I found the Edmonton Oilers/Vancouver Canucks second-round Stanley Cup Playoff series exciting and also quite humbling. Either team could’ve won as six of the seven games were decided by one goal. It was literally an exciting, rollercoaster, hang-on-to-your-hat type of playoff series. It was also very interesting to see how the coaches handled their teams in key situations. I thought both Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch and Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet did a great job, especially in line matching, personnel decisions and motivation. As an armchair fan, coach, and general manager I questioned some key decisions in the series and was left humbled, especially by Knoblauch.
After replacing starting goaltender Stuart Skinner with Calvin Pickard in the late stages of Game 3, I felt that Pickard played well enough in his next two starts to earn the starting job for the pivotal Game 6 matchup in Edmonton. I thought I saw this same movie with Skinner last year in the Oilers’ second-round series loss to the Vegas Golden Knights when Skinner was replaced three times by then-backup Jack Campbell. I felt Skinner’s playoffs were over and it was now clearly Pickard’s net.
When Skinner was announced as the Oilers Game 6 starter back at Rogers Place in Edmonton, my jaw almost dropped. How could Knoblauch replace Pickard, a guy who won Game 4 and was solid in the Oilers Game 5 loss? Was he out of his mind? Why would he replace the hot hand with the guy who showed cracks in his game early in the series? The answer was humbling for me, because it truly showed that Knoblauch understands his team, and must have seen something behind the scenes with Skinner and the team’s response to their goaltenders that warranted the move, one I thought was a huge risk. The great thing for Oilers fans is the decision paid off big time as the Oilers, with Skinner in the pipes, roared back in the series, taking Games 6 and 7 and moving on to the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars.
Coaches Coach. Fans Cheer. Critics Criticize.
The Oilers/Canucks series was one of the nastiest series I’ve ever seen, especially on social media. Both fan bases obviously forgot about manners, and were way over the top in terms of their nastiness, their predictions, and how they felt their teams should be handled. Thankfully, very few NHL coaches and players engage deeply in social media or take the fans’ advice when it comes to important personnel decisions. If I was so much more knowledgeable than Knoblauch, how come I’m not coaching the Oilers? At least the goaltenders? The same goes for the roster decisions Oilers general manager Ken Holland and President of Hockey Operations Jeff Jackson have made. As a fan, I’m free to second-guess the decisions made by my favourite team. But as I humbly learned, I’m not a coaching expert. So it’s best I let the coaches coach, the players play, and the general managers make their choices.
Related: Oilers’ Kris Knoblauch Deserved Jack Adams Award Votes
Very few of us know what goes on behind the scenes, and I’m thankful for that. Oftentimes in life, people are doing the best they can with what they’ve been handed. If you’re critical of someone, do you honestly know what’s going on behind the scenes? Or do you prefer to take the Kim Kardashian “image is everything” approach to life?
Knoblach’s Decisions Could Lead the Oilers to a Stanley Cup Championship
As I sit back and watch the Oilers/Stars Western Conference Final, I might question a decision by Knoblauch here and there, but I have way more faith and trust in him and his coaching staff, especially after the Vancouver series. The Oilers and Stars match up well, and the majority of prognosticators in the mainstream media are predicting the Stars will beat the Oilers. But do they know something the rest of us don’t or are they just taking a guess? In the end, it comes down to the players, and even if Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl appear to be a bit banged up, I would never count them out. With Evan Bouchard breaking through as a big star in these playoffs, and Dylan Holloway discovering that he’s a hell of an NHLer, the Oilers could be well on their way to reaching their promised land.
Hopefully Knoblauch and his coaches are better chess players than Dallas head coach Pete DeBoer and his staff. Let the mind games begin. I’ll be leaving the second-guessing to the coaches.
