TALKING POINTS: Holland speaks about Oilers coaching changes

EDMONTON, AB - President of Hockey Operations & General Manager Ken Holland held a press conference Thursday in the Oilers Hall of Fame Room to discuss the dismissal of Dave Tippett and Jim Playfair from the team's coaching staff. In a subsequent move, Jay Woodcroft was named interim head coach and Dave Manson was appointed assistant coach.
Holland took questions from local media members about the difficulty in making the decision, the process he had in making the choice, what changes could be implemented on the ice and more.
Holland also disclosed that forward Zack Kassian sustained a fractured jaw on Wednesday and will be out four to eight weeks. Duncan Keith was also placed in concussion protocol and has some upper-body soreness that could keep him out for two to four weeks.

"I made the decision this morning to relieve Dave Tippett and Jim Playfair of their jobs. A very difficult day, a tough day. They're good men who poured their heart and soul into the Edmonton Oilers for the last two-and-a-half years. I had a tough night last night, a sleepless night, and called Mr. Katz this morning and told him that I felt like I needed to make a decision. I told Tipp and Jim this morning, and I made a decision to hire Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson to come in and relace Tipp and Jim.
"I've got a relationship with Woody that goes back to 2005 when Mike Babcock hired him as a video coach for the Detroit Red Wings. He's worked under Mike Babcock, he's worked under Todd McLellan, he's done a great job in Bakersfield the last three or four years as the head coach, and Dave Manson's done a wonderful job in developing the young defencemen down there together. A very difficult, tough day.
"I think that we were in here a couple of weeks ago and I felt that when we were on that 2-11-2 stretch, there were a lot of circumstances why we were 2-11-2 - a lot of injuries and different things. We went on a 5-0-1 stretch heading into the break, we were healthy, and with 38 games remaining I felt like I needed to make a move because we still control our own fate, but we've got to get cracking here and win some games."
On how the play of the team can improve through a coaching change:
"I think all teams have to play better defensively. I thought last night, and I'm not making the decision on one game, but we were down 2-0 and I thought Mike Smith really kept us in the game. Then, I thought we played a good second period. I just think it's a gut feel, and I've been around the National Hockey League and teams a long time and felt that I needed to make a move.
"At the end of the day, I built the team and take full responsibility for where we're at. Certainly, Jim and Tipp lost their jobs today, but there's a general manager and all the people that I've hired that have come to this today. Like I said, it's a tough day. It's a gut feel that I needed to make a change."
On the qualities he sees in Jay Woodcroft to name him head coach:
"He started out in the National Hockey League as a video coach, so they watch tonnes and tonnes of video. [Assistant General Manager] Keith Gretzky's down there every day in Bakersfield. Jay is very detailed, the team plays very detailed, and he brings a lot of passion and energy to the rink. I like that he's paid his dues as a video coach, and then he went to San Jose and went on the bench as an assistant coach. Then, he obviously came here with Todd then went down to Bakersfield and won the Pacific Division championship last year. They started out 0-5, it was a shortened 40-game season, and it looked like the team was a little bit on the rocks and he got it together and they won the Pacific Division championship in a pandemic year.
"This year, I looked the other day, and they're sixth overall in winning percentage in the American Hockey League. They've got a team with lots of young defencemen, went to the second round in 2019, and he's been down there for four years. Again, I think he's detailed, energetic, and passionate. He's been on a bench in the National Hockey League as an assistant coach, and he's been in the room in all those meetings since 2005. He's now run his own bench for four years, and I think he's had a lot of success. I watch Bakersfield a lot on the computer and get there occasionally to watch live, but I've watched lots of their games and I like the way the team plays down there. They're very detailed, and that's what I would expect he's going to bring up here."
On the wild swings in on-ice form how much the decision reflects on Tippett and the leadership of the team:
"Put me in that group. I built the team, and I think that obviously, it's probably why we're here today. The wild swings, you want to play consistently. I think if I had the answer, or if anybody had the answer, I think we wouldn't be having those wild swings. I think there are things involved in that. Everybody's had injuries, but I think there was a stretch there where anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. But I think that's obviously part of the reason why I made the move today."
On what changed from his January 11 press conference to today in his confidence in Oilers coaching:
"I would say that there's a little more sense of urgency. There are 38 games [remaining], and probably when we talked last there were maybe 45-50 games to go. I think that was in early January, and I think we've put out a healthy roster here recently. Certainly, the last couple of nights have been tough. I hoped we would come out of the break and hit the ground running. Two losses, and it's just a gut feel. It's the first time I've ever done this in my career. I've usually always been able to get through the year. Scotty Bowman retired, Mike Babcock decided to leave, and I let Dave Lewis go for Mike Babcock, but it's the first time in my career I've let someone go mid-season. I would say to you it's a gut feel."
On how a new voice can change the identity of the team and if there's been a lack of it this season:
"The identity, I guess I would go to the offseason and say to you that we wanted to get more forecheck and more to the blue paint. We went out and signed Zach Hyman, and I made the deal for Warren Foegele. Those were two guys who, analytically, were net-drivers last year in the National Hockey League who were top-five or top-10, so we're trying to get more cycle and spend more time in the o-zone. We certainly wanted to bring more leadership into the locker room, and got a veteran in Duncan Keith and a veteran in Cody Ceci. So how do we want to play? I think all teams want to spend more time in the o-zone, you want to cycle, you want to be able to move the puck from the backend up to the forwards, you need puck movers, you've got to play hard on the offence, and you've got to play hard when you don't have the puck. We probably haven't done that enough consistently."
On the characteristics of not being a competitive team influencing the decision and if they can change with a new head coach:
"I think if you don't play hard, you wouldn't be in the NHL. I think everybody plays hard. I think in the NHL, games are decided on moments and mistakes. Certainly, there's the heaviness and wanting to wear teams down. We're trying to get heavier, but I don't know if you get heavier over the summertime. You've got to build, draft, make trades, make moves. That was my experience in Detroit. People think about the cups, but the six or seven or eight years before that was trial and error and bringing in people, and then people go out and make changes, make moves, and players on your team getting into those situations playing in playoff games realizing that some of those players can play harder, have got to play harder, know they can play harder, and do play harder.
"The NHL is a pool of 750 people, and it's not like there's a pool of players that you can bring into this pool that are better than them, so a lot of it is learning; it's being in those situations and it's trial and error. So I thought, we thought, people thought in the offseason that we tried to change and get a little deeper up front, bet a little bit bigger, and move the puck. Obviously, Larsson left and we signed Cody Ceci to play steady, and it's been up and down like a toilet seat really. There are stretches where we played pretty well, and then we didn't play well. It feels to me, I don't know about a coaching change, but after December 1 when we beat Pittsburgh, I think in the last 20 or 23 games we've scored the first goal about three times. Now, the 1-0's have become 2-0's, and it sort of feels like you're chasing the game. We've been chasing the game for like two months. I can't tell you it's coaching, and obviously, I'm here changing the coach, but again, I built the team. If the team's not good enough, that's on me, but certainly, as we're sitting here today, I felt that I needed to do something to see if we could get a different result and a better result. Now, we watch."

On Woodcroft being part of the succession plan in Edmonton and his position as head coach until the end of the season:
"My hope was three months ago I was going to be signing Tippett to an extension, that we were going to make the playoffs, go on a playoff run, and Jay would develop into an NHL coach. If not here, an opportunity elsewhere, so I think certainly having Jay in the organization for today has been a good thing. But I also think he and Dave Manson and the staff down there have done a good job developing young players into NHL players. I know Evan Bouchard, Ethan Bear, Ryan McLeod, Stuart Skinner, Caleb Jones, Kailer Yamamoto, and there are more. The young defencemen are playing well down there. So when you've got talented people, at some point, they either become a head coach for you or leave to become one elsewhere. Jay was really, in my mind, in the process of developing into a person that was going to be a candidate to coach an NHL team. It happens to be that today's the day. I told Jay that he's the head coach for the rest of the year, and at the end of the year, we'll sit down and see what happens here over the last 38 games."
On considering Mike Babcock for the position as Oilers head coach:
"No. The two people I considered were Glen Gulutzan, who's coached in the NHL for Dallas and is on our staff, so in my mind, it was 'do I stay internally with Gully, or the young guy I've got in Bakersfield?' I hired Jeff Blashill in Detroit in a similar situation, who had good success at the American League level and he's the second or third or fourth-longest tenured head coach in the NHL now overseeing a rebuild that's doing a great job.
"My gut instincts are that Jay's ready. He's been through a journey from Michigan State, to Detroit, to San Jose, to Edmonton, to Bakersfield that he's ready to be behind the bench in the National Hockey League."
On the team struggles with goaltending and potentially reinforcing the position:
"Most teams have issues, and I think when both guys are healthy, we get good goaltending. Unfortunately this year, Schmiddy was here a couple of games and then was out, and then we overplayed Mikko. Now Schmiddy comes back and Mikko has COVID, and you can't really take him to California because he can't get back into Canada because of the quarantine period. So he's out for five games. It was designed so they both play fifty-fifty, and we haven't really had that the entire season. I think that we've put undue strain on our goaltenders because of these circumstances."
On if there was a moment over the last two games where he decided a coaching change needed to be made:
"We came out of that 2-11-2 stretch and went 5-0-1. We went into the All-Star break and everybody had a break before three home games this week - Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday - and thought it was important we build on that 5-0-1 stretch and kind of get ourselves jumpstarted for 40 games in 81 nights. Probably last night during the game, we'd lost to Vegas and had a great second period hoping we would make a rally in the third. When we didn't, probably as the third period wound down and I went home, I was by myself, talked to a couple of people last night, and got up this morning and called Mr. Katz feeling like I needed to make a change."
On if the decision to change coaches was solely his and not influenced by ownership:
"It was my decision. Obviously, I talked to ownership and Bob Nicholson's around a lot, but ultimately I made the final decision."
On how Holland can improve the team at this stage of the season:
"I'm hoping today is going to have an impact. I'm hoping that we can get Mikko back next week and we can start to have Mikko and Schmiddy share the net and feed off one another. I think we've got some people who can play better that I think believe think they can play better than how they've played. Then, when you start to win, you get some confidence and swagger. We've lost our confidence, we've lost our swagger, and we're not looking at if we score the first goal every night, but we'd like to play with the lead a little bit more often. Can we score the first goal a little bit more often? I'm not sure, so obviously, we went out and signed Evander Kane last week and Schmiddy came off LTIR, we've made some roster moves to pair money down.
"We're in a cap world, so we're dollar in and dollar out. It's not like we're going to just add players. If we want to add $2 million, we've got to move $2 million. I think probably 20-to-25 teams in the League are in the same boat, so we'll see. It looks like Kassian's got a fractured jaw and is probably out 4-to-8 weeks. I was just in there talking to Duncan Keith, and he's in concussion protocol but also has some upper-body bangs, so he's probably out 2-to-4 weeks. There are going to be some moves. We're going to call [Markus] Niemelainen up, maybe call up another young defenceman, but we'll see. I guess what I would say to you is the solution probably has to be in the room at this stage of the game.
On how Woodcroft is going to be evaluated for the remainder of the 38 games:
"I'll wait for 38 games plus playoffs and then we'll see where I'm at."
On what on-ice changes could be made with Woodcroft and Manson behind the bench:
"I've watched a lot of Bakersfield games, so I know how Bakersfield's done. This is the NHL and that was the American League. They're similar but they're two different animals. When you do things and have success, there are certain things he believes that I think no matter what level, are going to be important. Sometimes you just need a different voice. Not saying that Dave Tippett didn't have attention to detail.
Sometimes, it's a different voice, sometimes it's a change. Certainly, and I've talked to three, four or five of our players this morning. I talked to Connor, talked to Leon and talked to Darnell shortly after I made my decision. I informed Tipp and Jim Playfair. I feel incredible responsibility today. They're good people; good hockey people. I don't like press conferences in February letting people go when there is half the season to go. Certainly, part of the decision today are decisions that I've made. We've got 38 games to try to make it right and I felt like I needed to make a change to try to get some different results."
On how a coaching change could help improve the play of skaters:
"Obviously, Tipp and Jim Playfair did that. They came here in Year 1 and the 71-game season ('19-20). They had taken a team that had been 28th overall to 12th overall. Unfortunately, in the pandemic, we got better in many areas. Special teams, the team was near last, and they took the team to second in the penalty kill that first year. It was first and second. And then backed it up last year in ninth in the penalty kill. They did that under their watch to help. We were second in penalty killing two years ago and ninth last year. This year we're in the 20s.
"It's not like I've done this a bunch of times. It's the first time I've done it and I've been a manager for 25 years. I just felt that I needed to make a change and that we could play better. The team the previous two seasons has played very, very well under Tipp, Jim Playfair and Glen Gulutzan. We were 2-11-2 when I sat here and said, 'I don't like making coaching changes mid-season,' and I don't. I believe that we were given a lot of adversity.
"We were losing lots of games in the last 10 minutes of the third period and then we went on the 5-0-1 run and went into the break and I felt that we would hit the ground running and turn the corner. We were on the upswing and when we lose the first two home games coming out of the break. We were loose last night and gave up a lot of scoring chances. I went home last night and probably in the third period in the last 10 minutes when they scored to make it 3-1 and 4-1 as the game was winding down. Then I went home and spent a lot of time by myself, then talked to Bob Nicholson late last night and Daryl Katz this morning and decided to make this decision."

On improving the team's even-strength play:
"You got to keep the puck out of your net and we have to figure out a way. You can't win 5-4. We won lots of games, the first 16-5, we would score five goals to win. Not sure where Bakersfield is in the goals against but I watch them and their goals against are plummeting. They're playing good.
"So, hopefully a different voice. We're all saying the same message. The game's played the same way today. There's different terminology but at the end of the day, you got to defend hard, keep the puck out of your net, you got to be good defensively, you got to go to the paint, score ugly goals, have good special teams.
"Twenty years from now, it'll be different verbiage and different terms but the game is played on the same 80x200 surface. Sometimes, there's just got to be a different voice. There are tweaks and you have to do some little different things, neutral zone coverage and things differently but certainly what you're saying is you got to keep the puck out of your net. When you give up three, four, five every night, it's tough to sustain any kind of winning."
On the reaction from the team's leadership crew:
"I'm sure you'll talk to them tomorrow or in the next day or two, so I'll let them tell you what they were thinking. I just wanted them to hear it from me. They'll tell you their thoughts."
On whether Holland will address the team together tomorrow:
"Basically, they (Woodcroft and Manson), tonight at 9:30 are going to get together with the rest of the coaching staff. Tomorrow morning, we'll come over and It'll be game day. I'll talk for two or three minutes to the team and then Jay will go about his things and we'll go about our game-day preparations. If it was an off day, maybe I'd talk longer but you got to get focused on the Islanders."
On who will be coaching the Condors:
"I think Colin Chaulk. Colin left for personal reasons, but he's flying back tomorrow. He's been in Ontario. So, Keith (Gretzky) was here the last few days, which you saw, and he's flying down tonight."
On whether Holland thought of sending a member of the Oilers coaching staff to Bakersfield:
"No. We need all these people here. They all have an important role. When I talked to Keith and Mr. Katz and Bob Nicholson, I told them I was bringing up those two guys (Woodcroft and Manson) and they are really important to the success down there but this is the most important team: the Oilers. Certainly, Keith does a good job and will try to find somebody to come in there and pitch in with Colin Chaulk."
On the number of voices certain players have had during their time with the franchise:
"I've put a lot of thought into that. That's why I said a month ago that I didn't want to change coaches. In my introductory press conference, I said I believe in stability. At the end of the day, it's just a gut feeling. I just felt that I need to make a change. I understand there have been multiple coaches for Ryan (Nugent-Hopkins). Tyler Wright and his scouts, (Philip) Broberg, (Matvey) Petrov in the sixth round, (Carter) Savoie in the fourth round, (Xavier) Bourgault and (Dylan) Holloway; we got to start drafting.
"As we sit here today, if we go to the Stanley Cup Finals, we got our first and third-round picks, if we don't go to the Stanley Cup Finals we got our first and second-round picks. You got to draft and develop. In Bakersfield, Keith Gretzky and those guys have done a good job down there in building a foundation. Keith signed really good veterans down there in (Brad) Malone, (Adam) Cracknell, (Seth) Griffith, (Cooper) Marody and (Luke) Esposito. There's good leadership down there. All that's got to happen and then you get your stability up here. It doesn't happen in six months or twelve months. Today's a tough day for me for a whole lot of reasons. You're letting people go that have passion, have worked hard, that are good hockey people, that care. And we've had good success under them up until the 1st of December. I was trying to bring that stability.
"We've been talking about it behind the scenes on things we'd like to do to make the organization deeper and better. Today is about my instincts, my experience telling me that there are 38 games to go and we still control our own fate. There are big games ahead like tomorrow night and then next week we've divisional games, three in a row, against California teams in San Jose, LA and Anaheim. If I waited and we kept going, it might be too late. So, I'm hoping and believing that what I did today is going to have an impact, a positive impact, to get us to turn the corner.
"I was in Detroit for 22 years as a manager. I had four coaches and one retired. I think that the teams that are good year after year, have that stability. That's certainly what we're striving to do. I was hoping two months ago I was going to be working on a contract extension for Tipp in the next couple of months. It's a tough day, a disappointing day for Oiler fans. When you have this press conference, it means your team is not playing good enough. Means your team is not playing up to expectations. That's on me. It's a disappointing day."
On whether Holland has the same feeling about Jay Woodcroft having similar success as Detroit Red Wings Head Coach Jeff Blashill:
"I do. He's got passion, energy and paid his dues. He's been in a room with top hockey people and good coaches in the National Hockey League. He's run his own bench. He started in video and they're (video coaches) watching every little thing and got to bring things to coaches. For all those reasons, I think he's an NHL coach."
On why the decision was difficult to make:
"I'm comfortable with the decision. It's a tough day. You build relationships. It's a tough day for Oilers fans. We're not winning and we're not meeting expectations. It's disappointing when you lose out to Winnipeg in a sweep but you want to believe your team is headed in the right direction and you're growing the team; that you're building blocks. For 20 games, we were doing that. In the last 20 games, we haven't done that. For me, it's a tough day for the fans, a tough day for the people in there. It's a funeral feeling. Everybody's down, massively down. They've worked together closely for three years and then they're saying goodbyes. It's a tough day.
"Am I comfortable with the decision? Yeah, I'm comfortable with the decision. Did I make the decision? Yeah, I made the final decision. When we were 2-11-2, I kept believing that we were going to get it turned around and we did. We got it to 5-0-1 and we're starting to go. I looked at the schedule and it's 40 games in 80 nights, and it's every second night. It's three home games to start. Let's get off to a good start to start the second half and then in the last 10 minutes of the third period last night, I just came to the conclusion overnight and this morning. I don't make these decisions lightly and these are real people's lives. These are people that care. They're lifelong hockey people and they've helped for the previous two years. We've accomplished some good things and we're making good progress, so today is a tough day."