn't score but it wasn't a complete tire fire giving up odd man breaks short handed all night. Scrivens was fantastic, primarily because they played a much simpler coverage in the defensive zone. The 2 goals they gave up were remnants of what Eakins had them doing. Over load and pressure the puck carrier. That leaves someone wide open though and both those guys scored. Once they wash the Eakins stink of players and they stop defaulting to that it'll be better. Most people look at plays like that and see just a mistake defensively, but when you watch how they've played the past 2 seasons and listened to what Eakins was preaching you realize that leaving guys open wasn't a problem for him. That's the kind of crap that works in the AHL where the passing and shooting isn't good enough, but in the NHL guys can get passes through under pressure and wide open players can score. It made the goaltenders look terrible. Hell one game in we saw a lot more reasonable ice time distribution as well. Did you know that Eakins would regularly have Justin Schultz getting the most icetime of all oiler players? Obviously you don't watch them play but he is the last guy who should be getting top pairing ice time because he can't handle it. 

 

Eakins was the #1 problem with the teams performance. The only way it's not Eakins is if you want to point the blame to McTavish for hiring and sticking with Eakins, but in that situation the on ice play still comes down to Dallas Eakins and his ******** system that doesn't work in the NHL.

[Goalie]

Oilers out shot 26-6 last night in the second period. Coach gone players still have no heart or compete level. YUP its the day the coach got fired but most teams wouldn't respond like that. Oilers players are a big part of the problem regardless what some think. Management and above is the biggest tho.

[Atomic]

They aren't seriously considering making this Nelson character the head coach are they? Doesn't this seem like Eakins round 2?

[17to85]

They aren't seriously considering making this Nelson character the head coach are they? Doesn't this seem like Eakins round 2?

He has a better track record in the AHL than Eakins had, he has actually got a lot of production out of Oiler players in the AHL. He is a very good AHL head coach and that is widely recognized around the league. The question is whether he can translate it to the NHL or not. He is very different from Eakins though. Eakins just oozes arrogance and acts like he's the smartest man in the room, Nelson is much more humble and just goes about his business. 

 

Oilers out shot 26-6 last night in the second period. Coach gone players still have no heart or compete level. YUP its the day the coach got fired but most teams wouldn't respond like that. Oilers players are a big part of the problem regardless what some think. Management and above is the biggest tho.

I disagree that the problems are heart and compete. They play hard they just don't always play smart. One of the things Ralph Kreuger said was that sometimes young players can be over coached, sometimes you just have to give them simple tasks and let them play hockey. That appears to be a big part of what's wrong in Edmonton. Hell even the panel during the game pointed out that they looked like they were playing scared, and that's been happening for a while. It's interesting people like to only look at the second period and not the push back they had in the 3rd. They carried a lot of the play after that just weren't able to get any pucks to go in. A lot of people just grasp at the low hanging fruit and assume that if you work hard you're going to win, it's not that simple. In a league where everyone works hard you have to work hard in the right ways. 

[New_Earth_Mud]

Oilers practiced today......  they lost

[Mr. Perfect]

Sure glad that coaching change has made things better in Edmonton....

[SPuDS]

Sure glad that coaching change has made things better in Edmonton....

Its amazing how well they've been do... Wait, they are still stinking out arenas? Huh.

[Floyd]

Fasth career is over... Maybe they'll trade for pavs

[The Unknown Poster]

If your oilers management would you actively do anything to improve your club right now? What's the best you can hope for now? 25th place? The season is over. Stay the course and go for McDavid.

[AtlanticRiderFan]

 

Once an Oiler, always an Oiler.

 

 

 

[The Unknown Poster]

So the idiot Oilers send Draisaitl back to junior. Blow a year of his pro contract, potentially stunt his development and for what? Oh and they refused to lend him to the WJC. Classy organization.

[17to85]

So the idiot Oilers send Draisaitl back to junior. Blow a year of his pro contract, potentially stunt his development and for what? Oh and they refused to lend him to the WJC. Classy organization.

Does the year on the contract really matter? The only time that comes into play is if you want to have a cheap contract on a cup team so you can hire a few rented guns. That's not the situation the Oilers find themselves in. Sending him down before the team plays 39 games doesn't burn a year towards him becoming a UFA, so he is still an RFA for that extra season which will be more important in the long run. 

 

I don't buy that his development has been ruined, that kid has a good head on his shoulders and hasn't been as bad as the hype says. A lot of that is simply "herr derr Oilers suck!" 

 

Here's the things people don't take into account, He's played for Germany at the WJCs twice already, is 5 games there going to do anything for his development? Not bloody likely. The other aspect is he didn't want to go back to Prince Albert and the Oilers didn't want him to go back there either cause Prince Albert sucks. Since Kelowna is going to pick up his rights though, that's a better situation to send a guy to in the WHL, in theory get a nice long playoff run there and that's actual good development as opposed to Prince Alberta who basically did whatever Draisailt and Morrisey carried them to in the past. 

 

People like to pile on Edmonton and some of it is deserved, but they really turn the stupid up to 11 when they do it. 

 

Do you all know that since McTavish stepped aside and let Nelson coach that the team is 2-0-2? Hell even just since they fired Eakins they're something like 3-4-4 which might not be anything to brag about but it's a damned sight better than they were with Eakins behind the bench. 

[The Unknown Poster]

 

So the idiot Oilers send Draisaitl back to junior. Blow a year of his pro contract, potentially stunt his development and for what? Oh and they refused to lend him to the WJC. Classy organization.

Does the year on the contract really matter? The only time that comes into play is if you want to have a cheap contract on a cup team so you can hire a few rented guns. That's not the situation the Oilers find themselves in. Sending him down before the team plays 39 games doesn't burn a year towards him becoming a UFA, so he is still an RFA for that extra season which will be more important in the long run. 

 

I don't buy that his development has been ruined, that kid has a good head on his shoulders and hasn't been as bad as the hype says. A lot of that is simply "herr derr Oilers suck!" 

 

Here's the things people don't take into account, He's played for Germany at the WJCs twice already, is 5 games there going to do anything for his development? Not bloody likely. The other aspect is he didn't want to go back to Prince Albert and the Oilers didn't want him to go back there either cause Prince Albert sucks. Since Kelowna is going to pick up his rights though, that's a better situation to send a guy to in the WHL, in theory get a nice long playoff run there and that's actual good development as opposed to Prince Alberta who basically did whatever Draisailt and Morrisey carried them to in the past. 

 

People like to pile on Edmonton and some of it is deserved, but they really turn the stupid up to 11 when they do it. 

 

Do you all know that since McTavish stepped aside and let Nelson coach that the team is 2-0-2? Hell even just since they fired Eakins they're something like 3-4-4 which might not be anything to brag about but it's a damned sight better than they were with Eakins behind the bench. 

 

Im sure he's not "ruined" but this is pretty easy stuff that Oilers management bungled.  Regardless of how bad his junior team is, I cant be convinced that being a dominant player in Junior would be better than struggling with the Oilers.  Get the 9 games for the experience and send him back if he isnt good enough.  This is more an issue of not being able to assign junior aged players to the AHL but this is the way it is and the Oilers screwed it up.

 

Again, from a management perspective, they cost themselves a few bucks later by blowing a year on his deal.  Everyone saw that he wasnt ready.  And we know first hand what happens when a team rushes its prospects because they are too cheap or stupid to sign NHL calibre players.  It doesnt impact Free Agency but it does cost them money.  That doesnt impact us as fans but is another lolOilers moment and an example of mis management.

 

I would suspect that after half a season with the Oilers, getting to play at a high level in a tournament like the WJC would have been good for him.  It certainly couldnt have hurt.  Maybe it didnt mean anything to him but usually international play means a lot so for the Oilers to deny Germany's request for him and then send him down a few days later is a) classless an example of mis management if they didnt know they were going to send him down when they denied Germany's request.

 

In the big picture, it doesnt mean anything to us, but the big story in Edmonton is how poorly they have been managed.