PRE-GAME REPORT: Oilers vs. Islanders

Coaches Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson will take control of the Oilers bench for the first time on Friday night when the New York Islanders visit Rogers Place.
You can watch the game on Sportsnet West or listen on the Oilers Radio Network, including 630 CHED.
Video: OILERS TODAY | Pre-Game vs NYI 02.11.22

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RAW | Ken Holland Part 1
RAW | Ken Holland Part 2
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BY THE NUMBERS
Oilers Statistics
Islanders Statistics
Head-to-Head
Game Notes
RECENT BLOGS & ARTICLES
TALKING POINTS: Holland on coaching changes
RELEASE: Woodcroft, Manson join coaching staff
RELEASE: Broberg, Niemelainen recalled
RELEASE: Oilers sign Brad Malone
VIEWING INFORMATION
You can watch Friday's game on Sportsnet West at 7:00 PM MT.
News and notes from Thursday's press conference where Oilers General Manager & President of Hockey Operations Ken Holland announced that Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson would take over coaching duties from Dave Tippett and Jim Playfair.
**>> READ MORE IN THE INSIDE THE OILERS BLOG**
EDMONTON, AB- A new era begins in Oil Country.
Head Coach Jay Woodcroft will lead the Oilers bench for the first time alongside Assistant Coach Dave Manson on Friday night as the 17th bench boss in franchise history after being promoted from the Bakersfield Condors following Thursday's dismissal of Dave Tippett and Jim Playfair.
Woodcroft, who began his professional coaching career as a video coach with the Detroit Red Wings in 2005 under Oilers GM & Pres. of Hockey Ops Ken Holland before serving as an assistant for three seasons in Edmonton from 2015-18, manned the Condors bench in the American Hockey League for four seasons to great success before earning his opportunity to take charge of an NHL club tonight for the first time in his career.
"I spent the last four years talking to our players in Bakersfield about how important it was to take care of your daily process so when you got tapped on the shoulder, you're ready for your moment," Woodcroft, speaking from the Hall of Fame Room at Rogers Place for the first time as Oilers head coach, said pre-game.
"As a coach and in this field or craft of coaching, I've put a lot of time in to be ready for this moment. I'm excited about it. I'm bullish about our team, I believe in this team, and we're serious about the job we want to get done here."
With 38 games remaining on the docket, the task becomes getting the most of the assets in the Oilers locker room, improving the team defensively, and righting the ship to elevate the club into a playoff spot from its fifth-place position in the Pacific Division with a 23-18-3 record and 49 points - six points behind the third-place Los Angeles Kings despite having three games in hand.
"I think it's a great opportunity. I'm excited about the people we have around the team," Woodcroft said. "I believe there's a lot of runway in this season, but saying that, I've asked our players to keep our picture small, to worry about today, and once you start building things in the right way, I believe that success is built sequentially.
"We're going to worry about taking care of today, and once we've taken care of today, we'll move on to tomorrow. It is a challenge, but I'm excited for that challenge."
Video: PRE-RAW | Jay Woodcroft 02.11.22
Fresh ideas run hand-in-hand with any new coaching hire, and the Oilers collective that includes the leadership group are welcoming of Woodcroft's new approach and perspective to help turn the tide midway through an up-and-down season with plenty of high points and coinciding lows.
"We're very alert," Leon Draisaitl said. "We need to change something obviously, and I'm sure Woody will come in with new ideas and new philosophies with his plan.
"We're all in on that, so we've got open ears and are ready to go."
SETTING THE GROUNDWORK
The areas where Woodcroft can help improve immediately to the players, who've ridden the ebbs and flows of this season, reside on both sides of the puck.
"We for sure have to give up less," Connor McDavid said. "We have to keep the puck out of our net, but we haven't been putting the puck in the other team's net either, so we've got to find a way to do a little bit of both."
The captain's points are broad topics, but Woodcroft preaches plenty of detail in his approach to coaching at the professional level that players like Ryan Nugent-Hopkins are ready to receive with open ears.
"I think every coach kind of has their own approach to the way they get their message across," he said. "He's a high-energy and enthusiastic guy and has had experience as a head coach in Bakersfield for a few years, so I think the transition is never easy. But it's going to be easier for him. We have to be attentive and we have to be ready to embrace whatever he brings to us, but I think he is a detail-oriented guy and brings that positive energy and enthusiasm. It's something to look forward to."
Video: PRE-RAW | Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins 02.11.22
The quick turnaround from Woodcroft's hiring on Thursday to tonight's clash with the Islanders meant there would only be enough time to set the groundwork for an approach during a morning meeting and quick pre-game skate, where the 45-year-old emphasized not overthinking the game and playing free of hesitation despite the lack of practice time.
Most importantly, he wants to build trust in the group to bring out its more natural playstyle while they slowly start to break down the roadblocks.
"I think trust leads to commitment, and committed players are far more productive than uncommitted players," Woodcroft said. "I believe that happens with how you conduct yourself on a daily basis as a coach and how you give your players tools that they need to be successful. Sometimes that's in the video room, sometimes it's on the ice in practice.
"I think we're going to be very focused on trying to find the lead domino so to speak, and we're going to whack away at that lead domino until it falls. What I mean by that is the areas of the game that I think need the most improvement for our group."
Early deficits and the defensive side of the puck have been a challenge this season, but a dry spell for the offence and the power play have compounded struggles in the Oilers own zone. Rediscovering their scoring touch, while learning to build from the defensive zone out, will be a big benefactor to their push over the final 38 games for a playoff spot.
"We want to be a tight-checking team, but unfortunately, sometimes we've shot ourselves in the foot early in games giving up too many odd-man rushes and easy opportunities for teams to take advantage of," Nugent-Hopkins said. "Then, you're clawing your way back and you have to try and win 4-3 or 5-4, and that's kind of what was happening early in the year. That's not the way that we want to play, that's not the way we want to win.
"We understand coming down the stretch here they're going to be tight-checking games and it's going to be 2-1's and 3-2's, so we need to be able to find that within the group, but we are able to do it."
LINEUP NOTES
Worry about tonight, not tomorrow.
Woodcroft's first lineup will feature McDavid, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins centring their own lines as the new bench boss chooses to deploy the trio down the middle and provide his team the best chance to win tonight against the Islanders.
"That's where my mind was - attacking things on a 'today matters most' basis," Woodcroft said. "We felt with the assets that we have at our disposal that putting three quality centremen down the middle forms a spine in our group. It'll help our young d-core that we're going to dress tonight. I think it represents a matchup issue for other teams, and I sat down with all those players and clearly mapped out what we expect of them tonight."
Video: PRE-RAW | Nurse, McDavid 02.11.22
Under his tutelage in Bakersfield, 13 players made their debuts in the NHL including eight on the current Oilers roster. Of those eight, four are defencemen, with Markus Niemelainen set to play on the third pair with Tyson Barrie as part of a recent-call-up with Philip Broberg that was brought on by injuries to Duncan Keith and Kris Russell.
"Both have been very, very good," he said of the two young Scandinavian defenders. "I think they've impressed in both Bakersfield and in Edmonton this year. Niemo, his big dimension is his physicality. I think teams know when he's on the ice, and I think that's a dimension we wanted to add to our d-core here this evening."
"For Broberg, he's a great skater and transports the puck. We've seen a lot of growth in his game over the last few months, so I'm excited for his renewed opportunity back up here in Edmonton.
Goaltender Mike Smith was in the starter's crease at Friday's morning skate and is expected to make his third-straight start.
Oilers Projected Lineup vs. Islanders
-- Jamie Umbach, EdmontonOilers.com
OILERS vs. ISLANDERS
STREAM: 7:00 p.m. MT; televised on Sportsnet West
Oilers Team Scope
General Manager & President of Hockey Operations Ken Holland relieved Dave Tippett and Jim Playfair of their duties on Thursday morning and promoted Jay Woodcroft from the Bakersfield Condors as the 17th head coach in Oilers franchise history.
Dave Manson, an assistant under Woodcroft in Bakersfield, will serve as the assistant coach.
Holland spoke in his media availability to the teams' struggles over the last two months before entering the NHL All-Star break with five wins out of six games, but two challenging losses out of the break to begin an important stretch of 40 games in 81 days prompted the executive to make the move following Wednesday's 4-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks.
"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," Holland said.
"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."
Islanders Team Scope
The Islanders kicked off a four-game road trip with a commanding five-goal first period against the Vancouver Canucks -- their first since 1996 -- as part of a 6-3 victory on Wednesday night.
Three goals in 31 seconds during the first frame from Zach Parise, Brock Nelson and Anders Lee had the Islanders up by three in the opening five minutes as they cruised the rest of the way to return to .500 on the season (17-17-6). Ilya Sorokin made 34 saves, with 16 of them coming in the third period, to improve to 14-8-5 this campaign.
"When you get that early three goals in the first four or five minutes and then it just keeps coming, I thought that was as well as we played all year in that first period," Parise said following his 1,100th NHL game.
The Isles play nine of their first 11 games after the NHL All-Star break on the road and have yet to lose to Canadian opposition this season (4-0) while scoring at least five goals in three of those wins.
By The Numbers
Woodcroft & Manson were in their fourth season with the Condors, recording an overall record of 105-71-21 and capturing the Pacific Division playoff championship in 2020-22 after earning Pacific Division titles in 2019 & 2021... Woodcroft will be the 17th head coach in Oilers history after serving as assistant coach with the club from '15-18... Manson spent three seasons as part of a 1,102-game NHL career with the Oilers from 1991-94...
Oilers are 6-2-1 in their last nine games against the Islanders and 8-1-0 in their last nine home games against the Eastern Conference club... The Oilers have scored one or fewer goals in seven of their last 12 home games... They are 12-10-0 at Rogers Place... Evander Kane has four points in five games as an Oiler (2G, 2A) and has a team-high 20 shots on goal since his season debut on January 29th...
New York's 40 games played this season are the fewest in the NHL... The Isles have allowed only 31 goals in their last fourteen games, with their 2.21 goals-against average being the second-lowest in the NHL during that span (Colorado - 2.18) dating back to December 30th… The Islanders are 12-7-1 in their last 20 games after going 5-10-5 in their first 20 games of the season... Sorokin is 7-1-0 with a .919 save percentage and a 2.00 GAA in his last eight games... The Islanders have the fourth-fewest goals per game this season (2.45), but they have the fifth-fewest goals against per game (2.63)...
Injury Report
OILERS - Kris Russell (undisclosed) is on IR; Mikko Koskinen (COVID-19 Protocol) is day-to-day; Duncan Keith (upper body) is out 2-to-4 weeks; Zack Kassian (fractured jaw) is out 4-to-8 weeks.
ISLANDERS - Kyle Palmieri (personal reasons) is on IR.
-- Jamie Umbach, EdmontonOilers.com