By Ryan Dittrick
EDMONTON – Swarm, swarm!
Well, sort of.
Edmonton Oilers coach Dallas Eakins will soon be implementing a more aggressive approach to his team’s defensive zone strategy.
“I’m comfortable with where we’re at, systems-wise, and we’re ready to take another step forward with some of the things we want to instill,” Eakins said.
It’s not the infamous and wildly unsuccessful “swarm” strategy, which led to some catastrophic defensive zone breakdowns earlier this season, but there are some similarities in style.
The swarm is an aggressive approach to puck retrieval, where defending players overload or double up on the attacking forward, pin him along the boards and force a change in possession by virtue of the numbers game.
Indeed, it can be effective. Just ask Uncle Leo, who was busted for shoplifting in a midtown Brentano’s back in the day. But it didn’t always work out that way for the Oilers, often because the personnel hadn’t yet mastered the basics of “traditional” defensive zone coverage.
“My bad,” Eakins said at the time, unflinchingly attributing the Oilers’ plight to the myriad of glorious chances given up in prime scoring areas.
By Halloween, the Oilers had surrendered 54 goals in their first 14 games.
It was the coach’s worst nightmare, the slot becoming a sniper’s sanctuary like that. Oilers captain Andrew Ference, one of the team’s steadier stay-at-home defencemen, didn’t sleep well either. As the losses piled up, both agreed something had to give.
“Systems like that can work well, but they take a lot of trust,” Ference said. “You can’t have any hesitation, and you can’t have guys second-guessing whether they or their position is being covered.
“That’s the problem we ran into at the beginning of the year. The way this system works, you need trust in everyone to be in the right spot, or the whole thing breaks down. We saw far too much of that, so we needed to scale things back and get guys on a more basic level.”
They now need an identity for the long haul.
The new concepts will be introduced after the Olympic break, when the Oilers will have an entire week of practice — a mini-camp, of sorts — before returning to game action on Feb. 27 against the Minnesota Wild.
Whether or not it has an impact on the scoreboard remains to be seen.
“You should be able to introduce a new concept and be able do it the next day,” Ference said. “That’s what we get paid for.”
Still, some unavoidable growing pains were bound to occur with another new recruit in tow. New voice, new expectations.
“Every year a new coach has come in and changed things, and changed things, and changed things,” Eakins said.
“I honestly believe the players’ heads are spinning.”
Eakins isn’t swayed by the disappointment of a losing season, nor is he left wallowing in its wake. No, this is a fiery individual, a straight-shooting, passionate hockey man with plenty to offer.
But since the 2008-09 season, the Oilers have employed Craig MacTavish, Pat Quinn, Tom Renney, Ralph Krueger and now Eakins in the head coaching position. Continuity in this role, in the philosophy and messaging conveyed year after year, is a luxury the players haven’t had.
Now is as good a time as any to change that, with Eakins, the 12th head coach in Oilers history, already outlining a lesson plan that carries through to next year’s training camp.
“There’s usually one common thread among the consistently successful teams: They’re not tumultuous,” said Ference, who, before returning home to Edmonton, spent the past six years playing under Claude Julien in Boston. “There’s a lot to be said about coming into a new season with the same coach and the same ideas instilled in your dressing room. When it’s a completely new environment, you’re playing catch-up the entire season.
“We’ve seen some improvement in certain areas, but so has everyone else. While we were learning basic things in training camp, the other teams with core groups were already 10 steps ahead.”
Among those, the Dave Tippett-led Phoenix Coyotes, who left Rexall Place Friday night with a 4-3 victory, handing the Oilers (15-32-6) their sixth straight loss.
After spotting the Coyotes a 4-0 lead after only 23 minutes of play, the Oilers pushed back. Goals by Matt Hendricks, David Perron and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins helped the Oilers make a game of it, but by night’s end, the early deficit proved insurmountable.
Mike Smith was sensational in the Phoenix net, stopping 36 of 39 shots in one of the most exciting games of an otherwise blustery season.
So, yes, the identity-seeking Oilers are still a ways off in the grand scheme, but nights like this show signs of life and the will to get there.
“The thing about these teams is that they never surprise you,” Ference said. “You can study them and know exactly what they’re going to do, but even when you know what’s coming, they can still beat you because they do it so well and have done it for so long.
“That’s what we’re trying to become.
“That kind of stability and continuity is something we need to establish here in Edmonton, and I’m certain that we will. But you have to start with trust [in the system], and we didn’t have that at the start of the year.”