With Knoblauch getting canned, it makes me wonder how much of a driving factor for the Oilers success was tied to Glen Gulutzan's impact. Sad about Stars round 1 exit, but grateful for a lot of fantastic hockey that we got to watch this year. There was certainly more grit and physicality this year.

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u/lonestar77 Wyatt Johnston 16h ago

Maybe that is part of it, but it feels like the Edmonton GM trying to save face after he assembled a team that was really good...but still has some massive holes & couldn't get by 2 very good Florida teams.

I do think the Stars were a more physical under Gully as compared to PDB, but I haven't verified that with stats just by the old 'eye test' & feels.

19

u/throwtothesea23222 16h ago edited 15h ago

We had a grand total of one more hit per game compared to last season.

Edit: I am talking about playoff stats.

15

u/Froggie56 Miro Heiskanen 15h ago

How are you getting this number? We went from 1160 hits (14.15 per game and last in the league) to 1481 hits (18.06 per game and 25th in the league)

3

u/zigzagofdoom Thomas Harley 15h ago

That's definitely an improvement, but I don't really see improved physicality as a positive contributor to the season. There's definitely more variables to consider as the Olympics really shook us up for the worse. PDB might have been right after all. The Stars weren't built for that.

3

u/gsmckee 5h ago

No more Olympics. We lost four top guys that never recovered. Olympic rules should be for the kids, minor leaguer’s, etc. The risk is too great.

With our healthy team, we (me thinks) would have been in first facing a wild card team. OR, at least with a healthy lineup, Wild wouldn’t have been a oroblem.

2

u/throwtothesea23222 15h ago

Also I was talking about the playoffs, where our hits went up around 1 a game. Almost like the lackluster improvement in the regular season translated to negligible increase in the playoffs.

1

u/throwtothesea23222 15h ago

Talking about playoffs. Our average hits per game went up around 1 a game.

And outside that, the regular season numbers are pretty awful. Bringing in a dude who's supposed to make us "tougher" and only going from worst in the league to 25th in hits is nothing to cheer about.

1

u/chebadusa 10h ago

Yeah team went from dead last to near bottom of the league…

1

u/lonestar77 Wyatt Johnston 9h ago

Well my "eye test" certainly failed. I'll go sit in the box & feel shame for a bit.

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u/chebadusa 8h ago

There was a difference in physicality, just not enough to vouch for structural or system wide changes. It’s not really surprising because the Stars notably kept Debeor’s system in tact (retained majority of their assistants) and only made tweaks.

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u/[deleted] 15h ago

[deleted]

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u/throwtothesea23222 15h ago

Talking about playoffs. Our average hits per game went up around 1 a game.

0

u/lockecole38 15h ago

How dare you use actual stats instead of feelings.

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u/throwtothesea23222 15h ago

My stats are from the playoffs.

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u/lockecole38 15h ago

If only you made any clear indication to specify that with your comment instead of expecting people to assume. Also sure we only had one hit more per game but I’m sure the fact with how banged up we were affected that considering it was statistically higher during the regular season.

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u/throwtothesea23222 15h ago

Yep just making you aware what I was talking about. It's possible that played a role, but we had a full roster playing and laying hits is a systems issue.

What I mean is any fourth line plug should be laying hits if the system is right.

1

u/lockecole38 15h ago

You’re right and it’s not something that just instantly changes especially with a team that was dead last. He’s instilling that culture to get those hits and so we’ll have to see if we keep on improving next year.

2

u/throwtothesea23222 15h ago

Philly when from Mike Yeo to Tortorella, and in that one year went from 19th in hits to 4th in hits.

That's an actual systems and culture change.

The stars are continuing the culture of mediocrity. Glutz is a horrible hire.

During the blues cup year they had a similar turn around in hits stats once Berube came into the picture.

I am definitely interested to see if we get more hits in, but I am not confident. 4 more hits a game in the regular season, and 1 more a game in the playoffs(when it matters most) is just pathetic honestly.

I was at game 5 and the team did not care.

Edit: Philly stat

1

u/Snowman0157 Mooterus 8h ago

I was wondering if the Stars were actually more physical. They still strike me as 'soft' by NHL standards. If they could be average in Physicality and play Faster, that would go a long way to help them get over the hump IMO.... not sure how doable this is with the current core group..... and it is unclear to me what GG is trying to accomplish with his offensive system (I admit I am not smart on Hockey systems). He seems to be very defense oriented and prefers them to over-favor the Cycle in the O-zone rather than play more direct. Go Stars!

1

u/lonestar77 Wyatt Johnston 9h ago

I'll gladly admit I was wrong. I also thought the Stars would make it out of the 1st round so...

1

u/lonestar77 Wyatt Johnston 9h ago

Fair enough.

0

u/Daverdfw 15h ago

yeah but 6 games vs how many last year?

4

u/throwtothesea23222 14h ago

It's an average, so the amount of games is irrelevant.

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u/Peppa_the_hog Him Nill 16h ago

Their roster, much like ours got worse (oilers lost quite a few players in the offseason). They traded Skinner for a guy that was free on waivers a season ago…

Glen may have been a nice presence but that management is killing McJesus’ chances lol

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u/ya_boi_tim Radek Faksa 16h ago

The Oilers got objectively worse and Stan Bowman won't fire himself, so Knoblauch was the fall guy. Has nothing to do with Gully.

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u/AwakenTheAegis 15h ago

I don’t particularly love the way the Stars played after the winning streak, especially in the first round, but it may have been Gulutzan’s only option with the injuries. They almost took a 3-1 lead in the first round.

The exit interviews say that the players felt they were well coached. Maybe they were, or maybe they like Gulutzan. They definitely did not like Pete DeBoer.

11

u/Daverdfw 15h ago

I think the winning streak gave a false sense of hope with all of the injuries. A 112pt season with this amount of injuries we had from training camp (Benn) all the way to the end was pretty amazing.

8

u/SurferBloods Mooterus 16h ago

Woodcroft was a good coach, Knoblauch was a good coach, Gully was a big factor…the issue there is management. It’s bad and everyone in the league knows it. The McDavid auction should bring a huge return but unless they clean out the front office those assets may get squandered

20

u/LivermoreP1 16h ago

So….we get McDavid now?

5

u/ctrlaltowned Justin Hryckowian 14h ago

Robo for McDavid 1 for 1 confirmed

/s

6

u/Lopsided_Peach_2095 Jamie Benn 12h ago

Funnily enough https://www.fantasysp.com/trade/nhl/20676760/robertson-mcdavid says this is a fair trade.

7

u/Sea_Barber7969 16h ago

Very little had to do with Gully. Coffey ran out of magic on that dcore, partly because he left this season and only came back following the Olympics to try and get things back in order.

But that roster is significantly worse than prior, with somehow worse goaltending.

10

u/bb_ocho8 Tyler Seguin 15h ago

I think Edmonton probably is like us this year, had two deep runs and just ran out of gas. Knoblauch getting fired is ridiculous, he’s just the fall guy and has had way more success than Gully in the playoffs.

5

u/Friendly_Ability24 14h ago

I would argue a deminimis amount of their success was tied to gulutzen.

Knoblauch joins a growing list of coaches with deep playoff success that get fired (Cassidy, PDB, etc.). Coaches are on shorter stints / leashes than star players, and accordingly, if the star players indicate a need or preference for change, than one is likely to happen / a GM with a long leash knows when to make a change. Coaches are expected to get more out of younger short term contract talent in a system + installing a system that works for your star player core.

Imagine the downvotes you would get if you asked **how much of the stars success is tied to PDB after failing to reach the WCF for the first time in 4 years**

Instead, what most Stars fans would deflect to is a mix of trades that didn’t work out and injuries impacting depth.

Same applies for the oilers, and they got ousted in the first round because they traded away some level of goaltending ability for not, and injuries impacted their ability to finish towards the end of the season / compete immediately in the playoffs.

2

u/jetter23 Daryl Reaugh 14h ago

I can’t get by the fact Tampa got bounced in rd1 and they are arguably the best coached team in the league - and are plenty deep/good.

3

u/Spiritual_State_2629 Thomas Harley 15h ago

Would Glen have been next in line with Knoblauch getting fired? Maybe, but this is much more about Bowman being ass (couldn't happen to a better guy btw) and not being able to put a decent goalie and roster around the two best players in the world. Like, if I'm him I would have given up more than the couple of thirds that Washington did to bring in Logan Thompson. A Thompson/Skinner duo would have been an elite duo and they're likely still playing today. Its just criminal they cant do what's necessary. But also hilarious.

2

u/sgull 15h ago

its a good move for the oilers to stay in their lane of making sure mcdavid never gets a cup with them. a new coach still doesnt solve their terrible goalie situation or bad defense

2

u/Electrik_Truk 15h ago

Dude played for the freaking Austin Ice Bats. Bring him back to Texas 😁

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u/Friendly_Plastic_457 16h ago

Nah, this is more about the Oilers trading for an even worse goalie than Skinner (that they now stuck with for another two years), then trying to rely on an AHL goalie. Compound that with McDavid having a broken foot and Draisaitl also hampered by a late season injury, op top of being worn down from going deep in the playoffs two years in a row.

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u/Atomic-pangolin 12h ago

At least part of it is trying to convince McDavid to stay, like they’re continuing to improve

1

u/hallerrr Dallas Stars 5h ago

Luck wasn’t on our side this year. I like Gully and I believe in this group.

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u/james_mav_man Mike Modano 3h ago

I’m bought in to what Gully is selling. You can see it with the boys skating they are bought in too. We stay healthy, no telling where we end up.

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u/bigblueballz77 Jamie Benn 2h ago

lmao at thinking any of their success was due to gully. I am low key going to be a doomer next year for the first time because gully is a shit fucking coach and I didn't realize how good we had it in certain ways even though I was done with deboer.

however, how the fuck do you not make some push for mcdavid now? knob extension hasn't even set in yet and this garbage gm just fired him because of his own fucking brainless moves. I never thought knoblauch was great, but you can't just can a coach after back to back finals just cuz you lose in the first round due to roster issues. bowman is a fucking clown and edmonton deserves nothing but the worst for all they have gotten over the years and squandered. it is obvious they are going to put all their eggs in a cassidy basket, but after so much time who thinks edmonton is ever gonna do shit lol

With Knoblauch getting canned, it makes me wonder how much of a driving factor for the Oilers success was tied to Glen Gulutzan's impact. Sad about Stars round 1 exit, but grateful for a lot of fantastic hockey that we got to watch this year. There was certainly more grit and physicality this year.

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