If ever a team desperately needed a win, it was this Edmonton Oilers team on Saturday night.
A bad start to the season hit a nadir on Thursday night in a soul-destroying loss against the San Jose Sharks. It left the Oilers tied with their opponents on five points, rock-bottom across the NHL.
That’s a rough position for any team to find itself in. For a team expected to be a serious candidate to win the Stanley Cup, it’s unacceptable.
Consequently, Head Coach Jay Woodcroft’s job appeared to be hanging by a thread. From this Oilers fan’s perspective there is plenty of blame to go around for the poor start and only one part of it can be laid at Woodcroft’s door; however, we all know that it’s the Head Coach who carries the can.
We’ll never know if he would have been carrying the can home in a box of his possessions had the team lost again to the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night.
What we do know is that the team showed a huge amount of spirit to end their four-game losing streak thanks to a four-goal First Period. Zach Hyman was the hat-trick hero, but there was lots of praise to go around the group, not least to the other goalscorer Dylan Holloway who showed a level of fight and aggression in his play that was great to see.
At the start of my reaction video, I posed the question as to whether this game would be a turning point or Woodcroft’s last stand? Maybe we still don’t know the complete answer to that question, but he lives to fight another day and now has two home games against the Islanders and the Kraken this coming week to try to build on this victory.
