SAN JOSE — It’s likely over for Jay Woodcroft, the whip-smart head coach who simply has run out of answers for his Edmonton Oilers.
Edmonton lost 3-2 to the woeful San Jose Sharks on Thursday, dropping into a tie with San Jose for 32nd place in the 32-team National Hockey League. Edmonton is 2-9-1 on the season, and is already 14 points back of third place in the Pacific Division.
With only the faint hope of a wild-card berth as their fading goal, if general manager Ken Holland still believes his team has a playoff prayer, he will fire Woodcroft on Friday in Seattle.
For this team to be in this position — with a roster of this pedigree — is a firing offence. It’s time for a new set of eyes and a new voice, before this season becomes a long, painful march to the World Championships.
“I worry about taking care of my daily business and my daily process,” said Woodcroft, when asked about his level of concern about his job. “Making sure that I give my players something to focus on and concentrate on.
“No one’s happy with where we’re at. We all own it.”
But at age 47, the prodigal head coach is all out of answers. His team is not progressing, making the same defensive blunders in Game 12 that they were in Game 2 of this disastrous campaign.
On Thursday, the highest-scoring team in the NHL a season ago managed just two goals against a ragtag Sharks roster that had surrendered 10 goals in two of its past three games coming in.
“I don’t know. I don’t really know what to say,” said a stunned Leon Draisaitl, in a post-game dressing room that resembled one inhabited by a team that had just been knocked out of the playoffs.
Draisaitl, a serial 50-goal man, has five goals this season — but just one in his past nine games. The best passer in the NHL at times, his passing eye has disappeared down the same black hole that has claimed the power play and the defensive acumen of this Oilers team.
“We tend to outshoot other teams consistently, probably out-chance other teams consistently. But we’re not in sync right now,” Draisaitl said. “Not too many guys in this room have confidence right now. I’m part of that group.”
Some coaches get fired because the team quits on them. Others, because they just can’t fix what’s broken.
Edmonton is broken.
Woodcroft, charged with guiding his team to Stanley Cup contention this season after five playoff series in his first two years helming this team, has instead charted a path to last place in the overall standings. Today, he presides over a hockey club with too many high-pedigree players who are playing too poorly. Too many systemic breakdowns, inadequate accountability, and alas, not nearly enough wins.
On the Sharks’ first goal, Fabian Zetterlund was left unmarked less than 10 feet in front of the Oilers goal. Stuart Skinner had no chance on Zetterlund’s one-timer, or on the third Sharks goal, a long two-on-one caused by a Darnell Nurse turnover at the offensive blue line.
In between was the requisite unlucky goal, as a puck caromed off a leg right to Tomas Hertl in the slot, and he buried it into an open net.
The game ended in a flurry, with the Oilers’ moribund power play — once historically successful — capping another 0-for-4 night. That group is a mere shadow of its former self, another Oilers unit that went to the mechanic weeks ago but somehow can’t get the car fixed and out of the shop.
Has Evander Kane ever seen a team of this pedigree lose its collective scoring touch to this degree?
“On a good team with the type of guys we have? Scoring the way we score and for as long as we haven’t scored? (No), that would be my answer,” he said. “It just seems like we’re getting chances, getting some good looks, and they’re not going in for us.
“And then we make a bigger mistake than we should, and it’s always — 100 per cent of the time — ending up in the back of our net.”
That’s not a swipe at the goaltending. Skinner was chanceless on all three goals Thursday.
“The silver lining is, it’s 12 games in,” Kane said. “A team I was on (San Jose) lost in the conference finals to a team (St. Louis) that was dead last … in the league in January.”
That’s what we’re clinging to here. A once-in-a-lifetime turnaround.
That a team playing .208 hockey can miraculously play .750 hockey the rest of the way and qualify for the post-season.
This is an epic and unprecedented fail for a team many picked to win the Stanley Cup. If Gerard Gallant, or more likely assistant Glen Gulutzan, is not behind the bench Saturday night in Seattle, then you’ll know that Holland has given up on the season.
If he still has even a glimmer of hope, he needs a new head coach.
The Oilers need answers, and the coach is still asking questions.
It’s a shame. But it’s a reality.
