Dave Tippett Released from the Oilers

Overtime Heroics Editorial

478 days ago

After a rocky start to the season for the Edmonton Oilers, head coach Dave Tippett has been let go, along with associate coach Jim Playfair. This happened after multiple outcries from fans, as well as an underperforming Oilers, line up given that the team has two of the top point scorers in the league in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

The @EdmontonOilers have fired head coach Dave Tippett, Sportsnet can confirm. pic.twitter.com/HnfSq1XKso

— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 10, 2022

Tippett was head coach of the Oilers organization since 2019, and ever since his entrance with the team, they have not looked to live up to the potential they could have, with a lot of holes in their team. The issues with the team were seemingly there from the start, and no matter how many players were traded into or out of the team, the chemistry and cohesion never seemed to be there under Tippett"s eye and schemes. Under his watch, the Oilers went 95-62-14, which is not the worst record a team could have, but when the overall strength of the team is considered, there is really no reason that the team should be performing so poorly.

This season the team has gone 23-18-3 which is a fairly bad record and is likely because of a defensive breakdown that was caused by making the wrong moves during the off-season, and now being left with a defence that does not have the cohesion and chemistry to perform well. This has led to the team"s star forwards being frustrated and likely looking for a move by the end of the season if something didn"t change. With this new change in coaching, the players may be able to see a light at the end of the tunnel, as under new coaching, they could see some new chemistry form from some experimentation with the lines until the new coach finds the fit he likes.

The Oilers named the replacements for the two coaches in no uncertain terms as it was announced today that they would be replaced by new head coach Jay Woodward and Dave Manson as the new associate coach for the team, promoting both of them from the Bakersfield Condors of the AHL. These two new leaders in the dressing room could see some potential changes, whether that be changing up the line pairings or changing the play style for the rest entire team to attempt to help fix their performance problems and stabilize the team for the season.

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