Mailbag: Memorable Hall of Fame weekend; Oilers coaching change

Here is the Nov. 15 edition of the weekly NHL.com mailbag, where we answer your questions asked on X. Send your questions to @drosennhl and @NHLdotcom and tag it with #OvertheBoards.

What was the most enjoyable Hall of Fame weekend you've attended? -- @geryblogs

I've attended a lot. By my count it's 12. It's a tie between my first one in 2007 and this year. In 2007 I was brand new to the NHL. I had started in my job that I am still privileged and honored to have today only a month before the inductions. I was not there when Scott Stevens, Ron Francis, Al MacInnis, Mark Messier and Jim Gregory were voted in by the 18-member Selection Committee, but I was when they got inducted. It was my first trip to Toronto, so obviously my first trip to the Hockey Hall of Fame as well.

I remember having dinner at Wayne Gretzky's restaurant, which is no longer there. I remember walking through the Fairmount Royal York hotel and being amazed at how many legends in the game were just hanging out, sitting on the couches, socializing, talking with anybody who came up to them. I remember being at the Fan Forum and realizing quickly that this would be my favorite event of the weekend to hear fans asking questions to the inductees and the inductees willing to share their stories and experiences. It was so different from any conversation I have had with an athlete in a dressing room. It was breezy, a breath of fresh air. A fan asked Francis if he wants Stevens to apologize to him for giving him a concussion during the 2001 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when Stevens was with the New Jersey Devils and Francis the Carolina Hurricanes. I remember Francis saying he wasn't looking for one and that he didn't think Stevens would offer one. I can't recall if Stevens did. I remember Messier saying his first thought after his public guarantee that the New York Rangers would win Game 6 against the Devils in the 1994 Eastern Conference Final was, "Oh no, what did I do." He then said something about forgetting the millions of people in the New York market who could read. It was a great class of Hall of Famers and my first one to attend and cover. That was memorable.

But Hall of Fame Weekend this year was memorable in a different way. It's the first one I shared with my family. My wife, Emily, and my boys, Josh and Zach, had the time of their lives over the weekend. They got to experience the magic that is Hall of Fame Weekend and I got to see it through their eyes. They loved the Fan Forum and the Legends Classic. They had fun with the fan interactive experiences at the Hall. The net that Gretzky scored his 802nd goal into was a favorite. They were mesmerized by the Great Hall. Zach, who is 9, was searching for Gretzky's plaque. Josh, who is 14, wanted to see Henrik Lundqvist's plaque, one of the newest, of course.

Living in New Jersey, outside New York City, Lundqvist became Josh's first sports hero. He has done projects on the former Rangers goalie. In third grade he wrote that Lundqvist would be who he wanted to invite to his Thanksgiving dinner. I showed that letter to Lundqvist and he loved it. Josh got to be at the Fan Forum. He did not ask a question, but he listened intently throughout. It was a special time and now my new favorite event I have ever covered because I got to share it with them.

What are your thoughts on the firing of Jay Woodcroft? Seems VERY premature and ill-advised for a coach who's had an incredible record since stepping onto the bench for Edmonton. -- @carter_macewen

I see this as the same old you can't fire everybody, so the coach takes a hit scenario. We've seen it before. We'll see it again, probably somewhere this season, unfortunately.

Woodcroft was a good coach for the Edmonton Oilers, going 79-41-13 in 133 regular-season games and 14-14 in 28 postseason games. His .643 points percentage in the regular season is the best in Oilers history. Moreover, Connor McDavid said it himself that Woodcroft never lost the team, never lost the room, that the players enjoyed playing for him and had faith in him as a coach.

But the Oilers were also struggling, and expectations are too high for them for that to continue. Could they have turned it around with Woodcroft and former assistant Dave Manson still in place? Maybe. We will never know, but they reached 13 games and had three wins and seven points. It's already a huge climb for the Oilers just to get to third place in the Pacific Division. They are supposed to contend for first. They could not let what was going on continue going on, not when they're supposed to be a Stanley Cup contender, so Woodcroft and by extension Manson took the hit for the team not playing well enough. It doesn't solve the Oilers' issues. They need their goalies to be better and clean up their play in the defensive zone, tighten it up. They need McDavid at 100 percent and their depth players to step up and play bigger roles. It's all the same needs under new coach Kris Knoblauch, who has a big job ahead of him, but the players are taking the blame for Woodcroft and Manson taking the hit. It's not new. Nor is it new that the players will now step up and be better, and the storyline will change to this is the jolt they needed. That's not new either.

Patrick Kane back to the Rangers? -- @SMAC1218

I'm skeptical on this idea for the Rangers because I don't see the need to gamble on Kane and the price it will cost to sign him. Kane can still be an elite player if he returns healthy after hip resurfacing surgery June 1, but you have to take into account the cost of signing him and the ramifications to the current depth chart. For those reasons I don't think the Rangers are the right fit.

For this to work, the Rangers would have to move out one of their top three right wings: Alexis Lafreniere, Kaapo Kakko and Blake Wheeler. Lafreniere is adjusting well to the right side and he's having a big season so far with 11 points (seven goals, four assists) in 14 games, including seven points (three goals, four assists) in an active four-game point streak, and he's staying on a line with Artemi Panarin. Kakko and Wheeler have not yet produced but the Rangers are 9-0-1 in their past 10 games, both have been good defensively and they've taken turns on the top line with Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider. The 5-on-5 production hasn't come yet, but I see zero reason why the Rangers shouldn't stick with it. Wheeler is making only $800,000 so he could get squeezed out, but is the cost worth it? Kane could get between $3-4 million pro-rated.

For Kane to want the Rangers he's going to expect, and his career and talent suggests he's right to do so, a spot on at least one of the top three lines and on the power play. The Rangers shuffled things around to get him on the first power-play unit last season after they acquired him Feb. 28 and it didn't make a huge difference. In fact, it threw off some of the chemistry that unit has. That was pre-hip resurfacing surgery, so maybe Kane will come back pain free, but breaking up the top power-play unit would be insanity. The Rangers are 33.3 percent with the man-advantage and 10 of their 15 goals have come from the forwards on the top unit -- Kreider, Zibanejad, Panarin and Vincent Trocheck.

Could the NHL eliminate the regrouping in the neutral zone for attacking teams in overtime by giving a penalty to that team if they leave the offensive zone with puck possession? This would create forced offense and less skating around. -- @NathonMerasty

I answered this question last week by saying I haven't heard the regroup in overtime being discussed as an issue that needs to be explored. I wanted to update it because it was specifically discussed Tuesday when the NHL general managers met in Toronto. There is a growing concern that the regroup or pulling the puck back out of the attacking zone to reset to gain speed for a fresh attack, is taking away from the excitement of 3-on-3 overtime. The GMs are only in the discussion phase now, but they broached different ideas for eliminating the regroup Tuesday. However, determining the consequence if they disallow the regroup is harder, and what are the unintended consequences from that. More stoppages? More face-offs? Less flow in overtime? These are all conversation points that will again be talked about in March, when the GMs meet for three days and have more data-driven discussions. But this was brought to my attention in the mailbag last week and since it was discussed, I wanted to provide the update.

You can read more about it in my story from the GMs meetings Tuesday.

Will the NHL ever move away from the shootout? -- @RangerProud

Or at least stop giving a losing team points? -- @martmonk

The shootout was not a topic of conversation at the GM meetings. As I mentioned above, in-game play in overtime was discussed, but NHL senior executive vice president of hockey operations Colin Campbell said there are no issues with the format and/or the shootout. The NHL several years ago marginalized a shootout win by reducing its value in the standings' tiebreaker procedures.

Here are the tiebreaker procedures taken directly from the standings page, and notice that shootout wins aren't valued until No. 4:

1. The fewer number of games played (i.e., superior points percentage).

2. The greater number of games won, excluding games won in Overtime or by Shootout (i.e., 'Regulation Wins'). This figure is reflected in the RW column.

3. The greater number of games won, excluding games won by Shootout. This figure is reflected in the ROW column.

4. The greater number of games won by the Club in any manner (i.e., 'Total Wins'). This figure is reflected in the W column.

In addition, since the inception of the 3-on-3 overtime format in 2015-16 there has been a steep decline in the number of games that have gone to a shootout. Through Wednesday, 34.4 percent of the games that went to overtime have needed a shootout since 2015-16 (761 of 2,212), including an eight-season low 31.4 percent last season. From 2005-15, the number was 56.7 percent (1,583 of 2,789).