Woodcroft Discusses BOA, Holloway and More

The Edmonton Oilers players had a day off on Friday and then had an optional skate yesterday morning. Today they are expected to have a full skate as they will prepare for their third round matchup against the Colorado Avalanche.

The four days between games allowed me to speak with Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft.

Woodcroft joined me on TSN 1260 to discuss the Oilers victory over Calgary, coaching against Darryl Sutter, looking for matchups, and possible lineup changes. Will we see Dylan Holloway in round three?

This interview occurred on Friday before Colorado defeated St. Louis.

Jay Woodcroft: Well of course! Yes! Of course yeah, you have to have one to recharge your batteries after a win like that. But I would tell you that there are no off days in coaching. Not until the summertime. So, we were in the office and at work this morning and trying to get our ducks in a row to make sure that we are prepared for round number three.

Woodcroft: Yeah, I think that is important, celebrating your wins, and we do that, and we do that in ways that aren’t public. They are kind of kept internal. But we know how hard it is to win and you have to celebrate those and you have to make a joke after games sometimes — ‘Well we’re going to take 15 or 20 minutes to enjoy it’ — but really, that is our mindset, that we want to enjoy those wins.

But then we park it and we move on to the next day and really try to have that approach of just taking care of the business of the day. And if you do that and you do well enough that over time the outcomes take care of themselves.

Woodcroft: Well I think that as a coach you want to model the behaviour you want your team to have. So that’s the first step. And for us, we think that we have the people required to take care of every circumstance and that is the true belief. Whether we score first, or we don’t score first. I think that we played 12 games in the playoffs, we scored the first goal six times, four in the first series, and two in the second series. You know the other team gets a say sometimes, and they do good things and as the league narrows as it has, the teams get better and better.

So while we might start with a plan, sometimes the other team doesn’t give things, you have to be able to react to it. But if you have the belief that we have the parts in our dressing room to take care of any circumstance that gets thrown our way, I think that resonates and as I said whether we score the first goal, or don’t score the first goal, whether you’re up two goals, or down two goals, we think that we have the people that will get the job done.

Woodcroft: Yeah, I thought that he did a good job with Tkachuk and he had an effect on that player. And, for me I thought that we didn’t love the way that we started last night. Hyman was displaying something in the first period that I thought he could help Draisaitl and McDavid and so we wanted to flip that.

We also took Yamamoto from his line and created a new line with Nugent-Hopkins and Kane. I felt like that was towards our benefit if we did that, we did a similar adjustment late in game number four and it worked out. Sometimes you know through experience and through just watching the game within the game, that leads to decisions like that and it worked out for us, so I’m pleased.

Woodcroft: Oh you know what time of the year it is Jason, I think that most guys are banged up, but no, Zach gave us all that he had, his contribution was valuable to our team winning yesterday. He didn’t play a lot down the stretch but that’s just a factor of the way that that game was being played. They dressed 11 forwards and seven D. They ended up only playing 10 forwards and so the way that the flow of that game went meant that we had to change our lines. But you talk about a heck of a teammate, someone that gives the team everything that he has and he is a big reason why we are moving on to series number three.

Woodcroft: Well, you know if you look at the complexion of our D core or the way that it’s made up, it’s not all of these big name players. We’re a group back there that gets the job done by committee. By commitment to fundamentals in the way that we defend by keeping it simple on breakouts. I think that each one of those players back there brings a little bit different of an ingredient and they help us to be successful.

You have a quarterback on the power play in [Tyson] Barrie, you have a guy who gets his shot through from the top in [Evan] Bouchard. You have [Darnell] Nurse and [Cody] Ceci who are able to play against some of the best players in the world and negate other team’s best players. And you have what Kulak has brought to the table, with his steady two-way play. His legs (skating) are fantastic. Duncan Keith, I think passes the puck as well as anybody in the National Hockey League from the back end. It’s a very underrated skill. He gives us pace through his puck movement and then the warrior qualities of a guy like Kris Russell. While we’re not filled with all of these big names, we are a bunch of really solid contributors and it works for us.

Woodcroft: (Laughs) You want me to give you all of the details?

Woodcroft: (Laughs) You know what, you’re right, they got a lot of offence from their defencemen. I think there are things that we talk about in point coverages. So the way that we want to handle our point man, whether it’s on the strong side or the weak side, there are details that go into that. We wanted to make sure that we were physical on offence.

We took a little steam out of their D men in their own end first of all, we didn’t want to get beat back up the ice on our rush coverage. Like I said there were things in zone with our point coverage. I thought that Calgary did a really job of shooting the puck to try to break you down. And then their D coming down on pucks, there were just certain things that we wanted to do, counter pinch wise that was able to help us. But in the end, they’re a really good team, but our team, not one individual, but our team did a lot of really good things and that’s what helped us to move on in the series.

Woodcroft: Just for our staff because physically and mentally for players, a playoff series is very draining, we know that, but for coaching and for coaches we know that. In the interest in staying fresh, we did our work this morning, we’ve gone our separate ways, we’ll watch it separately and we’ll come in to discuss tomorrow morning, and we’ll see where we’re at. If there is a game seven or if Colorado wins the series tonight that will affect our preparations and our schedule as we move forward. We’ll watch it separately and then come together in the morning.

Woodcroft: Yeah. I would say even I would go back to I think 2007 when I was with Detroit. The Red Wings played Calgary in that first round, Darryl wasn’t the coach, he was general manager at the time but the team was fairly similar at the time. So if you include that series, there were a couple of series, LA, San Jose, so I had a good understanding of Darryl Sutter type teams, Darryl Sutter habits in terms of coaching style and what not.

And you’re right, it’s my first time as a head coach in the National Hockey League, but I’ve put a lot of work into that chance and it’s not my first time in the NHL or in an NHL post season. I have a lot of NHL playoff games under my belt in various capacities. I think that helped to prepare me personally. In the end my philosophy is making sure that we have the right people on the ice at the right time, and I think that we were able to do that at different times in the series. I stated at the beginning of the series that the team who stuck with it harder and longer than the other team was going to be to the team that emerged. And our team did that and that’s why I think that we are moving on to series number three.

Woodcroft: Well, in game number one, I thought the score was a little bit flattering. I was happy we came back, but I didn’t love our competition level on 50/50 pucks or our level of execution. I thought there were things that were a little bit concerning. Heading into the next game we had a hard meeting, a very hard meeting about what was going to be required to win a game. And that’s where our outlook goes, it’s not on the series as a whole, it’s about taking care of that day’s business, but specifically, the things that are going to be required to win a game.

To see us go out and win game two against really tough circumstances, I was really proud of that. And I knew in that moment that our players could do it. We had the necessary resolve and the necessary resiliency to best a team of Calgary’s calibre. And the trick was going to be that we had to continue to get better and to continue to stick with it. We knew Calgary was going to have their moments, but we wanted to make sure we did it harder, and we did it longer, and when you steer the conversation towards your own process, I think that results take care of themselves.

Woodcroft: When you are talking about lineups you want to make sure that you have healthy and available players to pick from. You heard me say that through the playoff series here, healthy and available. And for Dylan, he’s healthy and available. He represents a certain type of ingredient. I feel quite comfortable with Dylan, the same way that I feel comfortable with Brad Malone, Devin Shore, Derick Brassard, other people who are not currently in the lineup. I feel good that I have an understanding of what they would bring to the table should we give them the tap on the shoulder.

For me, I’m quite comfortable with Dylan. I know exactly what he brings. I’ve coached him not only this year when he started playing professional hockey, but we can’t forget, he came in and spent a good six weeks with our team down in Bakersfield last year down the stretch and on our playoff run down there so I know exactly what Dylan Holloway brings to the table. I’m quite comfortable with him, I think he has a bright future in the National Hockey League. In terms of his availability to be put into the lineup, he is a healthy and available player that our coaching staff can puck if we so choose to.