Jay Woodcroft has already made history for the Edmonton Oilers, but he probably needs to show even more if he hopes to make his job permanent.
Woodcroft will spend his fourth game behind the Edmonton bench as interim coach when the Oilers host the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday night.
The Oilers have won three in a row since Dave Tippett was fired on Feb. 10 after back-to-back one-sided losses coming out of the NHL All-Star break.
Woodcroft was summoned from Bakersfield of the American Hockey League, and the Oilers quickly responded, making him the first coach in team history to start 3-0-0.
“We’ve asked everybody to up the work rate,” Woodcroft said. “We’re asking the team to play a certain style, a demanding style, and we’re very happy that the team is seeing results.”
The Ducks have been seeing the opposite results.
They lost their third straight game on Wednesday night at the Calgary Flames, getting off to a strong start in the opener of a three-game road trip, but then fading away in the 6-2 loss.
“We had some good pressure and some good opportunities, but all for nothing,” Ducks defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk said. “It really doesn’t matter at the end of the day if you don’t have anything to show for it.”
Ducks coach Dallas Eakins pulled goalie John Gibson after he gave up four goals on 20 shots, but appeared to be saving him for another try against the Oilers.
Whoever’s in goal for the Ducks, they’ll need to help out offensively.
The Ducks came in with the sixth-best power-play percentage in the NHL (25.4), but went 0-for-5 with the man-advantage against the Flames, including a four-minute power play in the opening minutes of the game.
“It’s frustrating, in a game like (Wednesday), especially,” Shattenkirk said. “We could feel that during the game, that every chance we got a power play was a big opportunity to get the game back in our hands, and we weren’t able to pull through.”
Edmonton’s latest win came on Tuesday at the Los Angeles Kings, who had not played in 13 days.
The Oilers scored three goals in the final five minutes to win 5-2 and give them a sweep of the brief two-game road trip.
Edmonton has played 11 forwards and seven defensemen the past two games and may continue that lineup based on its recent success.
Connor McDavid continues to lead the way for Edmonton, owning a four-game point streak (two goals, four assists).
The Ducks will be wise to prevent the Oilers from scoring first. Edmonton is 14-0-0 this season when scoring the first goal, the only team in the NHL with a perfect mark in that scenario.
The Ducks, meanwhile, have come back to win just four of 21 games in which they’ve surrendered the first goal.
“Just look across the league. Every team that scores first, they’ve got a great, great chance of winning the game,” Eakins said. “That’s everybody’s goal going into the game.”
–Field Level Media