[CaptainCrunch]

Look Woody was fortunate last year, I mean he had the new coach bounce and a different voice then Tippet who retired on the bench. Their goaltending suddenly got hot. McDavid and Draisaitl listened to him until the round against Colorado.

I mean yeah, he's been dealt a bad hand, and its a testiment to his coaching skills that the team has won as many games as they have. Mostly due to the Golddust twins and Skinner.

But any coach would look at that blueline and terrible group of forwards and say, hey, we need to be defensively aware, sit back a bit to protect our zone. I'm sure he's said that but I doubt guys like Draisiatl and McDavid really allow themselves to be coached. But they demand huge minutes a game. Because of that everyone else probably sits on the bench and rots and says F those guys, and F this coach.

Nurse is another problem, and its partially not his fault. He got a huge contract thanks to the pandemic, and had a complete fluke of a season against a weak Canadian division. But he was never a top pairing defenseman, he never had the hockey IQ to be good in his zone.

Frankly Oiler fans are being stupid about Woody's benching of Bouchard. But frankly despite his somewhat gaudy offensive stats, he's not capable of playing behind his blueline, he can't be trusted.

But he doesn't seem to be that great of a coach. But he's handicapped by the lineup and two players that are toxic to coaches.

I fully expect Holland to find a way to eject him, they can't afford to miss the playoffs, even though that lineup isn't a playoff lineup. If they do miss, you can bet that it will get ugly in Shelbyville. So they will probably dump Woody and bring in some new young turk because I doubt too many veteran coaches want to go to a coach killing environment unless they get a massive over payment and a long term deal. So they'll bring in a young coach, and pray for another new coach bounce.

I mean yeah, this season hasn't been great for the Flames, who have certainly underperformed, but watching the Oilers predictably stumbling is certainly . . . well . . . . awesome.