Shoutout to my friends in the northeast corner of the province, blanketed by a dump of snow on Friday, putting a big wet damper on the May long weekend.

So it goes for many Albertans, invited to ignore hockey for a while with the idea of summer around the corner, only to be thronged violently back into January dreariness. Top it off with the week that was in Oilersnation, and oh baby, you’ve got quite the start to the off-season.

However, in the capital region, the sun finally came to play Saturday night, chilly as it may be. Better days ahead, I’m sure. The Edmonton Oilers would certainly hope so, trying to put another ham-handed chapter in the Daryl Katz era behind them.

This week’s feature: Butch Cassidy and the Permission Leak.

Knoblauch flits in the wind for 36 hours, and the Oilers create headline fodder for not just Edmonton, but the hockey world at large.

To me, it’s not that the Oilers fired Knoblauch – I’m on board if you can get Bruce Cassidy – it’s how they fired him. I felt the same about the season as a whole. It wasn’t that the Oilers lost to the Ducks, but how they lost, and how they looked all season.

We know it’s not unusual to sniff around for another coach while your current coach is in place. But my goodness, it’s just so Oilers to get caught. Can’t you do the sneaky bit right?

Then again, why is there a sneaky bit in the first place? As Jason Gregor points out, quite rightly, off-season sneakiness is strange.

In-season? It makes total sense that you want to fire and hire in the same press release, a kickstart-my-heart coaching jolt for instant wins. You want a steady hand at the wheel immediately.

Look no further than what happened to Cassidy a month and a half ago, who watches the Vegas Golden Knights like the rest of us, going to the Western Conference final.

But the off-season? How many days were there really between the Oilers asking the Golden Knights for permission and the Seravalli report coming out? A report, by the way, that was much more focused on the Oilers than it was on the Los Angeles Kings, for example, who were under their own shroud of secrecy and contradictory reporting, too.

If Seravalli said publicly last Thursday, May 7, that “coaching changes are likely” and five days later, on Tuesday, May 12, the delayed Cassidy yay or nays are public, is that when the Oilers initially asked?

It all underlines a strange secrecy.

My hunch

The reason for the delay, says Bowman, is that he wanted to do the deed face-to-face.

Admirable. Yet, absolutely bungled.

Despite this idea of doing right by your coach, who did help the Oilers get one coinflip away from the Stanley Cup, they look sloppy and unserious instead. The Oilers can’t even be sneaky without the news getting out.

There are insider reports that say a firing was on the cards anyway, but in my heart of hearts, I’m not 100 per cent convinced that the Oilers were dead set on firing Kris Knoblauch. That’s my hunch.

They wanted to touch base with Cassidy, feel him out, and if they were aligned, make the switcheroo. It was Knoblauch or Cassidy. Not Cassidy first, but someone definitely second. Bowman keeps his bullet into the season, and if the Oilers have a poor start, he can use it then.

Again, that’s just my hunch.

In the end, I couldn’t help but think of Jay Woodcroft with a grin as wide as Crowsnest Pass, walking toward the Ducks’ dressing room after beating the Oilers in the first round. Although that smile wouldn’t last long. His Anaheim team was ousted hours after the Knoblauch news was official.

Leaks and sources

Elliotte Friedman says that he “thinks” Katz was the “driving force.” Not explicitly stated about the coach’s firing, but one leads to the other, of course, and Katz let his underlings know his frustration.

On the face of it, that’s not surprising, and like I said last week, you had to think one head was going to roll, as they’ll now look for head coach number 12 in his tenure as owner.

But in the same breath, I’m dying to know what Katz thinks of his managers and how those bits of info didn’t filter to the surface. If we believe the Oilers conducted an organizational audit after the exit interviews, what was the evaluation of the evaluator?

Approached another way, who’s more culpable for the Oilers not winning a Stanley Cup in their tenures? Kris Knoblauch, Stan Bowman, or Jeff Jackson?

In Knoblauch’s defence, I don’t think he’s done any worse a job than those two. But his job is the easiest to replace under this pressurized timeline.

In fact, it’s not only one of the easiest things they can do, it’s one of the only things they can do.

The future money, the no-trades and no-moves, the fixed-in nature of most of the roster says to me that the Oilers’ opening day lineup is going to look pretty similar to what it looked like in Game 1 against Anaheim.

And hey, that might be enough, although I’m scared to find out. No doubt, the Oilers have a good roster, two of the best players in the world, and an elite defenceman. Nibbling at the edges could work, as the Oilers’ completed lineup didn’t even play one full period together.

Bowman has said twice now that big changes aren’t on the cards. Playing possum? Or telling it like it is?

What do those powers that be think of that plan, especially since restarting at general manager is much more difficult?

Of course, it’s Kulak

That’s where Stan Bowman gets let off the hook. He gets to tell his bosses that he never picked his head coach, hasn’t been on the job for two calendar years yet, and was knotted up by Jackson on the Holloway and Broberg offer sheets.

But again, plans. Like the goaltending plan that pointed to this off-season as the clean slate to reset the position, which was then worsened by the Jarry trade. Tristan Jarry is an albatross in dollars, inconsistency, and injury concerns.

The optics worsened further this week, as yesterday’s Oiler Brett Kulak scored the series-winning goal for the Colorado Avalanche.

Kulak was essentially the only roster player movable with a decent enough cap hit with the rest of the team on some no-trade or no-move clause, some a consequence of the Summer of Jeff.

I’ll lay down my sword on Kulak after this.

Everyone knows he struggled to begin the season, but I said in real time that the Oilers did not have a replacement or safety valve to eat minutes in playoff games. I was willing to wager he would rebound. At the very least, keeping him for the stretch drive of an important season made more sense to me. Then let him walk, or bring back on a similar short deal, see what his market is. But I digress.

The larger point is this: What does Katz think of his management team, and why didn’t that filter out publicly as well? Who’s feeding whom the information?

It’s his $7.5 million to $10 million (I’ve seen reporting on this fluctuate) that’s flushed down the drain, after all. But that’s a pittance in comparison to what Katz loses if McDavid leaves.

No confirmation on front office changes

Bowman has skirted issues in his last two press conferences. In the exit interviews, he had to be pressed multiple times on addressing free agent signings that not only hurt the team, but also cost the Oilers assets to move.

He took more responsibility for his failings in the firing presser, but that’s easier to do because you’ve still got your job, and Knoblauch doesn’t. Bowman was pressed multiple times about whether the situation was unprofessional or whether the report they asked to talk to Cassidy was even true.

Bowman said he didn’t think that was “appropriate.” I understand that would be viewed as tampering, but saying it wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on those things while just having your head coach flail publicly is delicious irony.

What we didn’t get out of the presser was whether this move would be the only one.

Both Seravalli and Pagnotta have said to expect front office changes. Unfortunately, that wasn’t asked. Besides, Bowman may have viewed that as inappropriate.

At the end of the day, I agree

To put a bow on the Knoblauch firing, I do think a new coach is needed for this group. That’s not fair given the three-year resume, but in walking the tightrope toward Titletown, it’s about winning a Stanley Cup last season.

I believe Knoblauch is a good coach, but the in-season coaching comments by McDavid and Draisaitl smelled. There seemed to be a lack of cohesion between how the coach saw certain players and how management saw them. That idea was poo-pooed by Bowman, but again, my hunch.

The Oilers are under the cosh, and being aligned in a unified vision up and down the organization is crucial to winning the Cup.

Knoblauch’s style was what the team needed before. Now, a coach who pays closer attention to matchups, who is willing to let a line marinate, and also presses emotional buttons on the bench during the game is what’s needed.

His stoicism turned docile, which seemed particularly evident in October and November when the team got blown out for fun at home against Colorado and Dallas. The coach can be involved to help flip the emotions of the game.

I’d be curious to see Knoblauch coach in a smaller hockey market, especially for how he deals with the media. Every answer seemed tortured and long-considered, so anxious not to say the wrong thing or how his words would be construed. With how laboured his answers were, this had the opposite effect. It’s a tough market.

Even Stauffer said on Real Kyper and Bourne that this was brought up to Knoblauch by those within the organization.

Unfortunately, amongst the many factors that led to this season going down the tubes, some out of Knoblauch’s control, some that must fall on the players, the Oilers took on the personality of their coach.

Edmonton has had many coaches, and yes, that’s not a good look. But Jon Cooper’s and Rod Brind’Amour’s are exceptions, not the rule, especially in their markets.

Although I think he’s being somewhat deified, Bruce Cassidy is a damn good coach. He burns your team out, but can shine an incredible light. But talk about leverage. Cassidy could be the highest-paid coach in the league next season.

Knoblauch, like Woodcroft before him, can look for solace in the irony. The coach the Oilers want is one Knoblauch beat in five games last season, which reportedly helped sow the fracture between Cassidy and his players.

The hockey world is funny and cruel like that. Just like dropping a dump of snow on you in mid-May.

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and co-host of PreGaming and Oilersnation After Dark. He’s also been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years of news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, Menzies collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4.

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