Let’s be honest, how many of us would have ever expected the Oilers to fire Todd McLellan and replace him with Ken Hitchcock? I was driving into work today and my phone absolutely exploded and when I looked at what was going on, I was shocked. If I’m being honest, I’m still trying to process where we’re at and how the Oilers ended up landing on Hitchcock as the solution to what’s going on here. Needless to say, I was very interested to see what Peter Chiarelli had to say about this move… that I personally think Bob Nicholson made.

When asked for a timeline on what made Bob Nicholson him decide that a coaching change was needed, Chiarelli pointed to the recent run of games as the start of the process.

Pretty tough to watch the flawed team you built get dummied like that, I guess. Sorry, that was rude and I cut you off. Please walk us through your thinking and when it really clicked that now was the time to make a move.

Yeah, I can see how getting pumped by a terrible team would make you think that something was wrong, but the team left for San Jose yesterday morning so when did you tell Todd?

Oh man. The poor guy had to travel with the team only to get fired in the city that he last worked in. Dude, that is so lame but at least he still has a house there so he can head home to relax. Does he get a lift back with you guys to Edmonton to pick up his stuff? Awkward.

But you just said you more or less made the decision on Sunday night after the Vegas game. Why didn’t you do it yesterday morning before the flight out? Hitch not locked in yet? Probably not locked in yet, huh? Frankly, that’s the only thing that makes sense is that he hadn’t agreed to come aboard yet because if you knew this was happening and still brought Todd with you then that is a greasy move imo.

Riiiiiight. Anyway, let’s get to the man himself.

With 20 games in the books, it makes a lot of sense that the Oilers would want to make a change now rather than let things carry on this way, but I’m still not sure all of the blame should be heaped on Todd McLellan either. He’s not the one that put this roster together, though he certainly did make some odd choices with the cards he was dealt.

While it is true that they worked together in Sochi, I still can’t help but feel like this is a Bob Nicholson move more so than a decision Chiarelli would have made. I mean, the guy retired twice already so it must have taken someone with some major Hitchcock pull to get him back in back in the mix. Gretzky? Nicholson? The tinfoil had theories can go on forever, but what was it about Mr. Hitchcock that makes you feel comfortable with putting him in place?

If there’s one thing we know about Ken Hitchcock, it’s that he is a guy that demands the attention of his players and that they’re all on board with the game plan. Could that have been an issue here?

That’s a positive, I guess. I mean, time is running out and we need the train to get back on the rails in short order so making improvements is something that needs to happen now. On the other hand, we’re not going to see McDavid trying to play the trap, are we?

Now that I’m thinking about it, maybe a more defensive style is exactly what this team needs. Maybe Hitchcock will come in and teach these boys the beauty of playing on both sides of the puck, something that has been sorely lacking over the years. Maybe? Anybody? I guess we’ll see.

I really hope so. The guy is now 66-years-old and came out of retirement for this gig so we’re going to have to wait and see what he can do. Right now, I’m just trying to keep an open mind and see how this plays out.

Obviously, the Oilers hired a bunch of new assistant coaches this summer and people wanted to know what was going to happen with them.

Now that I’m really thinking about it, I’m almost surprised they didn’t just bump Gulutzan up a level but they clearly wanted to bring in someone with more experience that could instantly command respect.

One concern I was seeing on Twitter was how an older coach like Hitchcock would be able to handle young players like Puljujarvi and Yamamoto, and I think that’s valid so I was happy to see the question get asked.

When he was in St. Louis, Hitchcock worked well with a young Tarasenko and helped him become the dominant force we know today. Before that, many moons ago in Dallas, Hitchcock also gets credit for helping Mike Modano become a better two-way player so there’s hope here that he can continue that run. That said, I don’t know enough about his record with young players to really be able to comment so we’ll just have to wait and see how he uses the kids and how he helps them along in their development.

I’m trying to be positive here so I’m going to go ahead and say that I’m happy the move was made now and not two months in the future, but I still can’t help but feel that both the coach AND GM deserved the axe. At some point, you have to blame the guy that felt building a team with three nails and a bunch of used chewing gum was a good idea, but it’s the NHL way for the GM to get at least one coaching change first. That’s not to say that Todd McLellan doesn’t deserve some of the blame here, he definitely does, but I also believe he took the bullet for a mess that Peter Chiarelli created. That’s life in the streets, though, I guess.

At the end of the day, it’s going to take some time to truly process this move and see what Ken Hitchcock is able to do with the roster. Right now, I don’t really know what to think, it’s going to take some time to process, but I’m going into this thing with an open mind and a hope that Hitchcock will be able to get more out of this roster. Throughout his career, he’s shown the ability to get teams moving in the right direction over the short term, but he’ll have his work cut out for him because this team looks very fragile right now. I guess we’ll see how/if that changes in the Hitchcock era.

What do you guys think?