EDMONTON – With the Oilers facing elimination in their series with the Vancouver Canucks, Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch has taken the bold choice to flip the big red switch in his office and play his two superstars together.
“Last game we were outplayed and struggled to score,” said Knoblauch as he strained to get the 50 pound switch past the point of no return. “And as Oilers coach I know there is only one way to fix that: if Connor and Leon were playing together last game split them up. If they were playing on different lines put them together.”
“As coach of the Edmonton Oilers there is simply nothing else I can do to make our team play better.”
While coaches on other teams focus on designing breakout plays or defensive assignments, in Edmonton the coach’s sole job is to decide whether to go with the superline option or the spread out offense, which insiders agree is the only factor that decides whether the Oilers win or lose.
“It makes the job very stressful, but our coaches meetings are quite short,” added Knoblauch.
When asked whether he should focus less on the McDavid-Draisaitl possibilities and more on motivating struggling players like Foegele or Nurse Knoblauch paused for a long time before saying “no.”
At press time Knoblauch was feeling very confident about the team’s chances after thinking of something else he could do: play McDavid and Draisaitl more.
