BLOG: Coach Woodcroft forges his own path

EDMONTON, AB -It started with a leap of faith over a decade ago, but tomorrow Head Coach Jay Woodcroft will coach his first Stanley Cup Playoff game.
"I'm excited for sure. I'm excited because our team has earned the right to be the home team in Game 1 of an NHL playoff series," Woodcroft said. "I've been around a lot of NHL playoff games and had some good runs in the AHL. This is my first time being the head coach in this situation, but I feel very prepared for it."
This opportunity has been a long time coming for the Oilers coach and it all started with a decision he made as a 30-year-old video coach. Following the 2007-08 season, Woodcroft chose to leave then Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings and join Todd McLellan in San Jose as an assistant. It's a move the coach credits as a major factor in his eventual ascension to bench-boss status.
"Probably not," Woodcroft said when asked if he'd be an NHL head coach if he stayed in Detroit. "At that point in time, I had a decision to make and what path I wanted to go down in the hockey world. In my heart, I knew I was a coach. That opportunity presented itself and it wasn't an easy choice at the time."
"Detroit had just won the Stanley Cup and it's hard to leave an organization like that," Woodcroft added. "Todd took a chance on me, but I took a chance on him as well in trusting my development to him. He paid me back in spades with the opportunities he gave me."

Woodcroft followed McLellan to Edmonton in 2015, but has since forged his own path as a head coach. the Toronto, Ont. native has gone from Oilers assistant, to head coach of Edmonton's American Hockey League affiliate Bakersfield Condors, to bench boss in Oil Country.
"In 2018-19, I went to Bakersfield to be my own head coach," Woodcroft said. "I wouldn't trade my experience there and the lessons learned for anything. I've evolved as a person and a coach; I'm sure Todd has in the last three years as well."
In a moment of serendipity, the mentor and the protégé will go head-to-head on Monday when the Los Angeles Kings come to town for their opening game of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Woodcroft downplayed the pair's history during Sunday's press conference and made it clear that the focus will be on the two teams contending for hockey's top prize.
"Over the last two and a half months, the Edmonton Oilers have played the Los Angeles Kings three times since I've been up here," Woodcroft said. "I think the novelty of that narrative has played itself out. I know Todd obviously, we're friends, and he's going to do his best to get his team prepared. This coaching staff and I are doing the same thing here."

Under the guidance of Woodcroft, the Oilers have almost been an entirely different team -- sporting a 26-9-3 record since his Feb. 10 appointment. Veteran goaltender Mike Smith credit's the 45-year-olds attention to detail and his ability to explain those details as a key contributor in the Oilers mid-season turnaround.
"It's everything, I think. There's no stone unturned with Jay," Smith said. "I think he's fully invested in this team and in his craft. I think it's the way he relays it to his players. He speaks very well, everyone's looking at the coach when he's talking and taking it all in."
"When you leave a meeting, everyone's like: 'He's right'. So I think it's easy for you to buy in when everything he's saying makes sense and guys believe in it," Smith continued. "When we go on the ice, you get success because of it and we're seeing the same stuff over and over again. It's just easy to play for a coach like that and believe in what he's saying when it pays off and works."
Woodcroft has stayed consistent with his messaging throughout his tenure, reiterating his desire to keep his players focused on the details and their own specific roles. As he has implemented his system on this Edmonton squad, his team has watched those daily improvements stack up over the course of a season and create a strong belief inside the Oilers dressing room.
"He's a great systems coach, but he's a great communicator as well. It's nice that everyone is on the same page," captain Connor McDavid said. "We're not going out there playing a game we don't really believe in. We believe in the system, we believe in Woody, and we believe in each other."

With his team fully bought in to his message, Woodcroft finds himself going down his own road. He had moulded the 2021-22 Edmonton Oilers into a team in his own vision, but the work is only beginning as the Oilers approach what is hopefully a lengthy playoff run.
For that to happen, Woodcroft and his team must overcome his old mentor and the Kings, but it's a task that the first-year head coach feels his club is ready for.
"I sense and feel a team that feels good about itself," Woodcroft said. "We've used the last two and a half months to earn the right to feel good, now it's about going out and executing."