Connect with us

Published

on

Jay Woodcroft is out as coach of the Edmonton Oilers after a team that was supposed to be a Stanley Cup contender lost 10 of its first 13 games.

Woodcroft was fired Sunday at the end of the team’s road trip, which wrapped up with a 4-1 win at Seattle on Saturday night. That victory was not enough to save Woodcroft’s job in the aftermath of a four-game losing streak, including an embarrassing 3-2 loss at the NHL-worst San Jose Sharks earlier in the week.

Kris Knoblauch, Connor McDavid‘s junior hockey coach, was named Woodcroft’s replacement, and Hall of Famer Paul Coffey joins his staff as an assistant, with Dave Manson also dismissed. Knoblauch becomes the organization’s 10th coach in 15 seasons and the fifth since McDavid joined the team in 2015.

After the loss in San Jose on Thursday night, Woodcroft said he wasn’t worried about his job security.

“No one’s happy with where we’re at,” Woodcroft said. “We all own it. We can be better, and that’s where my focus is.”

The Oilers had lost focus under Woodcroft, himself a midseason replacement in February 2022, when Dave Tippett was fired. Despite having the reigning MVP in McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, they were losing because of a combination of league-worst goaltending, porous defending and a lack of accountability.

“I don’t really know what to say,” Draisaitl said Thursday night. “We tend to outshoot other teams consistently, probably outchance other teams consistently. Not in sync right now.”

Goaltenders Stuart Skinner and Jack Campbell — the latter of whom was waived and sent to the minors earlier this week — have combined for a team save percentage of .866, which ranks last in the NHL. Edmonton has allowed nearly four goals per game and at 3-9-1 is above only San Jose in the standings with seven points.

“We can’t really be looking at the standings right now,” said forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the organization’s longest-tenured player. “Just because it’s the start of the season it feels a little different. But we’re the same team that we’ve always been. It feels weird right now.”

Even weirder? McDavid — whose 153 points last season were the most of any player since 1995-96 — was held off the score sheet in the past two games.

McDavid did miss time last month with an undisclosed upper-body injury but still has 10 points in 10 games, while Draisaitl leads the team with 15. Still, only six teams are averaging fewer goals than the Oilers’ 2.69 per game entering Sunday’s action.

This was seen as the season for the Oilers to get over the hump in the playoffs and win the franchise’s first championship since 1990. Instead, the brutal start has significantly hampered their chances of making the postseason.

“We’re ready to win. We’re ready to do whatever it takes to win, more importantly,” Draisaitl said before the start of training camp. “We’re definitely not far away. I certainly feel that way. I think we all do. I think the entire league feels that way about us.”

General manager Ken Holland certainly did, talking last summer about being all-in on winning in the final year of his contract. Now the experienced executive’s roster construction is under the microscope given Edmonton’s struggles all over the ice.

Nowhere was that more evident than in the Oilers’ inability to keep the puck out of their net, a constant problem, with the responsibility split among the goalies, defensemen and forwards. Woodcroft ultimately paid the price in large part because he failed to correct players’ habits, not benching them after making costly mistakes and failing to make the necessary adjustments.

That job now falls to Knoblauch, who had been coaching the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. He coached McDavid with the Erie Otters for three seasons from 2012 to 2015 and led them to an Ontario Hockey League championship and trip to the Memorial Cup in 2017.

Knoblauch, 45, was in his fifth season with Hartford, the top affiliate of the New York Rangers, after spending two years as an assistant with the Philadelphia Flyers. He served as acting coach for a handful of NHL games with the Rangers in 2021 and 2022.

Steve Smith takes over as the Wolf Pack’s interim coach, and the organization will immediately begin the search for a permanent head coach.

Continue Reading

Sports

Sources: Sooners DT Stone hits transfer portal

Published

on

By

Sources: Sooners DT Stone hits transfer portal

Oklahoma defensive tackle David Stone entered the NCAA transfer portal Friday, sources told ESPN.

Stone, a former five-star recruit and the No. 6 overall player in the ESPN 300 for the 2024 class, made the surprising decision to enter the portal after playing in all 13 games as a true freshman with the Sooners. The 6-foot-3 313-pounder saw limited playing time, playing 88 snaps and recording 6 tackles, 2 tackles for loss and 1 sack.

Stone was expected to compete for a more significant role as a sophomore, and Oklahoma coach Brent Venables recently praised him as the Sooners’ most improved defensive tackle this offseason.

The Oklahoma native finished his high school career at IMG Academy in Florida and was a significant recruiting victory for Venables and his coaching staff in August 2023. Stone chose the Sooners over Texas A&M, Oregon, Florida, Miami and Michigan State.

The SEC does not grant immediate eligibility to players who transfer within the conference during the spring transfer window, so Stone would need to sit out the 2025 season if he moves on to another SEC program.

Oklahoma returns its top three defensive tackles from 2024 in Damonic Williams, Gracen Halton and Jayden Jackson. It also added Trent Wilson, the No. 164 recruit in the ESPN 300 for 2025, as an early enrollee this spring.

Continue Reading

Sports

QB Browne returns to Purdue after brief UNC stint

Published

on

By

QB Browne returns to Purdue after brief UNC stint

Quarterback Ryan Browne has decided to transfer back to Purdue after joining North Carolina earlier this offseason.

Browne committed to rejoining the Boilermakers on Friday after entering his name in the NCAA transfer portal Wednesday.

The 6-foot-4, 210-pound redshirt sophomore started two games for Purdue in 2024 but moved on amid the program’s head coaching change and went through spring practice under new Tar Heels coach Bill Belichick.

North Carolina landed a commitment from South Alabama transfer quarterback Gio Lopez on Thursday.

Browne and freshman Bryce Baker were North Carolina’s lone scholarship quarterbacks available for spring practice and were competing with three walk-ons while sixth-year senior Max Johnson recovers from a broken leg.

Browne threw for 636 yards, rushed for 240 yards and scored four touchdowns while appearing in nine games as Hudson Card’s backup over the past two seasons at Purdue, earning starts in losses to Illinois and Oregon.

By returning to West Lafayette, Browne will get an opportunity to compete for a starting job with Arkansas transfer Malachi Singleton, Washington State transfer Evans Chuba and Bennett Meredith, a former Arizona State transfer.

The Boilermakers lost one quarterback, EJ Colson, to the transfer portal earlier this week.

Continue Reading

Sports

U-M’s Underwood has up-and-down spring game

Published

on

By

U-M's Underwood has up-and-down spring game

Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood showed glimpses of the growing pains he will experience as a freshman and flashes of the promise that made him the nation’s top-rated high school football recruit in the Wolverines’ spring game Saturday.

Underwood was 12 of 26 for 187 yards with a scrimmage-ending, 88-yard pass to tight end Jalen Hoffman on a reverse flea-flicker in a 17-0 win for the Blue over the Maize.

He also recovered his fumble, had a pair of delay-of-game penalties, several errant throws – high and wide – and some dropped. Underwood lost 12 yards on two sacks and gained 17 yards on three runs.

“He did well,” coach Sherrone Moore said. “Made some really, good throws and had some things we need to clean up and get better at.”

As the Wolverines wrapped up spring football in front of about 40,000 fans at the Big House, all eyes were on Underwood and he has become comfortable with that.

“It’s just the pressure that came with my arm,” Underwood told The Detroit News earlier this spring. “I can’t stop that.”

Underwood was sacked on his first snap and his first completion went for a loss. He did throw some darts, usually in the flat, and was quick enough to escape collapsed pockets to pick up yardage with his feet.

Underwood is expected to compete with sophomore Jadyn Davis and Fresno State transfer Mikey Keene for playing time ahead of the season-opening game on Aug. 30 at home against Fresno State.

“It’s a battle,” Moore said. “It’s going to go all the way to fall camp.”

Underwood is motivated to start and kick off a legacy-building career with lofty goals.

“A couple of Heismans and at least one natty,” Underwood said last month in an interview on the Rich Eisen Show.

Underwood knows there will be people doubting he can live up to the hype.

‘He’s just a freshman. He won’t be good enough,'” Underwood said. “I might keep that chip my whole three years.”

He attended at Belleville High School, which is about 15 miles east of Ann Arbor, and flipped his commitment to Michigan after telling LSU coaches last year he intended to play there.

Tom Brady, a former Wolverine and seven-time Super Bowl winner, talked with Underwood during the school’s recruitment via FaceTime and Oracle founder Larry Ellison, one of the world’s richest people, also connected with him.

Jay Underwood told the Wall Street Journal that his son is expected to make more than $15 million at Michigan, but that doesn’t guarantee he will take the first snap next fall.

“He wants to earn everything,” Moore has said. “He doesn’t want to be given anything.”

Hoffman said Underwood has simply blended in with his teammates.

“He’s really humble, like not a big head, ego, nothing like that,” he said. “Comes into work and every day, he wants to get better every day. He’s not riding off his success in high school. He’s really trying to be one of those top players in college football.”

Underwood participated in practices with the team before it beat Alabama in a bowl game, enrolled in classes in January and gained a lot experience in 14 private practices before a public scrimmage.

“Football is football,” he told MLive.com. “School is a little bit more overwhelming now.”

Continue Reading

Trending