Breaking just now from TSN’s Darren Dreger, the Edmonton Oilers have fired head coach Dallas Eakins. The Oilers fell 2-0 to the New York Rangers last night, and have lost 15 of their last 16 games, basically ending a season before Christmas for the second year in a row. Eakins came in with a lot of fire and bold proclamations, but simply couldn’t get the Oilers to turn north.
Was it his fault? Partially yes, but not 100%. Craig MacTavish never gave Eakins a balanced roster, never gave him a starting goalie, a number one defender, or four NHL centers. That is on the GM. That being said, a change needed to happen, and this is the most logical one right now. Hopefully it is only the start of the changes in Edmonton.
UPDATED 12:06 PM EST: The Oilers, as per Darren Dreger, are expected to name Craig MacTavish as the interim coach. MacTavish is currently the GM of the Oilers. MacT is the last coach to take Edmonton to the playoffs, guiding them to the Stanley Cup Finals in 2006. This makes the most sense, as the Oilers can go through a process and hire a new coach in the summer.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet is also reporting that Todd Nelson, head coach of the AHL’s Oklahoma City Barons, could be joining the Oilers bench in some capacity, nothing official however.
UPDATED 2:12 PM EST: Craig MacTavish will be the interim head coach of the Edmonton Oilers, starting tomorrow night in Arizona against the Coyotes. Oklahoma City Barons head coach Todd Nelson will join the team, and serve as an assistant coach under MacTavish during the “transition” period that is about to transpire. Following that, Nelson will take over as the coach for the remainder of the season.
Meanwhile on the farm, Gerry Fleming will take over as the head coach of the Barons.
Personally, I’m okay with this. MacTavish is a veteran NHL coach and knows this roster well, taking over for a short period of time could be very helpful for him and for the team. The team will learn what truly is expected from a veteran coach, and MacTavish will learn what truly is wrong with the team.
Nelson has earned this chance. He was good at both developing players and winning at the AHL level, and he turned around a pitiful development program for the Oilers. Will Nelson earn the job full time? I’m not sure, but you might as well find out now.
Edmonton will hire a full time coach this off-season, and will have a choice between some veteran guys that come available and Nelson following his audition. That’s the best case scenario in my mind.
We will see if this lights a fire under this roster and if this actually makes a difference. Dallas Eakins seems like a good guy, and seems like a guy that knows hockey. He was never given a balanced roster, and was never given some key components to his roster. That said, he wasn’t the right guy for this team, and needed to be moved along.
The most interesting part of the press conference from Craig MacTavish? The quote of “I have blood on my hands too”. Finally, the GM is realizing that he is accountable too.
The hope? This isn’t the last change that happens.
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