Clock is ticking on head coach Jay Woodcroft in Edmonton.
At least one reporter believes that Edmonton Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft is on the hot seat.
The Edmonton Oilers are having a rough start to the season and some believe that their poor start could result in some drastic changes.
The Oilers suffered another ugly loss on Saturday night when they fell to the Nashville Predators by a score of 5-2, and if it wasn't for a historically bad San Jose Sharks team they would find themselves sitting at the bottom of the Pacific Division 10 games into the regular season. In fact through 10 games the Oilers have managed to collect just 2 wins, a stunningly bad start for a team that many pundits had predicted would be among this year's Stanley Cup contenders.
There are many things that you could point the finger at this early in the season, with the Oilers poor goaltending and poor results on the blue line being at the top of my list, but with relatively little cap flexibility there are now already calls for a change to be made behind the bench.
Controversial Toronto columnist Steve Simmons believes that Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft may already be running out of time.
"That clock you hear ticking is on Jay Woodcroft’s time in Edmonton," said Simmons on Saturday. "It’s not Ken Holland’s way to fire a coach in mid season. But what do you do if you’re Jeff Jackson and Holland and the Oilers are falling apart?"
There are many who would point to the construction of this team as one of the key issues at play here but you can't expect that Ken Holland will be firing himself mid-season. That being said the Oilers have significant money committed to players that have simply not delivered for them thus far this season including $5 million to goaltender Jack Campbell, who has a 4.50 goals against average and a .873 save percentage through 5 outings this season, and a whopping $9.25 million to defenseman Darnell Nurse, who with 2 goals and 1 assist on the season is currently sitting a plus minus rating of -6.
Something is going to have to give if the Oilers continue to struggle in this manner, and you likely won't have to wait long to see it.
