BLOG: New coaches to bring new style of play

EDMONTON, AB - Change can be good.
The Oilers new-look coaching staff - which features Glen Gulutzan, Trent Yawney, Manny Viveiros and Head Coach Todd McLellan - are prepared to make a few adjustments in the upcoming 2018-19 season regarding the style of game the Oilers ice. The bench bosses had a meeting in July where they spoke of strategies to introduce next campaign.
"There are going to be some concrete changes," Gulutzan
told
630 CHED's Oilers Now host Bob Stauffer on Thursday. "Probably the biggest is maybe something that Todd brought to the table."
Gulutzan believes he and Yawney can provide McLellan with a fresh perspective after coming over from other Western Conference clubs. Gulutzan was formerly the head coach of the Calgary Flames and Yawney was the defence coach for the Anaheim Ducks.
"There are going to be some visible changes a little bit in style of play," he said. "Obviously, Trent is taking over the penalty kill and I think there will be some changes there. But in the 5-on-5 play is probably where we're going to go with things that are going to speed up the rate at which we play.
"Without going too deep into it, probably one of the bigger changes that I've seen in the National Hockey League, we're going to change a little bit here. We think it's really going to speed up our pace of play."
Gulutzan finished by listing the areas that could look noticeably different.
"Maybe our transition, forecheck and the way we defend," he added. "It's not anything too different than maybe two or three teams have employed throughout our League but we think it's going to suit our guys really well."