McLellan Swapped For Hitch

While this is Peter Chiarelli at the NHL Entry Draft possibly devising some new scheme in which he can have the NHL's best player win an Art Ross while simultaneously having his team earn the first-overall pick, I imagine Chiarelli sits in the same pose in his office at Rogers Place while trying to explain his team's futility on the ice despite the roster he has built. Today, we found out that Chiarelli is unwilling to concede that his lineup is flawed, instead firing head coach Todd McLellan and replacing him with Edmonton native Ken Hitchcock. Yes, the same Ken Hitchcock who retired after being fired by the St. Louis Blues on February 1, 2017.

How does Peter Chiarelli keep avoiding the axe in Edmonton?

Before I take a stab at answering that question, let's be honest in saying that whatever McLellan was doing with the roster that Chiarelli built, it simply wasn't working. The Oilers have lost six of their previous seven games, they were plummeting in the standings, and Chiarelli did the most predictable thing a GM of a slow, plodding team can do: he fired the head coach.

"With all the parity in the league," Chiarelli stated at a press conference this morning, "I think the timing was right now to do it. There's still a lot of runway left in this year and we felt a new voice would be helpful."

Perhaps Chiarelli should have checked recent history because of the 16 teams in playoff position on US Thanksgiving last season, 11 kept their spot to advance to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Boston and Philadelphia were one and four points out at US Turkey Day last season, and they bumped out Detroit and the New York Islanders in making the playoffs. In the west, Calgary, St. Louis, and Vancouver held playoff spots on US Thanksgiving, only to be replaced in April by Colorado, Anaheim, and Minnesota.

In other words, that runway isn't as long as he may think.

Connor McDavid, speaking after practice in San Jose, was more to the point in saying, "This isn't on Todd at all. It's on us as players. We've got to wake up here."

To add a jolt to the players' wake-up call, Chiarelli brought in Ken Hitchcock who agreed to remain on as the Oilers' head coach until the end of the season. Chiarelli worked with Hitchcock as part of the Canadian Olympic team in Sochi in 2014, so the two men have some familiarity with one another. Hitchcock wasted no time in telling the players that their success was entirely up to them.

"I told the players today, I can take them to a place personally that they can't get to themselves, but they've got to buy into that," Hitchcock told reporters.

Here's where I struggle with this hiring. If Todd McLellan was a defensively-minded coach who demanded a solid effort in the Oilers' zone, how does this differ from the approach that Ken Hitchcock brings to the team? This Oilers team looked lost and confused when trying to break out of their zone, they looked slow and uninterested in the neutral zone, and players not named McDavid or Draisaitl couldn't find the back of the net with a compass and a GPS unit when in the offensive zone. To put this bluntly, the team that Chiarelli built is not built for today's NHL.

Hitchcock is the eighth coach that the Oilers have employed in the last ten years. It's hard to imagine wasting the talents that Connor McDavid has after he committed to the club, but it seems that the lack of consistency in the coaching methods and systems are contributing to that fact. Add in some rather questionable roster moves by the general manager, and the Edmonton Oilers are likely going to miss the playoffs again this season.

I have no doubt that Ken Hitchcock will get the Oilers a few more wins than had they left McLellan in charge. It's a rather common occurrence that a team plays better after a coaching change as players want to impress the new boss in an effort to get more ice time and responsibility. However, that effect wears off after a week or two, and that's when the real coaching begins.

We should know by Christmas whether or not the Oilers are going to make a serious run at a playoff spot with Ken Hitchcock in charge. However, recent history seems to point at the fact that being five points out at US Thanksgiving is a major hill to climb when it comes to locking down a postseason spot. If the Oilers can win tonight over San Jose, they'll close the gap to three points with a Friday game against Anaheim looming large. It's not unthinkable that Edmonton could be in a playoff spot by week's end. And then it's up to Hitchcock to ensure that he keeps his foot on the gas with this team.

The Oilers can make the playoffs this season. But like Hitchcock told the press, it's going to take the entire Oilers team to buy into his methods if they want to skate in April this year.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!