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After being swept by the Winnipeg Jets there were plenty of fingers being pointed, looking for who or what to blame. For many they laid the finger specifically on the lack of forward depth for the Oilers, either blaming Ken Holland specifically or the past management for leaving the team unable to acquire enough pieces this season. For the first time however, there was some real noise on social media of people stating a specific individual should be fired.
Today we are going to discuss Dave Tippett, what he did well for the team, where he made mistakes and whether or not he will or should be the coach of the Edmonton Oilers moving forward.
For starters we need to discuss the good things Tippett has done for the team since joining the organization, prior to the start of the 19/20 season. Looking back at the last 10 years of Oilers seasons Tippett's seasons stack up well. The 16/17 season was a high-mark for the franchise with 47 wins in 82 games. Tippett's 19/20 season had the next highest wins with 37, albeit in a shortened 71 game schedule due to the COVID. After that was the 17/18 season with 36 wins and then this season with 35 wins in 56 games.
Tippett has helped coach this team to two of it's best seasons in the past decade and you're missing the big picture if you aren't giving him some credit. All of the laurels cannot be placed on McDavid and Draisaitl for the victories and all the failures on the coach. It doesn't work that way.
Under Tippett the Oilers overall have played a more structured defensive game and while I wouldn't say the Oilers have a top 10 defensive group by any means, the coach has utilized the players on the ice in a way that has created wins. It isn't just a hot goalie making 40 saves a game. Edmonton under Tippett has done a good job at reducing high quality chances and playing a more team minded defensive game.
Arguably the area Tippett and his staff have improved the most is the work done on the special teams. In 18/19 the Oilers powerplay finished 9th in the league at 21.17% and their penalty kill was an abysmal 30th at 74.80%. In the last two years the Oilers have boasted the top powerplay in the league (29.50% in 19/20 and 27.59% in 20/21) and a top 10 penalty kill (2nd in 19/20 at 84.42% and 11th in 20/21 at 82.47%). The powerplay in particular should be of note because for the most part the same guys who were there two years ago are still being used on it now.
Lastly, there is the growth and improvements from the young players on the roster. Two years ago fans weren't sure if guys like Ethan Bear, Kailer Yamamoto, or Caleb Jones would ever be NHL regulars, let alone impact players. All three came onto the scene in 19/20 in a big way and were a huge part of that team as well as the one from this season. Jesse Puljujarvi spent a year away from the team and grew his game overseas but Tippett certainly deserves credit for helping him readapt to the NHL.
These are all things Tippett can hang his hat on. Make no mistake, Dave Tippett is not a bad coach. The question however, is whether or not Tippett is the right coach to lead the Oilers to a Stanley Cup; ideally multiple. Here are some of the red flags that became apparent this season.
LACK OF PLAYOFF SUCCESS
Dave Tippett has coached a total of 82 playoff games in his career, dating back to the 2002/2003 season and in total he has 34 wins and 48 losses. The teams he coached were not underdogs for the most part either.
In 2002 the Stars finished 1st in the West and 2nd overall in the NHL. They beat the Oilers in the first round, 4 games to 2 and then lost in the second round to the Anaheim Ducks who finished 7th in the West. The following year the Stars finished 5th in the West and 2nd in their own division. They won one game against the Avalanche in round one.. The same happened in 05/06 after the lockout. The Stars finished 2nd in the West and 3rd in the league but only managed one win in round one against the 7th seeded Avs.
The two most successful playoff runs Tippett has had were on underdog teams. In 07/08 the Stars finished 3rd in their division and ended up going to the Western Conference Finals, losing to the Detroit Red Wings. The same would happen in 11/12 when Tippett coached the Coyotes and while the 'Yotes did finish 1st in the Pacific Division that season, the difference between first place and third was two points. No one expected that team to make much noise but ultimately they did force their way to the Western Conference Finals where they would win one game in a 4-1 series loss to the L.A Kings. Dave Tippett has never coached a game in the Stanley Cup finals.
MCDAVID/DRAISAITL
Moving to the much nearer past, we should discuss how Dave Tippett chose to utilize McDavid and Draisaitl against the Winnipeg Jets. In Game 1, Tippett played McDavid with Kahun and Puljujarvi, while Draisaitl was paired with Yamamoto and RNH. The Oilers out-chanced the Jets heavily in that first game at 5 on 5, outshooting the Jets 32-20 with Scoring Chances listed as 30-15 in favour of the Oilers and High Danger Scoring Chances listed at 13-8 in favour of Edmonton and while the xGF% was tilted the Oilers way at 66.53%, the Oilers lost a 2-1 game (plus a couple empty net goals).
The coach should have looked at that game, conceded that Hellebuyck was the difference maker, but knew if they continued to roll their lines out in this fashion eventually more chances were going to go in. Instead, Tippett doubled down and stacked his top line with Draisaitl, McDavid, and Puljujarvi, leaving RNH to centre Kahun and Yamamoto. This was the move from the same coach that refused to reunite Draisaitl with RNH and Yamamoto because he said that they couldn't just be a one line team. While the Oilers would continue to push the pace of play in terms of scoring chances, all reuniting that line did was make it easier for the Jets when any other line stepped onto the ice.
PLAYING YOUR BEST PLAYERS
This one will always be more subjective as everyone is going to have a different opinion on who the "best players" are. Here are some of what I believe were misses by Tippett:
- Sitting Evan Bouchard for most of the season
- Sitting Caleb Jones in the playoffs when the team needed someone else on the backend capable of making a quick outlet pass
- Playing and then elevating Zack Kassian in the lineup during the playoffs
- Sitting Tyler Ennis for the first two playoff games when the bottom six needed an injection of skill and had shown some chemistry with McLeod in a short span
- Continuously playing Chiasson on the powerplay over Puljujarvi
A COUPLE BIG MISTAKES
No coach is without their gaffs and missteps but there were a couple critical decisions that Tippett flubbed that can be directly tied to a couple of the post-season losses. The first big one here is The Timeout... that is, the lack of calling one. Edmonton is up to a commanding 4-1 lead in Game 3 with about 10 minutes remaining in the third period. Josh Archibald takes a dumb penalty and the Jets score on the PP to make it 4-2. Less than three minutes later Blake Wheeler scores and makes it 4-3. With less than six minutes in the game the Oilers look like they are reeling. Tippett does not call a timeout however, later stating it's because there was going to be a TV timeout after the next whistle. They would not make it that far and on the next shift the Jets would score, tying the game; a game they would later go on to win in OT. Throughout the season Tippett hoarded his timeout calls like he could use them all at once later. This however was his most egregious. Why not use the timeout immediately to settle down your guys and then have the added bonus of the TV timeout?
The other big mistake was Tippett's line deployment in Game 4. First there was the incident between McDavid and Puljujarvi.. JP flubs a pass and the cameras cut to McDavid yelling at him on the bench. Connor was frustrated, Jesse made a bad play and that should have been the end of it. Tippett however pulls JP from that line, separating Connor from one of the only shooters this team deploys and instead placed Yamamoto, a great player but one who has struggled to score for weeks leading up to that point. Yamamoto would remain scoreless.
Next was the handling of Ethan Bear. Bear did make a blatant giveaway in the third period which led to the Scheifele goal and did so in the previous game as well. I don't have an issue with Tippett sitting Bear for the remainder of the third. What I do take issue with is keeping him on the bench for most of OT as well.
As the game goes on, the bench shortens, that fact remains true for all teams. Tippett took that about ten steps further though and placed the Oilers in a situation where their best players were absolutely gassed. Darnell Nurse has been getting some well deserved laurels for playing a whopping 62 minutes in that game but on the flip side not enough people are questioning why Nurse played 20 minutes more than any player on the Jets.
At 5 on 5 Edmonton had 5 different players who played less than 10 minutes in that entire game while the Jets had only 3. The lowest amount of time a defender played for the Jets was Logan Stanley at 19:37, for the Oilers it was Slater Koekkoek at 9:27 and Ethan Bear at 9:40. The Oilers played two full periods of overtime with four defensemen while two healthy ones sat on the bench.
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With all of this said, do I believe that Dave Tippett will be fired? No I do not. The primary issue with this team remains a lack of depth throughout the roster and a coach can only do so much with what he is given. If Holland addresses these needs this summer and the Oilers still fail to make any noise than Tippett will be in the hot seat.
Thanks for reading.
Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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