{"id":46580,"date":"2026-05-15T13:21:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T13:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/46580\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T13:21:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T13:21:26","slug":"accountability-important-throughout-oilers-lineup-bowman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/46580\/","title":{"rendered":"Accountability important throughout Oilers lineup: Bowman"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Edmonton Oilers<\/a> have the best player in the world in Connor McDavid<\/a> and one of the top 10 in Leon Draisaitl, but they are far from the NHL\u2019s flagship organization.<\/p>\n

When you have a different coach every couple of years, this is the definition of dysfunction, and so Kris Knoblauch has officially joined the unemployed. Yes, Knoblauch will be paid about $7.5 million to go away by owner Daryl Katz, so he will not be collecting food stamps, but you cannot keep firing coaches, keep sending out press releases, keep having press conferences to trot out the new guy without people rolling their eyes.<\/p>\n

You cannot keep saying we need a different voice when (check my notes, how many is it?) are fired. Knoblauch joins Todd McLellan, Ken Hitchcock, Dave Tippett, Jay Woodcroft. Yeah, maybe Hitchcock was always going to just be coach for a short term to finish the coaching circle of life, ending his career where he\u2019s from, a longtime Oilers fan.<\/p>\n

But the others? Again, we get that McDavid and Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse, the longest-serving Oilers, are dying to win a Stanley Cup, but how many coaches can they cycle through here?<\/p>\n

As a former Oilers coach said upon hearing of the official Knoblauch parting of the ways, \u201che did coach the team to two Cup finals in three years.\u201d In today\u2019s NHL, where faith, hope and parity is the byword, that is admirable stuff. But, these are the Oilers, the impatient Oilers, where the clock is ticking on 97, whether he stays with a long-term deal or whether he goes if the team doesn\u2019t, say, win or at least make the Cup Final in June of 2027.<\/p>\n

In a lot of ways, the Oilers, always a contender, are the anti-Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\n

The Hurricanes haven\u2019t won, either, with Rod Brind\u2019Amour as their head coach over the last eight years, but he still has his job after one first-round playoff exit, three seconds and three thirds as the \u2018Canes await the winner of Buffalo and Montreal to see who they meet in the Eastern Conference Final. Brind\u2019Amour hasn\u2019t even made it to a Cup Final and lost, as Knoblauch did twice in 2024 and 2025 to Florida, losing in seven games and then six, but he\u2019s valued there.<\/p>\n

Not so much here, with coaches like the aforementioned five over the same eight years. We get that Katz, who grew up an Oilers fan in the glory days of the \u201980s, is dying to win, and paying Knoblauch not to coach is no big deal for a billionaire. We get that owners are impatient and they can do whatever they want. It\u2019s their money. But the Oilers are dysfunctional with so many coaches, and GM Stan Bowman, who signed Knoblauch to that three-year extension last fall only to fire him before it even starts, knows stability is important.<\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s in general terms.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t appear to be so the case here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think continuity is good for sure,\u201d said Bowman.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually where there\u2019s continuity there\u2019s success, and we have had that here and recently \u2026 before that, I can\u2019t speak to that as much,\u201d said Bowman, who didn\u2019t get hired until 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fair point that stability is a good thing and that\u2019s what we have in mind with whomever we choose to come in here. We hope it\u2019s a long relationship. That\u2019s the goal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut you have to react to where we are today, what we think will get us to the next level and we thought this was the right step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or a misstep. We\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n

Other contending teams either take a long time to win, like Tampa, or they do it, lose in the playoffs, but claw their way back like Colorado. Or, they\u2019re always in the hunt like Carolina. And they keep their coach. Jon Cooper has been Tampa\u2019s coach for 14 years but didn\u2019t win until Year 8 with lots of playoff heartache before that. No firing. Coach Jared Bednar won in 2022 with the Avs, beating the Oilers in the Western Conference Final, but they tumbled in the post-season three years in a row before getting back to the Final 4. No firing.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t say goodbye to Bednar between 2023 and 2025. They didn\u2019t fire him after his first NHL season, either, when Avs finished dead last. He\u2019s been there 10 years. Brind\u2019Amour eight. Knoblauch, 233 league games, 53 more in the playoffs, a .624 winning percentage in regular season and 31-22 in post-season. Before him, Woodcroft had a .643 winning percentage in 133 league games and got canned.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot surprising that the two favourites to win the Cup now have the longest-serving coaches,\u201d said a former NHL coach of Colorado and Carolina.<\/p>\n

Knoblauch is out after one poor Oilers season. Yes, he\u2019s at fault, but it\u2019s in concert with Bowman, with the team president Jeff Jackson, with the players. Certainly the players have to take some ownership here, maybe a lot of ownership. How many coaches can come and go here before the longest-serving guys say, \u201cYou know, this is on us. Maybe we have to not only change the way we play but do it, defence first.\u201d<\/p>\n

There has to be a culture change, doesn\u2019t there?<\/p>\n

The teams still playing in the post-season all have varying degrees of offensive dexterity but are checking for their chances, fighting for space, not looking for it, everybody taking pride in the details of that chore. Not saying the Oilers haven\u2019t done that at times; they did it in 2024 for sure, but not nearly enough or long enough. Fact is, their big guns have to lead the way, the right way, they have the loudest voices, right?<\/p>\n

Have we let McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins and Nurse off the hook a bit here? It can\u2019t always be the coach, can it? It can\u2019t always be the coach\u2019s fault, ergo a firing, when the team falls short.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an element of accountability that\u2019s always good, self accountability,\u201d said Bowman. \u201cMy experience is when you don\u2019t reach your desired goals, you do have to find a way to be better. From talking to the players here, there was disappointment and frustration with our team this year. I don\u2019t think anybody was walking out feeling great about where the team is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, an element of responsibility is necessarily and hopefully the new coach can bring that out of these players,\u201d said Bowman.<\/p>\n

Or, maybe it has to come within those players?<\/p>\n

McDavid, Draisaitl and Bouchard are fantastic players who put up great offensive stats and fans here should be glad they\u2019re wearing the Oilers logo. But, does it not also fall on the leaders to find a continued, responsible team defensive game, starting with them?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that would help,\u201d said Bowman, who won three Cups as GM of the Chicago Blackhawks. \u201cThere\u2019s always that give and take. I\u2019ve been fortunate to be around elite offensive players and there is that fine line \u2026 they do things that no one else can do. There is an element of risk to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCalibrating that right is the Midas touch. How do you take away what they do that no one else can do? But there\u2019s elements of their game that, at times, weren\u2019t a strength. That would help without a doubt. But it\u2019s not just those guys, it goes across the lineup,\u201d said Bowman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve also seen where you have a team with some elite offensive players and you\u2019re around them every day at practice or watching from the bench in games, you start to think, \u2018Maybe I can try that.\u2019 And you don\u2019t have the ability to pull it off with nearly the success rate of the top guys. They try to play that way and that\u2019s a bad combination,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

After Dallas lost to Minnesota in Round 1, after the Stars had been to three straight Western Conference finals, twice against the Oilers, and the Wild was trying to get over not getting out of the opening series for years, Dallas GM Jim Nill cut to the chase, looking at the players and how it played out.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne team needed to win and one team wanted to win,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Oilers NEED to win a Cup. But they also need to play the right way.<\/p>\n

Can they, will they do it? For a new coach, whether that is Vegas\u2019s Bruce Cassidy, if they get permission to talk to him, or somebody else they interview? We\u2019ll see. Maybe it should be up to the players to see the light?<\/p>\n

This \u2018n that: There was a report that Bouchard had a concussion during the Oilers six-game playoff loss to Anaheim but Bowman emphatically denied it. \u201cThat is not accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bookmark our website and support our journalism:\u00a0Don\u2019t\u00a0miss the news you need to know \u2014 add\u00a0EdmontonJournal.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0EdmontonSun.com<\/a>\u00a0to your bookmarks and\u00a0sign up for our newsletters here.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

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. Support us by subscribing today:\u00a0The Edmonton Journal<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0<\/a>The Edmonton Sun<\/a>.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Edmonton Oilers have the best player in the world in Connor McDavid and one of the top…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":46581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[20655,4799,1135,461,15659,947,20122,52,474,20025,20654,1378,467,8432,50,16543,471,5503,476,277],"class_list":["post-46580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-carolina","tag-chicago-blackhawks","tag-colorado","tag-connor-mcdavid","tag-dallas","tag-darnell-nurse","tag-daryl-katz","tag-edmonton","tag-florida","tag-jay-woodcroft","tag-ken-hitchcock","tag-kris-knoblauch","tag-leon-draisaitl","tag-minnesota","tag-montreal","tag-oilers","tag-ryan-nugent-hopkins","tag-stan-bowman","tag-vegas","tag-winnipeg-jets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46580","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=46580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}