Not to put too fine a point on it, but the notion to fire Kris Knoblauch borders on ridiculous.<\/p>\n
Bringing in a sixth coach in the last 11 years screams desperation. Bringing in a new coach before the old coach\u2019s three-year contract extension even begins reeks of instability.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s been the Oiler way.<\/p>\n
According to the pink slips, blame for not turning 11 years worth of Connor McDavid<\/a> and Leon Draisaitl into a champion falls on the coaches.<\/p>\n It was Todd McLellan\u2019s fault. Then it was Ken Hitchcock\u2019s fault. Then it was Dave Tippett\u2019s fault. Then it was Jay Woodcroft\u2019s fault.<\/p>\n And now it\u2019s Kris Knoblauch\u2019s fault? To close the book on the guy who got Edmonton to two Stanley Cup Finals in a row because of one sub-par year \u2014 when a burned out team had all four of its centres injured \u2014 is Decade of Darkness stuff.<\/p>\n The Oilers should be beyond that. Cutting Knoblauch loose, wasting the experience he gained this season, is nuts.<\/p>\n Players need to take some blame<\/p>\n The underlying issues right from the start of the 97\/29 era have been roster construction, salary cap management, asset management and draft picks. That\u2019s not a coaching problem.<\/p>\n And at what point does the finger of blame get pointed at the leadership core? The last thing a player wants to be known as is a \u2018coach killer\u2019 but six different bench bosses in 11 years would absolutely move Edmonton\u2019s core guys into that category.<\/p>\n Bouch bomb<\/p>\n Personally? I think Evan Bouchard should have been nominated for the Norris Trophy on the strength of 95 points and the ability to deliver in big moments, but I don\u2019t see it as any miscarriage of justice that he wasn\u2019t.<\/p>\n It\u2019s curious how some of the people so horrified that Bouchard isn\u2019t among the three finalists are also saying he isn\u2019t No. 1 on their ballot.<\/p>\n How does that work? It\u2019s reasonable to not vote him No.1 because he has holes in his game and another defenceman is more complete, but if you don\u2019t vote him 2 or 3 because he has holes in his game and other defencemen are more complete, it\u2019s an egregious affront?<\/p>\n The math doesn\u2019t add up. If you\u2019re allowed to factor the complete picture into his not being No.1, you\u2019re allowed factor it into his not being 2 or 3.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t shoot the messengers<\/p>\n Again, I think Bouchard should be in the mix, he is a brilliant passer, shooter and power play quarterback and his good far outweighs the bad \u2014 but I\u2019m not going to cast aspersions on anyone who disagrees with me.<\/p>\n When this large a cross-section of hockey people (around 200) come to a conclusion, you can\u2019t dismiss it as not knowing what they\u2019re talking about. These are the same people who vote on the Hart Trophy and in 10 of the last 12 years their winner was the same as the Ted Lindsay Award, which is voted on by the players.<\/p>\n In 2018 the writers had Taylor Hall, the players had McDavid and in 2025 the writers had Connor Hellebuyck and the players had Nikita Kucherov.<\/p>\n Oil over again<\/p>\n This is not a unique situation, by the way. It\u2019s the second time in the last six years that a player led the league in scoring by a defenceman and didn\u2019t get a Norris nomination.<\/p>\n That one was an Oiler, too. In 2020-21, Tyson Barrie became the first player in the 67-year history of the Norris to lead all blue liners in points (finishing ahead of Adam Fox, Victor Hedman, Kris Letang, John Carlson and Cale Makar) and not receive a single vote.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the McDavid-Draisaitl factor. The perception, and there is some obvious truth to it, is that being out there with McDavid and\/or Draisaitl, is going to inflate your numbers. Ask Zach Hyman.<\/p>\n If Zack Werenski or Rasmus Dahlin played for Edmonton and Bouchard played for Columbus or Buffalo, whose numbers would go up and whose would go down?<\/p>\n Van damn<\/p>\n Let\u2019s start by saying nobody in Edmonton will ever have the right to pass judgement on an NHL draft lottery. This city has been spoiled beyond belief on that front, winning four times in six years (Hall, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Nail Yakupov and McDavid).<\/p>\n But, while nobody loves seeing Toronto get the first pick, a selection that will immediately be referred to as 1A by the Maple Leafs media, it\u2019s great to see Vancouver lose.<\/p>\n Finishing dead last in the NHL by a country mile (58 points with a minus-100 goal differential) and not getting either of the top two picks is poetic justice for that organization.<\/p>\n Bad money<\/p>\n Going into this season the Oilers are looking at seven years at $7 million a year for third-pairing defenceman Jake Walman, two more years at $5.3 million a year for backup goalie Tristan Jarry and seven more years at $3.8 million a year for playoff healthy scratch Trent Frederic.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t why McDavid took that home town discount.<\/p>\n E-mail:\u00a0rtychkowski@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don\u2019t miss the news you need to know \u2014 add EdmontonJournal.com<\/a> and EdmontonSun.com<\/a> to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters<\/a>.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post, and 13 other Canadian news sites. The Edmonton Journal<\/a> | The Edmonton Sun<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not to put too fine a point on it, but the notion to fire Kris Knoblauch borders on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40857,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[17768,3431,4292,446,461,17764,1772,52,263,464,949,4801,1378,17763,467,2032,17767,6112,17770,471,17331,48,946,3073,17766,95,17765,462,17769],"class_list":{"0":"post-40856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-adam-fox","9":"tag-cale-makar","10":"tag-coach","11":"tag-connor-hellebuyck","12":"tag-connor-mcdavid","13":"tag-cutting-knoblauch","14":"tag-david-bloom","15":"tag-edmonton","16":"tag-edmonton-oilers","17":"tag-evan-bouchard","18":"tag-jake-walman","19":"tag-john-carlson","20":"tag-kris-knoblauch","21":"tag-kris-letang","22":"tag-leon-draisaitl","23":"tag-maple-leafs","24":"tag-nail-yakupov","25":"tag-nikita-kucherov","26":"tag-rasmus-dahlin","27":"tag-ryan-nugent-hopkins","28":"tag-taylor-hall","29":"tag-toronto","30":"tag-trent-frederic","31":"tag-tristan-jarry","32":"tag-tyson-barrie","33":"tag-vancouver","34":"tag-victor-hedman","35":"tag-zach-hyman","36":"tag-zack-werenski"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}